Marine Stadium - last day

Crew shells were all around us

We watched an "anchored" boat wander around the anchorage today. Whatever it had down for ground tackle was obviously not good enough. It did not appear to be a junker: just a boat that someone had left for cheap storage while they were away. It had a new dinghy and dinghy motor on board and appeared to be set up for cruising. As it dragged by, we re-anchored far away since there was a wind shift due tonight. Strange how some people just don't pay attention to having a decent anchor.

They zipped by in all directions

The crowds arrived today for shell racing. They were all around us in all sizes. We just spent most of the day watching the races. Then, when the races were over, the parties arrived. They congregated at the east end of the anchorage by the shallow, beach area which didn't disturb us at all. I imagine they will be gone by nightfall.

Not a sunset but nice

I finished an article on weather apps for the iPad to be published in Waterway Guide that came out of Friday's adventure when we had the high winds at the end of the trip that no one predicted except one app. For Sunday, all the apps are in agreement that it will be a calm ride so there's no test situation there. We'll leave around 8:00 or so and take on fuel and water for the trip north. Hopefully, we will find an empty mooring at Las Olas.

At night, the Miami skyline is stunning

Marine Stadium in Miami - Shell Races

View from the running trail

Yesterday we were asked to move northward since there were going to be crew boat races the next day. We picked up anchor and moved several hundred feet which was no problem given the size of the anchorage.There was another boat with nobody on board, a common occurrence around here, and several of the crew boats got together and towed him out of the way of the racing lanes. He stayed there all night but in the morning he started to slip anchor and drifting back. He was headed closer to us than we liked so we lifted anchor ourselves and found a spot farther away. The drifting boat is still drifting but now away from us!

Lots of practicing around us for the big race

We took Hoolie to shore this morning and we had our morning walk on the running path around the anchorage. The northwest end of the path gives a magnificate view of Miami. It's hard to imagine that at one time Key West was the biggest city in Florida and Miami was just a swamp. Now it's a regular metropolis.

Ann continues to paint during the day while I'm down below working on articles for Waterway Guide. I am currently doing one on weather apps for the iPad - which one makes the most accurate predictions. I see it as a boxing match. I record the predictions for a given day and then see which prediction matches reality and rank from best to worst. I usually chose days when there's a discrepancy between the predictions from the apps to give them a chance to show their stuff. Meanwhile, Ann is trying out Gouache type paints. I took a photo of today's work.

And, of course, we had a sunset!

Despite having no facilities around, there is a place to get ice on the other side of the restaurant at the entrance. We needed it so I took a spin over. We will be here one more day and leave for Ft Lauderdale on Sunday, hoping to get a mooring at Las Olas. We had intended leaving Friday but the weather was so pleasant here that we decided to stay. Why be in a hurry?

Marine Stadium in Miami - at anchor

A great sandy beach for Hoolie

We looked at all the forecasts last night and again this morning and all the forecasts except one said it was going to be a calm right north the Miami. The forecasts came from four apps have installed on my iPad and the forecast from NOAA on the coastal weather. So it was four against one that we should stay outside all the way to Miami and not take the back door route through Caesar's Creek which is more protected when going north through Biscayne Bay.

You can guess the result. The one app that predicted 18 to 20 kts winds when all the others said winds of 10 kts or less was the one that got it right! As the Caesar's Creek entrance passed by on our way north, the winds were still calm and the predictions were all good, except for that one contrary app so we soldiered on. Pretty soon the winds piped up out of the north, directly on the bow (is there any other direction??) and the waves started to build. Pretty soon we were taking water over the bimini, a really fun ride...

There are trails for running or walking right by the beach landing

I took screenshots of all the predictions along the way and photos of my wind gauge on the boat. I intend to give a report on what happened: here's what each one predicted - here's what actually happened. That's easy to understand, nothing deep and technical. Just tell me the weather that's going to happen accurately, that's all.  What's so difficult about that? One app got it right, the rest went back into the "try again" bucket. I'll give a full report sometime next week in Waterway Guide and I'll post it here later.

That's the boathouse in the background

We dropped anchor in Marine Stadium and pretty soon saw a police boat come alongside (Ut ho...) but he was friendly and just wanted us to move closer to the northern shore due to shell races to be held on Friday. The anchorage is home to the Miami boat club and we've seen Olympic racers training and often using us as turning buoys. It's very interesting just sitting back and watching the boats race.

There's a fine sandy beach for Hoolie relief on the north shore and a trail good for walking or running which we'll use Friday morning. That one app is predicting strong, north winds for Friday, the rest predict winds not over 10 kts. Given my experience today, I think I'll go with the one app that proved accurate today and stay put Friday.

Rodriguez Key - at anchor

You can see it's a long dinghy ride but the ramp is free and still available

Oh, what a fine day for traveling! We had a 10 kt wind most of the way out of the south that steadied the boat with our mainsail up. It was just a little sloppy in the morning but as we progressed, the wave action calmed even more.

Unfortunately, Mandalay Restaurant didn't survive Irma

We are now anchored at Rodreguez Key with about a dozen other boats who saw the same opportunity for going north in good weather. We dropped the hook in the same spot as always, just south of Mandalay Restaurant but, alas, the restaurant is no more. It got wiped out by Irma. It's in ruins for now. I have a little over a 1/2 mile in my dinghy to reach a free boat ramp which I use for Hoolie relief.  It looks like the area was pretty well torn up although the marina next door looks to be operational.

We missed a lot of sunsets with the lousy weather in the fall so we're trying to catch up on the way north

We expect a calm night and we're hoping for enough good weather to reach Marine Stadium on Thursday. North winds are predicted for later in the day and we hope to beat them to Miami.

Marathon - Key Fisheries is fine

Key Fisheries, still standing and as good as ever

One of the big attractions of Marathon, at least for us, is Key Fisheries. We usually find the time to eat there but on this visit, I wandered over just to see how they did during Irma. According to what I saw today, they survived just fine. It may have been a different story several months ago but everything has been cleaned up and they are open for business.

Their fish market, all the clerks ducked when they saw I was going to take a photo.

They also have a fish market and I looked in and found grouper to my liking so I bought a little under a pound for dinner tonight. Ann prepared Citrus Garlic Baked Fish with Rice and it was up to her usual standards.

If anything was going to be damaged, I would have thought this bar would be on the list

I looked over at the raised bar next door to Key Fisheries and to my surprise, it survived as well. I couldn't see any damage although there could have been and it was repaired. With my inspection completed and with fish in hand with ice, I headed back to Fleetwing to see the sunset.

Ah, another Marathon sunset!

On Wednesday morning, we will head east to Rodriguez Key where a calm night is predicted by every weather app I have. There is some variability as to what happens on Thursday with a north wind coming in but it should hold off long enough for us to get inside before the waves kick up. Friday looks like a good enough day for reaching Ft Lauderdale and a mooring, we hope where we will be through Sunday, leaving Monday morning for the Lantana anchorage.We are now officially on the move north.

Marathon - We experience the future of health care

My chest cold was not improving so we started the arduous task of trying to find a care center in an area that had been devastated by hurricane Irma. The local Fisherman's Hospital had been wiped out and replaced by a temporary structure with 5 or 10 beds. I didn't have an emergency condition (there were no hospitals nearby anyway) but I did need to see a doctor that could prescribe medicine I couldn't just buy over the counter.

We tried local doctors but you needed an appointment at some time in the future. The website for the Fisherman's Hospital that was damaged by Irma advertised "Care on Demand" with a link to an app that would run on your iPad or Android. My condition was not an emergency, so it seemed right for us. They advertise Board-Certified physicians on duty 24/7.

I downloaded the app, got an account up and running (history, address, credit card, etc.) and requested to see a doctor about my condition. After less than a one minute wait, the iPad came to life with a video telephone connection. I could see the doctor, the doctor could see me and she asked me some typical question. Since she couldn't touch me, she asked me to apply pressure to various parts of my face to see if I felt pain, just what a doctor would do in an office but I applied the pressure myself and reported on what I felt. After more questions (did I have a temperature, etc.) she did a visual examination (say ah into the camera, speak (to see if my voice was hoarse)) and recommended a course of action with three prescriptions I could pick up at the local Walgreens drugstore.

I received a written result of her examination with the prescriptions listed to pick up at Walgreens. Curious, I emailed the summary to my physician in New York using their patient portal and received an answer back in less than 10 minutes that the course of action looked appropriate and the prescriptions were in line. My physician in New York doesn't yet have a "Care on Demand" channel but they do have a patient portal where you can ask questions.

So I was examined, a course of action given, and a list of prescriptions to have filled at a local pharmacy. All this was with Ann and me on a mooring ball in the middle of the Marathon mooring field. At a cost of $59 for the doctor visit over the iPad. I am now on the mend and monitored by the Care on Demand physician as well as my doctor in New York.

Of course, this is all well and good for non-emergency conditions. It's no good for broken bones but it's a great resource for us cruisers in remote locations.

Marathon has great sunsets

To celebrate, we watched another sunset off the back of our boat. We will spend one more day here

and then leave for Rodriguez Key on Wednesday.

Marathon - we tour the harbor

The building you see in the background is Publix, wouldn't it be nice if there were a dinghy dock there (there's no access)!

Today was Easter Sunday and in New England, where Ann's from, it was always celebrated with a dinner with all the trimmings. We didn't have all the side dishes but Ann did proud with a pork tenderloin, handmade biscuits, watermelon salad with feta cheese, and a chocolate cake she baked in our oven which we had with ice cream at the end. I had a great dinner.

One of many similar boats - and they are the ones that survived!

Unfortunately, I still have my chest cold so now I'm under orders to go right to bed after doing the blog. In the afternoon, we did manage to tour the area in our dinghy and saw lots of boats with damage. However, the only ones we saw were the ones still afloat! Maybe they required a lot of repair work but at least there was a boat left to repair.

We do get nice sunsets in Marathon with the clouds over the gulf stream

We are still looking at Wednesday for departure day with the promise of a settled night at Rodriguez Key given winds of less than 10 kts predicted. From there we should be able to reach Marine Stadium and plan our next leg to Ft Lauderdale. Meanwhile, the genset decided it needed an impeller change which is no fun since the key in the slot that causes the impeller to spin is loose. So you have to put the impeller on while ensuring you don't disturb the loose key (knock it out). The Volvo and the rest of the civilized world has either an indent on the shaft or a fluted shaft so there's no loose key to knock out - much, much easier. I guess Kohler saved a few cents on the design. The last time I did this replacement, it took about four hours and much discussion concerning the idiot that designed that pump! Patience, patience, I'll try the replacement Monday.