Parting Impressions of Miami Beach
Sunday 10th January 2021
Today was our final day in Miami Beach and to be honest we are both happy to be moving on. The anchorage where we ended up is probably the best in the area – it’s quiet, surrounded by nice buildings and there’s very little boat traffic. (Some of the other anchorages look much less attractive). However, it’s a good 20 minute dinghy ride to the only public dock where you can tie up for a maximum of 20 minutes. In all honesty we doubt this rule is enforced and we think it’s really there to try and “control” the live-aboard population. There is an obvious tension between the rich property owners and the permanent live-aboard population, whose boats on the whole do look pretty derelict, like floating junkyards. There is a distinct sense of not being welcome here. Even “Skipper Bob”, the Waterways Guide that so many boaters rely on for quality cruising information, says that with all the restrictions on anchoring and docking dinghies that it no longer recommends this as a place to stop. In all the years that we have been cruising this is the only time that we have felt “trapped” on the boat. It’s not that we think Miami Beach is such a terrible place – we simply have no idea because it’s so hard to visit from a boat. Overall we would rate Miami Beach as probably our least favorite of all the places we have visited on Cotinga and other than being a safe place to stop, we wouldn’t bother coming back.
Having said all that we did put the day to good use. The winds have really died down and we took the dinghy back up the Collins Canal to get some more diesel fuel. This trip was is some ways more exciting than the last because it was dead low tide and we had to go really slow because of shallow water. Nonetheless we filled up our final two jerry cans with diesel and we now have full fuel tanks (~118 gallons) and spare jerry cans (15 gallons). We also stopped at the Publix supermarket dinghy dock in the canal, which I have to say was very convenient, and did a little grocery shopping. Last but not least we went to the public dinghy dock and filled a couple of jerry cans with water. So we are now topped up with fuel, water and food!
We saw some interesting wildlife today. There was another cool iguana on a branch hanging out over the canal (see photos) below and we also saw several parrots. Seriously, these feral birds are thriving in southern Florida.
So tomorrow morning we are moving on to Key Biscayne just to anchor overnight with the intention of heading south on Tuesday down towards the Keys.
Mike
25 46.983 N, 80 09.895 W
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