Marine Stadium at Miami - at anchor

Miami skyline during the day from Marine Stadium anchorage

The cruise down the coast today was picture perfect, at least for us. The ocean was like a lake, about a 10 kt wind out of the west which was just enough to steady us but not enough to produce any chop. We left Ft Lauderdale around 7:30 and arrived at our anchorage by 12:45. The Coast Guard had been known to close Government Cut, the entrance to Miami, at times when large cruise ships leave or enter but we made it okay. There was a closing shortly after we got in. I suppose you just go around in circles until the Coast Guard decides to reopen the inlet? We've never ran into this situation at any other inlet, just Miami.

The girls like their pink sails!

The anchorage can accommodate an armada in comfort but there are more boats here than we've ever seen. We anchored at our usual spot in the northeast corner, away from everyone else. The weather does not look good over the next few days. It's looks to be a stretch to reach Key West  by January 28th, our scheduled arrival date. There are strong winds out of the north due the rest of the week. As one member of my Beneteau 423 forum stated when asked how the boat handled in rough weather, "The boat did fine, it's the crew that had problems!" So we'll wait for better weather before going on south.

Miami skyline at night from Marine Stadium

With that, it's nice and calm here and we're anchored securely, no winds are going to move us! We'll wait and watch the weather forecasts  before going on. It looks like the weekend is the first window now.