2006.2 - Biscayne Bay, Florida

NOVEMBER 23-26 2006 :: Slide Show

Jayne and I like to take a mini-cruise every Thanksgiving holiday. The problem is that the end of November is often cold and seems to be always windy – very, very windy. So this year, we looked for some protected waters towards the south end of the state. I have never been to Biscayne Bay, except to barrel through as fast as possible on the way to the Keys. Biscayne Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water with the city of Miami at the north end and Homestead and Key Largo at the south end. A good bit of it is encompassed by Biscayne National Park, a fairly recent addition to the national park system. Our plan was to anchor out in the National Park for one or two nights, and spend one night at Dinner Key Marina in Miami, in the flossy and chi-chi district of Coconut Grove. We brought fishing tackle and our scuba gear just in case the wind was calm enough to get offshore, but we were not counting on it. We bounced our plans off our friends Dave and Cindy, who live in the upper keys. They seemed horrified at the idea that anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to the Miami area, and predicted we would either be stabbed, or run down by some drug-addled freak in a go-fast boat in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, we set out on the morning of Thanksgiving Day.

NOVEMBER 23

The idea of hauling a 10,000 pound trailer through holiday traffic in south Florida is a sobering one, but we had an uneventful trip from Vero Beach, and arrived at Homestead Bayfront Park at about 1100. The park has a really nice launch facility, with 8 launch lanes and acres of parking. And it was deserted – we saw only one other boat pull in while we got all rigged up, including installing the kayak up on some newly-constructed racks on the hardtop. I had struggled for 2 days to mount the damm rack, but it is nice and secure.

We got Top Cat launched and headed straight east across the bay to Elliot Key. Elliot Key is the largest land area in Biscayne National Park, about 6 miles long and half a mile wide. The Park Service has established a camping area and a shallow small boat harbor with space for 60 or so boats halfway up the west coast of the Key. This is the only area in the park where dogs are allowed to come ashore, and since we had Cha-Cha the wonder poodle with us this trip, we knew we would need to be stopping in here periodically, so we pulled in to check it out. We had figured this place would be packed, and we would have to anchor offshore and kayak in with dog, but there was a grand total of two boats there! So for 15 bucks, we got a snug little slip and went for a long nature hike around the Key before settling in to prepare the Thanksgiving feast. The mosquitoes were ferocious in the tropical hardwood hammock that forms the interior of the Key, but the wind kept them at bay out by our slip. In the early 60’s, Elliot Key was purchased for development, and roads were cleared for a luxury Ocean Reef-style subdivision to be called Islandia. That plan mercifully went bust, and the National Park was formed in 1968 to protect the area forever. Now the developers’ old roads are overgrown, but still useful as hiking trails.

Returning to the harbor area, we (OK, Jayne) put together a turkey dinner with all the trimmings (stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade mashed potatoes) all on the propane barbeque and the butane single burner stove. Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray would die of jealousy. We ate our feast on the picnic table by our slip, watching the sun setting over the bay and the city glow of Miami rising off in the distance. We still had the place practically to ourselves, and spent a very nice quiet night securely tied up in our little slip.

NOVEMBER 24

We set out this morning to explore the mangrove creek wilderness to the south of Elliot Key, and stick our nose out into the ocean through the channel at Caesar Creek. It was clearly too windy and rough to head out offshore to the reefs, so we poked in to the backwaters of Hurricane Creek. This area has pristine mangroves and very clear water, since each tide pulls clean ocean water in through Caesar Creek. We anchored up in a small bay and launched the kayak and went for a nice paddle. We could have spent hours and hours exploring square miles of flats and creeks, but I wasn’t really sure when the current was going to switch and didn’t like the idea of leaving the boat unattended (except by Cha-Cha) for too long. When we come back, we have lunch and began the run up the bay to Miami.

Top Cat now has a pair of brand new 150 hp Honda outboards. They purr like kittens, and are a thing of beauty and a joy forever. We have nearly doubled our range, and no longer have to deal with the noise and stink of the old 2 strokes. We can actually have a normal conversation at cruising speed as we run north past Elliot Key, Boca Chita Key, and the remains of “Stiltsville”, the funky group of homes, shacks and houses of ill repute that still dot the flats south of Key Biscayne. There are seven structures left, and when they are destroyed (Hurricane Andrew got a bunch of them) they can never be rebuilt. When they finally go, a bit of south Florida history will go with them. We set a course for Dinner Key Marina, a 500-slip marina run by the City of Miami. The docks and facilities there are very nice, as are the staff, who help us out with the unusual holding tank pump out system built right in to each slip. The slip is 50 bucks a night, not bad by big city marina standards.

It is a short walk to Coconut Grove, a classy dining and nightlife district. After a shower and changing into our nicest duds, we head out for dinner. We wind up at Jaguar, a South American place with great steaks and a ceviche “spoon bar”, where you can order small samples of about a dozen different varieties of ceviche. After some window-shopping and people watching, we make our way back to the boat.

NOVEMBER 25

Today I am not sure what the plan is. It is still too rough for offshore, and we had sort of planned to head back south and maybe anchor out down by Caesar Creek, where we explored yesterday. But there is no dry land anywhere around there, and Cha-Cha would be out of luck as far as shore leave goes. I don’t really want to go back to Elliot Key either – been there, done that. So we decide to noodle around Miami and Key Biscayne and see what we see. Over on Key Biscayne, we find Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. I have no idea who Bill Baggs was or is, but Cape Florida is the southern tip of Key Biscayne, and home to a historic landmark lighthouse, and I am a sucker for lighthouses.

The park has a little anchorage called No Name Harbor, which I had heard about because it is a popular hangout for cruising boats awaiting a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to Bimini. The park allows day visitors to tie up along the seawall, but overnighters have to anchor in the middle of the harbor. There is a pretty good crowd of boats anchored already, but we find a nice spot and drop the hook. We kayak ashore with Cha-Cha, pay the $15 overnight anchoring fee, and hike out to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1825, and after being sacked and burned by the Seminoles in the Second Seminole War, it was rebuilt in 1846. Today it is the oldest structure still standing in Dade County.

We get back to the boat and spend the afternoon relaxing and watching the boats go by. There are still boats coming in to anchor, and every level of anchoring skill is on display from old salt to utterly clueless. I try to learn from the former, and the latter are certainly amusing. I watch one guy in a 40 something sportfish pull up, pay out chain from the windlass until the anchor is just touching the bottom, and back down hard. After about 15 minutes of this, he complains loudly that “the anchor won’t work” and he heads back out.

It makes me glad I picked a spot at the upwind end of the harbor, where no similar Poindexter like that will drag into me in the middle of the night. We have our cocktails and grill up some steaks with Chimichurri sauce for dinner. We are anchored next to a guy in a sailboat who has appointed himself the volunteer harbor boss – he yells at anyone going even slightly above idle speed, and anyone who dares to run a generator after 10:00 pm. Sort of like a marine version of the crabby old guy yelling at all the neighborhood kids. We avoid his wrath, and have another very pleasant evening.

NOVEMBER 26

Cha-Cha is getting to be a pro at riding in the kayak. After an early morning trip ashore, we get packed up and head the 25 or so miles back down south to Homestead. The launch ramp is a piece of cake, still almost deserted, and we get loaded up without incident. After a 3 hour trip back to Vero Beach, there is time to get unloaded and go pick up the other dog (Mousse) from the “pet resort.” It has been a very nice little adventure.