We left Palm Beach on a run at 16:30 Dec 18th in 3-5 foot seas and stayed 1/2 mile
off shore. Every time we strayed more than a mile the water temp increased
1-2 degrees and the swells grew and the period shortened. Each time we lost
about a knot by being out there. In the early evening we were making over 6
knots wing and wing but as the night wore on the wind went down from 20Knots
to 10 and we could barely keep 4 knots. That also made the swells more
uncomfortable. We were on our way to Marathon and as we approached Miami I
checked windy.com. We were slated to arrive with over 12 hours to spare
before the thunderstorms hit Marathon, but the forcast shifted to earlier
and as well we were no longer able to keep 5 knots or more. I decided that
if we were leaving Miami at that time for Marathon with only a 6 hour
window for a 22 hour run that I wouldn't risk it. So we pulled into Miami
at sunrise. There were three HUGE cruise ships on there way in to the
Goverment Cut as well as us.
GovernmentCut
We snuck in between 1 and 2 with 3 about 5
miles out yet. The second one caught up to us and the pilot boat came by to
make sure we knew to stay well to the southern (red) side of the channel.
As the huge ship went by we waved at the people on deck and amazingly there
was absolutely no wake. Even their life boats seem bigger than us.
Massive Boat
Passing us
After it passed we took fisherman's cut as Government Cut has a restricted
security zone when cruise ships are in port. Moral compas peeled off to
anchor just off fisherman's island and we continued on to explore an
anchorage recommended to us on the Maritime SSB net the night before. We
headed straight through the port of Miami right into the ICW where we turned
north went under 2 bridges and then headed directly to Miami Beach. There
is an anchorage just south of Belle island that gives you pretty good access
to dinghy ashore to resupply at Publix or Trader Joes and a Marina less than
a mile away for fuel and pump out etc. We anchored there and are still
there now.