Back To The USA!

We made many great memories in Great Harbour, but it was time to cast off and sail West to the USA.  Our course for two days was going to be sailing the Great Bahama Bank!  There is a lot of beautiful water, but as I have mentioned before, it is quite shallow and oh so clear.  Looking down, you can see the bottom with all of the sand or sea weed.  Steve decided to try "dragging a line" and was quite successful with catching baracuda.  The only problem with these fish, is they aren't really good for eating.  They eat fish that are on the reef and become infested with toxins that are NOT good for humans.  So after the thrill of the catch, they went back into their own environment!  When the reel starts to get pulled, it does add some excitement to your trip. We decided to anchor at Mackie Shoals surrounded by a few otheer boats.  I don't know about their luck, but our anchor just wanted to drag.  When that happens our alarm goes off, and we have to fix the problem.  Not what you want to hear in the middle of the night!  Oh well, we made it and were off to Bimini in the AM.  Due to the winds, waves, etc., we decided to go into the Bimini Harbor.  We ended up at the Blue Water Marina!  Another difference about Bahama life versus US lifestyle shows up when you try to schedule a reservation for a slip to park your boat.  Steve always calls on our radio to the marina, and makes our reservation, gets all the info we'll need and that it that.  In Bimini, it is a whole different story.  You can call and call and call and no one answers.  I guess they feel there are only so many places and you'll finally pick one as you sail by.  As luck would have it, good ole Blue Water Marina was the only place that answered our call, so that is where we landed!

Our final leg of the journey back to the States, was the forty some miles across the Gulf Stream/Straights of Florida to Miami.  We chose to "go in" to Miami since we needed to clear customs (there was an office close to our marina)!  Mia Marina was our choice to land!  If anyone has gone out of Miami on a cruise, this marina is very close to all of the huge cruise ships.  Also, there is a large market area with all sorts of stores, shops, restaurants and live music.  Our first adventure upon arrival, was to eat dinner and then find the customs office.  This didn't seem like that would be too hard.  Wrong!  We found a place to eat very easily.  The customs office....not so much.  Steve had the address from the internet, so we hailed a taxi and were off.  WELL, our poor taxi driver just wasn't quite sure of where the customs office was, but he "thought" he knew.  Well, as the meter kept rolling, we were NOT finding our spot.  Finally, the driver flagged down a police officer, who kindly offered to escourt the taxi to customs.  Upon arrival, the officer personally escorted us to the second floor where this business took place.  SUCCESS!  We WALKED back to the marina!!!!  Mia Marina offered us a day to do our laundry, walk around downtown Miami, eat some good food and listen to some Latin music.This isn't hard :)

Another suggestion we had received, was to stay a few days in Dinner Key in Coconut Grove.  GREAT suggestion.  It was a short sail from downtown Miami, and was a lovely marina and mooring field.  The days we were there were very hot and humid.  Everyone was commenting that summer had really arrived early.  Whew, it was warm, especially when you have to walk everywhere.  We decided on the public bus system to get us to Publix's for groceries, BUT we were first time users of UBER on our return to the boat.  Boy, that was slick!!  The other good "find" was our favorite restaurant of the whole trip!  Stata was an Italian restaurant within quite close walking distance from our boat.  The food, wine, and dessert were fantastic! (not to mention our wonderful waiter, Elliot!)  The second night, we ate at their "sister" restaurant across the street and it was ALMOST as good!  I keep hearing us both say the word "diet" but so far haven't tried it!!!  All in all, Coconut Grove was a fun destination, but we needed to get back to Key West, so off we sailed!  More tales on our next blog!

Stiltsville in Biscayne Bay South of Key Biscayne