A different Universe

A different Universe

Wednesday 6th January 2021

It was only a 3-hour 20-mile journey from Fort Laudredale to Miami but it feels like we entered an entirely different universe. We are anchored behind Fisher Island, just inside the main Miami shipping channel. The anchorage isn’t large, surrounded by shallow water. To the north are ultra-fancy condos and the high rise buildings of Miami Beach; to the east are views to the ocean and to the south a small mangrove covered island, but to the west we have an unrestricted view of the port of Miami and the Miami city skyline. It’s impressive. However, it is the atmosphere in the anchorage that is so distinctive. We weren’t sure when we arrived that we would find room to anchor because there were already three super-yachts and large sailboat at anchor.  However, we did a quick loop around to establish the extent of the deep water and managed to anchor in a good position with adequate room to swing with the tidal current. Several other powerboats arrived shortly after and it became really loud … it’s like being in the middle of a party or disco, whilst we maintain our social distancing on our boat. Not so on the party boats. On two boats in particular, those that seem to be contributing most of the noise, I counted 14 and 22 people respectively … of course there wasn't a mask in sight. In the late afternoon the one other sailboat pulled up anchor and headed away to anchor in the prohibited pipeline area. One of the mega-yachts, the 145 foot “Tanzanite”, decided to move closer to us … why? I have no idea. But they are now close enough to have a direct conversation. They promised to put out a stern anchor so they wouldn’t swing into us when the tide turns! (see postscript). We looked on the web and “Tanzanite” costs $135,000 a week plus expenses to charter!

We are going to be in Miami for a few days as a cold front with associated high winds and bad weather is due to move through over the weekend. We will probably move over tomorrow to anchor in the “Venetian Bay” between Miami and Miami Beach. We really need to find somewhere we can land the dinghy and go ashore and stretch our legs (and dump our trash!)

Postscript: It’s 10 pm and we have had anchor craziness for the past hour. Around 9 pm the tide started to turn and both us and “Tanzanite” started to turn. However, they are more than 3 times longer than we are and so their stern ended up about 10 feet from our bow despite putting out more than 100feet of chain. At that point thankfully they pulled up anchor and moved forward. We’ll all sleep better for that.

Mike

25 45.461 N, 80 08.824 W

Tanzanite in Fishers Island anchorage ... as the sun goes down

The Miami skyline at night

Tanzanite comes within about 10 feet of our bow ... in fairness they had crew watching very carefully

Abstract - Tanzanite abstract I took this on a tripod with a telephoto lens and the camera tilted and moved the camera from side to side (~ horizontal rotation) to accentuate the movement. Getting the name to stand out was just luck.

Fisher Island anchorage - the soundtrack is real (not added later!)

Party boat ... I counted 22 people on this one!