It was an early morning game time decision. The marine weather service morning forecast seemed favorable for an outside passage with waves 3-5 feet. We headed slowly out to the well marked inlet. We put up the main before going out so that we would not have to do it in the waves. The inlet was not rough and we made it out and turned South. The wind was from the East so it was a beam reach. We sailed with a reefed main and later a reefed genoa. Josie handled the waves well. Occasionally a large one would spray over the bow and one time David got splashed at the helm but for the most part, the water stayed away from us.
We made good time and passed West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. We traveled about a mile off shore. The water was a beautiful blue and dolphins swam with us at times. Flying fish were everywhere.
It was too rough for cooking but we were able to get snacks and it was warm. The wind stayed stronger than predicted until about 1 pm which allowed us to sail much of the trip. We had to motor sail for the last bit. We reached the inlet about 3 pm, took the sails down and headed in. A container ship had gone in before us.
Once in the inlet, there is a major intersection between two main channels and there were ferries, tour boats and pleasure boats going every direction. We moved slowly into Fisherman’s channel to head toward Biscayne Bay. Once we got in the channel, We could see the Miami skyline. We felt very small.
Biscayne Bay is beautiful and mostly deep. We stayed in the marked channel until we got to the Dinner Key channel leading to our marina. It is one of the largest marinas on the East Coast and has a massive mooring field and 7 piers.
We were on the inside of pier 7. Oswaldo came and helped us at the dock. It was about 430 when we got in. The finger pier is short and does not reach our gate but there are back pilings to tie to. David got us secure while I checked in as it was approaching 5 o’clock.
We ate dinner on the boat and were pretty tired. We planned a big boat clean up tomorrow.