Miami Rhapsody

                                                   The incomparable South Beach


               After a challenging (to weather, AGAIN) overnighter from Marathon Key,
                                          Espiritu arrived at Miami harbor at daybreak.

The sail from Marathon was hard, but beautiful.   The Florida Keys highway, 

which connects all of the islands, was off to our port side the whole trip. 

Believe it or not, most cruisers bypass Miami because it is not an easy entry, and the harbor is a bit of a minefield of shallows, bridges and Disney cruise ships.  We went for it, though, and after a challenging entry that included encounters with Miami-Dade police and a grounding (among other trials) we finally dropped anchor off of Belle Island near South Beach.

The view of the Miami skyline from our anchorage. Note the Carnival cruise ship smokestacks. 

The anchorage proved very comfortable and extremely convenient for exploring Miami Beach. There's even a free dinghy dock! 

I named this post after one of my favorite films from the early 90's, the little seen Miami Rhapsody.

Sarah Jessica Parker's character in Sex and the City was based on the character she played in Miami Rhapsody. It also stars Jeremy Piven, Antonio Banderas and Mia Farrow. It's a hilarious and heartfelt film, which I've seen way too many times to count. But it's a love poem to Miami.

I've always loved TV and movies filmed in Florida. Something about the locale is so exotic, so romantic, so evocative. So steamy. Some of my favorite examples include:

The music. The fashion. And all those pastels. The TV show Miami Vice started it all back in the 80's. I'm not embarrassed to say I was glued to the screen every Friday night.  Check out that speedboat Tubbs and Crocket got to ride!

Flash back to the present for a moment. This Miami Vice police boat is what the cops ride today (he was parked next to our anchorage). It's not really a speedboat -- it's more like a Boston Whaler.  OUCH. How far they fall.  Looks like sequestration is taking it's toll here in Miami. :-/

1996's Blood and Wine, starring Jack Nicholson

1996's The Birdcage

1998's Wild Things is an over-the-top Florida melodrama that is easy to laugh at, 

but I dare you to not enjoy the ride. 

And then there's everyone's favorite Florida movie: 1998's There's Something About Mary.

Ted romances the world's youngest, hippest, smartest, impossibly gorgeous and even more impossibly single Orthopedic Surgeon in front of Mary's way-cool waterfront home.

Chris and I rode bikes all over Miami, and just for fun, we tried to find the Mary house.  I was thinking of doing the Buttercup dance in front of the home as a little tribute. Sadly -- impossibly -- it appears to have been torn down and a giant condo complex was built in it's place. Sigh. I know. America is notorious for destroying our historical monuments, and this, I suppose, is the latest example.  :-/  Is nothing sacred? 

Showtime's Dexter is a twisted love poem to Miami...right? WRONG. Gotcha! Dexter may take place in Miami, but it's actually filmed back home in Long Beach, California. 

Anyway, there are worse places to be in May than in Miami Beach. 

Captain Chris dealing with the latest bike breakdown in downtown South Beach. By the way, nobody rides bikes in Miami. It's a bit of a head-scratcher, really. It's flat, and there are bike lanes.  Ah, well. 

Spring blooming

Espiritu (at right) in our Miami Beach anchorage. She's come so far, hasn't she! 

We did have some stormy, squally days when we first arrived. 

Chris in South Beach. Note the storm clouds threatening in the distance...

The beauty of South Beach entrances (while the storm gets closer in the distance)...

We snuck under an awning just in time to view the deluge of rain. 3 inches fell in an hour, and pretty dramatic flooding ensued. In this photo, the water is up to the bottom of the cars and has engulfed the sidewalk. The Florida flooding even made the national news!  

But the skies soon cleared, and we were back to exploring South Beach.

Fashion is very important here, obviously. I've gotta give some credit to this young Paris Hilton wannabe (or maybe it really is Paris?) -- riding her scooter in those shoes while trying to keep her little outfit from blowing away (and texting at the same time) must be quite a feat. 

In South Beach, it's OK to wear your pajamas out for breakfast, as long as they are silk, evidently.

No comment necessary

And speaking of fashion, we saw Gianni Versace's iconic mansion in South Beach where he was murdered on the front steps.  At least they haven't torn THIS building down! 

OK, here's a quiz. Can you guess what country this mother and son are from? Italy? Poland, maybe? Brazil? Well, the correct answer is Russia. But the point is this: you would never in a million years catch an American mom dressing her little boy in a D&G speedo. We Americans are so different. It's ingrained in our culture. No speedos. Ever. For any reason. Not to save your life. But the rest of the world? They love 'em. 

...and then there's THIS guy. Florida attracts all kinds.

Well, if you name a place Dilido Island, you have to expect that some young rabble-rousers will come along and knock out the middle "I" every once in awhile. 

Speaking of historical monuments, The Miami Herald building, 

like those of all newspapers, will probably be razed soon (sad to say). 

This sign was within view of Espiritu in the anchorage. I've kept my eyes peeled and so far have not had a manatee sighting, unfortunately. They're amazing creatures.

Beautiful Miami Beach. This I will miss.

I hold in my hand the last boxed milk of this trip. In Central America, strangely, you cannot buy refrigerated, pasteurized milk. They only sell milk, in a box, off the shelf. The label simply says: "Leche." Honestly, I never new what in the hell we were drinking, exactally -- but we drank it for 17 months and we lived to tell the tale.

Fantastic real estate if you can get it

Another day, another Florida broken dream

And speaking of broken dreams, this is my husband after 17 months at sea. It's been amazing, but we're ready for a break. So the plan is to pull anchor tomorrow morning for the two night sail north to Jacksonville.  We should find a place near there to give Espiritu a rest and fly home for awhile to examine our options. 

XOXOXO Liz and Chris

Tornado in the Keys

                            Impossibly gorgeous scene between Key West and Marathon Key


    Our day passage east from Key West to Marathon Key started off beautifully enough, as the photo above shows. Impossibly azure seas and gentle breezes propelled us happily east.

                                                           Happy skipper


    Soon enough, though, the skies darkened and the seas whipped up. Squalls began developing. We continued eastward towards Marathon Key, where we hoped to arrive before sundown. A particularly bad squall formed off to the north. Lightning flashed menacingly. Then we saw this:

                                                Yee- Haw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


       Fortunately the water spout was at least a mile away and heading away from us. I averted my gaze towards the horizon off our bow and simply said:

 "Just keep on sailing."

 What else can you do, right? Immediately we heard the national weather service warning for water spouts and severe weather blaring on the radio on channel 16, complete with sirens and  scary WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! sounds. Alrighty, then...  Welcome to Florida, which is, I believe, the tornado/water spout capital of the world.

  About 2 hours later, with a sigh of relief we entered the Marathon Key harbor and scored a mooring. The next day dawned a bit clearer, with more settled weather.

The mooring field at Boot Key Harbor in Marathon

There are hundreds of boats moored and anchored here. Many live here year round. 

The cruiser's lounge here sports the biggest and best book exchange I've seen during our entire trip!

I was so hot and exhausted after we hooked up to the mooring that I dove into the water for a quick swim.  As I relished the warm and refreshing water,  our new neighbor at the adjacent mooring casually advised me:

"I wouldn't swim in there if I were you. There are bull sharks in this harbor."

As this National Geographic photo shows, Bull sharks are the slightly smaller cousin of the Great White. And as their name implies, they are not to be messed with.

I finished my swim and casually (yet briskly) climbed up the swim step and exited the water.

We thanked our new neighbor, whose name is Larry, He's on the trawler Sea Horse. Larry, it turns out, is a pretty good banjo player. We wasted no time and set up a small jam aboard Espiritu that night.

We actually played Dueling Banjos from Deliverance. Here in the south.

 In murky, mangrove waters. When in Rome...!    :-)  

We set about exploring Marathon Key. The first thing you notice is the amazing black-headed seagulls which rule the island.

Aren't they beautiful?

We were out of fresh fruits and veggies, so Scruffy's Produce helped us out. 

We saw this sign in a thrift-store window. "All Books $1.00, except Bibles and Physician's Desk Reference (PDR)." Well. I guess we really are in the south now. I can understand the Bibles, but PDR's? Maybe there are lots of folks wanting to look up Oxycontin and amphetamines, I guess? 

OK, I'm sorry. Here's a real fashion DON'T. I guess our hapless first mate here gets extra credit points for the fact that her gigantic visor actually matches the magenta top,  but Lordy.   :-/  Fashion gone wrong, IMHO.

Thunderheads form on the horizon

Captain Chris got another mechanical disappointment when our outboard died on day 2 here in Marathon. He and Larry worked on it for hours, but to no avail. Being very far out in the harbor, we now had no transportation, and were reliant on the kindness of strangers to help us get around until we could repair the outboard.

Meet another new friend,  Lance the salty sea dog. He helped us out and was there for us when we needed him. He's the real deal -- a true Florida man of the sea. 

The next evening Larry arranged for another jam, this time aboard his roomy trawler Sea Horse.

He invited his friend Brian, a very talented local guitar player.

We had a fantastic jam in Larry's "living room" aboard his trawler. Space on a boat -- what a concept! 

The next morning, we were greeted by this little guy swimming past the boat:

Yep. Iguanas swim. I can't help but wonder if they're a tasty meal for the Bull Sharks?

More Marathon Key images:

Well. As if we needed another reminder that we are back in the U.S. of A. We rarely if ever saw an American car during our 17 months in Central America. And we literally NEVER saw a muscle car,  monster truck or Escalade-type giant SUV.  I think we Americans are pretty much the only ones who drive these things anymore. 

We loved this cute little barber shop, but sadly, it was closed.

OK, check this out. I placed my water bottle next to this flying crustacean for perspective. I've gotta hand it to Florida -- after all those months in Central America, who would have thought that my "biggest and most disgusting bug" award would go to the state of Florida. Well done!  I guess our adventure is not quite over yet, eh? 

I loved this. This is an actual front yard (see the yellow home to the left behind the trees). I think life is pretty good here in Marathon Key. 

I love how they built the fence around the palm trees

We took the outboard to a local mechanic to be repaired. 

I loved this shot of Chris --  That's my handsome husband... :-) 

We had a mini-drama here in Marathon, which made the local papers. Law enforcement boarded a rather derelect sailboat here in the harbor with great fanfare and took away the skipper in handcuffs. Turns out the perpetrator had an illegal weapons stash and had threatened to assassinate President Obama. Yikes.

Interesting cloud formation off the stern

Here's something you don't see every day: Tibetan prayer flags strung above an American trawler

We celebrated the repaired outboard by grabbing a meal in a cute little waterfront seafood place.

Look who came ambling right through the middle of the restaurant looking for scraps?

The snowy egret patiently waited while his friends in the kitchen prepared his kibble

From this angle, he looks a bit like Big Bird, doesn't he?

Dozens of mobile homes line the harbor. Beautiful waterfront property, no doubt. But how do they fare during hurricanes? They seem more than a little bit vulnerable, IMHO...

We visited Sombrero beach, one of the prettiest on the island

A trip to Marathon is not complete without a visit to "The Stuffed Pig." Oh, my...

Gigantic sand dollars (courtesy of Home Depot, according to the locals)!

A sign on a locals property warns: "Beward of Attack Iguana."

After our two rousing jams here in Marathon, we couldn't believe our luck when the guitarist Brian invited Chris, Larry and I to a jam at his waterfront home with his friend, Len, another guitarist! Before we knew it, we were in Brian's cozy living room having a whole lot of musical fun.

Music. How fortunate are we? New friends and another amazing evening of fun and laughter here in the Florida Keys. We'll always remember this place.

Well, the plan is to make the one night sail northeast to Miami tomorrow morning. I'll check in online when I get a chance, so give us a few days.

XOXOXOXOXO Liz and Chris