2023 South: No Name Harbor to Islamorada FL

 28 November 2023 Tuesday

Depart: No Name Harbor anchorage near Miami, FL 8:40

Arrive: Barley Basin anchorage near Islamorada, FL 4:15

Distance: ~ 58 nm

We had a 6:15 wakeup call this morning as the local fishermen used the anchorage as an expressway to their favorite fishing holes. To say we rocked repeatedly would be an understatement. It took me a couple of mugs of tea to get going.

It was supposed to get "cold" here last night. I stuck my head out to check to see if I was dressed appropriately. The cold front brought temperatures in the high 60s, which true Floridians think of as cold. It's all relative! I decided that I would need a sweater in the shade and a t-shirt in the sun.

While out examining the weather, I took a couple of pictures of the anchorage before we pulled up anchor.

We had to go east before we turned west, so we traveled past the lighthouse again this morning.

Cape Florida Light
(This time with the sun shining on it brightly)

Our path took us through Stiltsville. As shown in the pictures, Stiltsville has quite literally gone to the birds!

One last look at Miami in the distance before we headed into the Keys and through the mangroves.

Our route took us past Key Largo where we saw the same resorts we have seen in the past.

Gilbert's Resort -
across the water from Anchorage Resort

We passed by the same sunken boat that has been near the Anchorage Resort for years.  Last year we saw boats rafted to the wreck. This year it looks like a rafted boat may have sunk next to it. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.

A number of houseboats were lined up at anchor nearby. Most of them looked very similar in design.

The ICW through these parts is somewhat treacherous. The waters are shallow showing about 2 feet below the keel was common. We had current and wind pushing us here and there. Heading west the sun blinded us as it shone in our eyes. Clark had trouble seeing the sparse markers off in the distance. He dropped some way points to help him navigate through here next time. 

On top of all that fun, we had traps on either side of us that were well hidden in the bright sunlight. Clark had me on pot duty ... "On the port. Now on the starboard. Some on each side. Straight ahead! Do you see them!?" And that was when we were in the channel!

Clark decided to drop anchor tonight at Barley Basin near Islamorada. Getting to the anchorage was like passing through a mine field. Some traps were in strings, but most were randomly scattered. The red ones in particular liked to play hide-and-seek and pop out at the last minute! Surprise! The owner of those needs to lengthen the lines or something, so they don't disappear below the waves so easily.

Blue Dot ...
Where we anchored tonight

We had some wind action going on in the anchorage area as we dropped the anchor. Clark said we should let out extra anchor line as the winds could get up to 20 knots tonight. We don't want to wake up in the mangroves behind us.

Around 5:30, Clark grabbed the phone and went out to capture tonight's sunset picture.

I went out a while after him to see if the sunset had changed / improved. It had not. It looked the same, so I took a picture facing east instead.

2023 South: Pompano Beach to No Name Harbor FL

 26 November 2023 Sunday

No boat travel.

Today, Clark's high school friend, Karen, and her wife, Rita, came to visit us on our boat. They live in Boca Raton - not too far from where we are docked in Pompano Beach. They arrived just after noon and got a tour of the boat. Karen had lots of questions about living and traveling on a boat.

Then we headed out to a restaurant they recommended for lunch. 

Rita, Karen, Eve, and Clark

The food was great and the conversation better. We had a great time. Afterwards, Karen made a quick stop at Publix so that I could grab some provisions. I flew through the store grabbing the items on my list. Meanwhile, Rita ran into a store nearby, and Karen and Clark went to Staples where Karen had an errand to run. We all concluded our business as if we had timed it with stopwatches. 

Then Karen drove us back to the boat where we had pumpkin pie a la mode for dessert. It started to rain just as we arrived at the boat. Nevertheless, we sat in the cockpit and stayed mostly dry as we ate our treat and continued to chat about Karen and Clark's classmates from Ocean Township High School.

Rita and Karen

Anyone who follows my blog updates will recognize the sunset picture that I took below.  It's new but looks like a lot of past photos of our many stays at this dock.

Clark was able to get much more interesting sunset pictures showing a heron night fishing.

27 November 2023 Monday

Depart: Pompano Beach private dock 9:05

Arrive: No Name Harbor / Cape Florida anchorage 3:55

Distance: ~ 44 nm

We still have a lot of days of meandering before our reservation in Marathon starts on December 15th. Clark decided that we should top up the fuel and water tanks and empty the holding tank at a nearby marina. The fuel price listed at $4.05 sounded better than anything we could expect to find in the Keys. 

We had to transit a low bridge to access the Taha Marine Center located on the ICW, south of our friend's house. The bridge only opens on the 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. At 8:33 Clark said let's get going and try to make the 8:45 opening. I said, "I'm good at fire drills on the boat, but you are delusional if you think we can get out of here and to the bridge in less than 10 minutes!" I continued to eat my breakfast.

We agreed to aim to leave at 9:00 and managed to get off the dock at 9:05. We caught the 9:15 opening of the NE 14th Street bridge. 

The two guys at the service center, Frank and his boss, were amazing. We managed to do all the jobs we planned, and they asked for our garbage, which I had forgotten about. They were patient saying "no rush, no rush" as we ran about the boat, and they were respectful and polite. All told we spent about 45 minutes at their fuel dock. 

The trip to the fuel dock was a "side trip". We chose to backtrack north to get to the Hillsboro Inlet instead of continuing on the ICW to the Fort Lauderdale inlet. We had bridges to wait for in either direction, but all told going north to go south sounded like the better  option.

We pulled away from the fuel dock such that we just missed the 10:15 opening of the NE 14th Street. While we waited for the next opportunity, we had to fight being taken into the bridge until the 10:45 option presented itself.

We have not boated south of our friend's house on the ICW for a while. I grabbed some pictures of the waterway as we made our way back north to the Hillsboro Inlet.

Corner lot of dirt piles for sale

House on the water with nice Tiki hut

We passed by "Harbor's Edge Park". I looked it up on Google Maps to get the name and info. Reviews said that the leash laws are strictly enforced here and be prepared with a long leash or plan to go swimming with your puppy. I found it interesting that, as I watched, a park visitor showed up with his dog not on a leash.

Throwing a stick into the water for the dog to fetch

We passed by the lagoon where we were docked last night.

Across the way I saw a "man" standing by a pool.

King Neptune and his trident guarding the pool 

Dive boat fully loaded
docked near Hillsboro Inlet

As we waited for the Hillsboro Bridge (opens every 15 minutes), we heard a sportfish boat call the bridge tender. "Inboard for the 11:00 opening. By the way we have no steering." What!? The bridge tender asked if the captain of that boat needed a special opening, and he declined the offer. 

Since we had the tide going out, we had the "right of way" to go through the bridge first when it opened. Clark called the disabled boat on the radio to ask if they wanted to come in before we went out. He declined the offer. 

When the bridge opened, we proceeded to transit the opening. Someone called on the VHF, "Hey! Outbound boat! What the heck are you doing? We have a boat with no steering over here!"

Clark responded, "I called and spoke to the captain of that boat who told us to proceed first." We heard no more from Mr. Grumpy after that. 

As we transited the area, we passed by two Tow Boat U.S. boats. I would bet money that one of those two captains was the one that "barked" at us! 

The boat with "no steering" was closely led and followed by the two Tow Boat U.S. boats. He was not being towed. We assumed that he had twin engines and appeared to have control of the boat well in hand as he went through the bridge opening.

Hillsboro Bridge with
Hillsboro Lighthouse in background

As we maneuvered out into the ocean, I realized that we had traveled a total of 4 nautical miles over the past 2 hours. We spent 45 minutes of that time at the fuel dock.  Most of the rest was spent waiting for the three bridge openings of the two bridges.

Once out in the ocean, we turned the radio to NPR and sat back to listen to stories as we traveled. We passed Fort Lauderdale and Miami today. Eventually we arrived at No Name Harbor where we dropped anchor for the night.

Miami

Lighthouse at Cape Florida

Cape Florida Light

As we approached Clark's chosen spot to drop anchor for the night, I noted that all the other boats here are sailboats.

Anchorage at No Name Harbor

Sunset at No Name Harbor

Some of the few remaining houses from Stiltsville

2023 South: Vero Beach to Pompano Beach FL

 25 November 2023

Depart: Lake Worth anchorage 8:20

Arrive: Pompano Beach Private dock 1:30

Distance: ~ 43 nm

When we went to bed last night, the forecast predicted 30% chance of rain all day with expected periods of higher percentage probability.  Clark said it rained before we got up this morning, but we saw no rain on our travels. We did see lots of clouds though.

I took some pictures from the anchorage before we left . . . 

as well as some as we exited the anchorage and headed out to the ocean.

Last look, from the ocean, at Palm Beach for this trip ... 

Later, I took more cloud pictures out on the ocean.

We had dark, dark clouds to our east and the sun shining brightly on the shoreline.

As we listened to NPR stories on the radio, I got a surprise phone call from an old friend named Yasmine whom we know from Faro Blanco in Marathon, Florida. She told to me to look off our port side where I would see a Tiara passing by with her and her husband Roy aboard. People always say the boating community is a small one, but it never ceases to amaze me when we randomly meet up with fellow boaters in surprise locations. Her boat had sped by before I could get a picture.

Approaching Hillsboro Inlet, Clark saw some fishing boats out on the ocean.

Note the kayak in the front of the picture -
one gutsy guy!

I took a bunch of pictures as we entered the inlet. 

Lighthouse at Hillsboro Inlet

Paddleboarder pulling his board out of the
water onto the jetty

Beach at the inlet

Passing trough Hillsboro Inlet Bridge

Clark took the picture below on the ICW as we made our way to our destination for tonight. He said that this area is usually overly congested with boats. Where is everyone today? Out shopping I guess.

We arrived at our friend's dock just before 1:30. Normally when we dock here, we tie up next to our friends' boat. They are away this time. After securing our boat, I grabbed a broom and moved dead palm leaves out of the way. Covering the dock, they were a nuisance as we tried to tie up. 

Our friends' house is on the ICW, so lots of interesting and noisy boats pass by. 

Large boat passing by on the ICW in front of 
our friends' house.

After sweeping the dock and walkway, I was drenched in perspiration and ran for the shower to cool down.  Clark pulled out his guitar and played some tunes as I hung out in the salon listening to him play.

I tried to get a sunset picture, but the sky did not cooperate. 

After eating  a casserole consisting of all the leftovers in the fridge, we watched the movie "Past Lives" that was recommended to us.