We found some great restaurants, some fabulous entertainment (that's really not at all difficult in Key West), enjoyed snorkeling ,paddle boarding and even went deep sea fishing (no, we didn't catch anything but a great sunset)! By the time, we left we were "locals". MaryAnn met some great and interesting people every time she stepped out in front of the Library where we went to get some "real" work done! Apparently she looked hungry because they all offered her food (she says it's good to be
her)!!!
We loved Key West but time had come to head out. We headed back east and then north. We caught a fish on the way and stopped to do some snorkeling in Key Largo area. The reefs are definitely suffering. We still saw a lot of interesting marine life (including turtles) but the actual reefs look like someone dropped a bomb on them. It was very sad especially compared to what we'd seen when we first started coming to this area nearly 30 years ago.We sailed into Miami and decided to take a day to explore as cruisers! We've been there many times by car and sailed through several times but never sailed and stopped. We dropped the dinghy and motored into Crandon Park Marina, bought a day pass for the dinghy dock and hopped onto the Metro Bus. From there we hopped onto the Metro Mover (had to transfer to another Metro Mover) and then another Metro Bus! MaryAnn always says that everyone should have their own engineer! Thankfully, ours was able to navigate not only on the sea but the very busy transit system schedules in Miami.
Finally, we were on South Beach!!!! We found a great little Cuban restaurant for lunch and rented some bikes (apparently 2 weeks of constant biking in Key West wasn't enough). We rode the boardwalk and the pier and just enjoyed watching people! Dropping the bikes off, we reversed the order of our bus and mover transfers and dinghied back home in time for a gorgeous sunset!
We pulled up anchor the next morning and two great days of sailing, stopping again for the night in West Palm Beach and again in Ft. Pierce. Because it was Saturday when we arrived in Ft. Pierce, we dropped the dinghy and went in to one of our favorite farmer's markets and loaded up with produce and amazing cheeses. We also had to check out the new brewery that wasn't yet open last time we were in town! Yummy too!
We then motored to Sebastian (very narrow channel from Ft. Pierce to Sebastian) and were able to have a perfect sail from there back into Cocoa Village Marina. We're in Cocoa for about a month to get some boat repairs done, some travel taken care of and even a dental appointment! Then we're planning to head north up the east coast of the US and see what happens!
Until next post!
