Everglades, Vizcaya, South Beach, Getting Ready!

January 28^th – Another beautiful morning in Coconut Grove.   The temperatures are even a little warmer than usual for south Florida at this time of year.   We have been seeing mid 70’s to low 80’s ever since our arrival.   As we have been told on several occasions, there are only two seasons here: dry and wet.   Winter is the dry season and we have yet to see as much as a sprinkle.   Right after lunch Michael senior Samway picked up the Admiral and Captain for a trip to the Everglades National Park.   It was a 45 minute drive

Anhinga

to the entrance closest to Miami, located in Homestead.   We took one of the most popular walks on a boardwalk named the ‘Anhinga Trail’.   For those unfamiliar with Florida birds, the Anhinga is a large bird that looks a bit like a Cormorant, but with a much longer snake like neck, and a large silvery upper wing patch.   It has a very sharp, pointed bill and catches fish underwater by spearing them.   Once it has surfaced it flips the fish off the bill

Seen any tasty tourists?

and gulps it down.   The boardwalk wound about the swampy Everglades grassland and there were a number of Anhingas, Cormorants, small herons, and turkey vultures present.  There were also a few turtles sunning themselves on logs, but the creature in the greatest abundance by far was the alligator!   There were few places on our walk where gators were not in sight.   There were various sizes, and for the most part they were up on the bank sunning themselves, but a few were seen swimming with their eyes just above the surface.    Near the end of our walk we came to a viewing stand with

Come on down. We’re all friendly!

the ‘mother lode’ of gators just below our feet.   We counted at least 27 of all sizes, but there were a number of large ones testifying to the health of the reptile in this area.   Some were in the water, others halfway out in the mud, and others well up on the bank.   Several were very close to the walkway rails that are suppose to keep humans and alligators apart!   Amongst all the gators in the water and mud, a wood stork nonchalantly walked about looking for

Mike and Gail are getting ready for some ‘airboating’

lunch.   Either the alligators were full, or wood storks are not very tasty.   From the Park, Mike drove us to a local alligator ‘farm’, where we viewed large numbers of gators sorted by size, along with pens holding crocodiles (alligators like the fresh water and most crocs are for the salt).   A fast thrill ride was given on an air boat, and then a snake show gave the Admiral a chance to hold one of the small, and oh so harmless miniature pythons.   After viewing all the critters, Mike drove us to a fruit and vegetable

One, very frozen smile. No snakes in the Bahamas mon!

stand that goes by the name ‘Robert is Here’.   Not really sure how it came by the name, but it has been around since the 1950’s.   The Admiral bought a star fruit, papaya, pineapple, (more) hot sauce, while Mike and the Captain felt that the Key Lime milkshakes were worth the stop.

 

January 29^th – The laundry was high on the list today, and we took a 25 cent bus to ‘Mary’s Coin Operated Laundry’, a bit beyond the center of the Grove.   All of this is still in the city of Miami, even though the skyline is some distance to our north.   The Laundry would have given us a good opportunity to practice Spanish, but alas the Captain and Admiral are deficient in this language.  Our next cruise will have to be to France, Quebec or Martinique.  Our large laundry bag has back packing straps so the Captain felt like he was off to tackle the Appalachian Trail as he headed back to Coconut Grove.   A crossing to the Bahamas will have to do instead.   In the evening our friend Shelby Leonard organized a get together ashore of Bahama bound sailors from three other boats besides Pathfinder.   There are a number of other vessels in the harbor that are also waiting on a weather window.   A great time was had by all and the weather forecasts were discussed in detail.   As mentioned before in this blog, the weather guru we all follow is a fellow named Chris Parker who makes his living providing forecasts to Bahamas and Caribbean bound cruisers.   We are now subscribing to a daily email, but Chris also communicates directly to vessels via single-side band radio and gives personalized forecasts to those that subscribe to this particular service.   We have a SSB receiver so can listen in each morning (along with most of the other boats in Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean) during Chris’s regularly scheduled calls.   Cruisers have become so enamored with his forecasts that the nickname ‘St. Christopher’ has been bestowed on Mr. Parker.   At present Chris does not see much opportunity for an east bound Gulf Stream crossing.  The strong north bound current of the Stream causes a vicious sea to kick up when opposed by a strong wind from the north.   We are keeping our sights on early next week.

 

January 30^th – Errands and projects took up the morning, but after lunch we took a tip

Entrance to Vizcaya

from Art Hall and walked two miles up the road to the Vizcaya ‘Museum and Gardens.’   If you are ever in the Miami area it is worth a visit.  Vizcaya was an estate built by James Deering, a VP of International Harvester.   The estate was completed in 1916 and was Deering’s winter home until he passed away in 1925.  Deering was born in the fair city of Portland, Maine but as a child he moved to Chicago where his father was a founder of I.H.   With the help of three principal

Imported from Italy and re-assembled in Miami

designers Deering built an estate that resembled an Italian villa but adapted it to the Florida climate.   It was located on 180 acres and had numerous canals and extensive gardens.   Although the vegetable gardens and canals are now gone, the estate and formal gardens are still well maintained.   A number of rooms in the estate are decorated with ceilings and wall panels taken from villas in Italy and shipped to Florida.   Mr. Deering was enthralled with the latest technology and his home was built with

Canals and Gardens used to cover 180 acres. Lands was sold off to maintain the estate

two elevators, an automatic telephone switchboard, central vacuuming, and a fire control system.   The formal gardens are spectacular and worth the visit alone.   The estate faces Biscayne Bay.   It must have been considered a wonder of the world in the early days of Miami.

Formal gardens

Facing Biscayne Bay, this concrete ‘barge’ served as a breakwater.

 

January 31^st – After several hints from the Admiral the Captain knew that the time had come to perform some needed maintenance on one of Pathfinder’s vital systems: the head.   Unlike a household toilet that performs its basic function year in and year out by water pressure, the marine head is a mechanical device.   It uses a pump, valves, and numerous O-rings and gaskets to do the job intended.   Like all mechanical devices it has parts that wear out or become otherwise compromised by various elements.   To service the head, hoses need to be disconnected and the pump disconnected by removing nuts and bolts that the designer decided should not have easy access nor have space enough to be taken off by a socket or ratchet wrench.   Without getting into the gory details it is enough to say that the job was completed, and several well worn, or shall we say compromised parts replaced.   The head compartment has been well sanitized, and the Captain feels fortunate that young children were not in the vicinity to hear the technical

Manatee comes up for air at the Dinner Key marina

discussion he held with various components of this much used nautical necessity.   Another trip was made to the grocery store where the Admiral was able to purchase powdered whole milk, which she hopes will lead to successful yogurt production.   It has been reported that yogurt is not an easy staple to come by in the Bahamas.   Stay tuned for further results.   The big news of the day is a possible weather window for a crossing coming early next week.   The anticipation is building!

 

Gotta be South Beach!

February 1^st – The Admiral and Captain were away early and caught a bus, a train, and another bus to the southern end of Miami Beach, better known theses days as just ‘South Beach.’   Other than Orlando it is probably the biggest tourist destination in Florida.  Our purpose was to take an ‘Art Deco’ architectural tour, since Miami Beach is home to one of the greatest concentrations of Art Deco buildings in the country.   The local preservation society runs an excellent tour and our guide was top notch.   Not

Congress Hotel

Ready to Roll!

Spot used for the ‘Bird Cage’, a movie starring Robin Williams

surprisingly a number of our fellow participants were from other countries, including France, Italy, Austria and Australia.   Most of the Art Deco buildings in Miami Beach were built in the mid 1930’s.   Many of the restorations have been opened as ‘boutique hotels’, which of course means they are probably expensive and the rooms are small!   Our guide noted that the hotels were originally build for middle class guests who were finding the time and income to travel to Florida for the first time.   After a Cuban lunch, we walked to see the sight of the New World Symphony, where young artists perform and train.   Just beyond the Symphony is the ‘Filmore’ where some of the Captain’s Saturday night memories from the 1960’s were broadcast: “Live from Miami Beach, the Sun and Fun Capital of the World, It’s the Jackie Gleason Show!”  As our tour guide had earlier mentioned, this show was broadcast long before the South Beach revival and was considered to be an important plug for the tourism industry.   We returned to Coconut Grove

And Awaaayy We Go!

in the late afternoon to make another run for more staples (we will not stop buying staples until we finally leave!).   A gathering was held on our friends Tartan, ‘Emerald City’ to discuss the prospects and it was agreed by all that our window to cross the Stream is in sight!   We will depart Coconut Grove Sunday afternoon and anchor near Key Biscayne to be closer to the channel into the Florida Strait (somebody mentioned there is some sort of football game on Sunday, but since the Patriots aren’t playing we have bigger fish to possibly catch and fry).   With luck you will receive the next blog from somewhere in the Bahamas.   We will be out of the range of our data hot spot, so blogs may come less frequently and will depend on when we can find reliable wifi areas.   We will hopefully be going to some places that have no wifi, but the stories and pictures should be different!   We plan to send out our position each day via the “InReach” link:  https://share.delorme.com/dce40e6df0b4469cb8daf473c1bf2548.

The excitement is building.   Will write as soon as we can, mon.