......and not a drop to drink.   That’s why we are still in No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne, FL.   We started using our watermaker on our way here and had a problem with the salinity level.  Today Mark did some more work on it and talked with the support line for Spectra Watermakers.  They think we might need a new membrane.  Tomorrow the local rep is coming here to check it out for us.  It is making water and the level is in the range we need, but it should be lower.  If it happens that we need the membrane and can’t get it the next day, we’ll just have it sent to our mail service and get it forwarded to someplace in the Bahamas. 

We “put our tree up” today.  In other words, we took it out of the three foot cardboard box, opened up the branches, and plugged it in.  We can only plug it in  when we have the generator on, which is for about an hour a night when we charge the house batteries. The lights outside are at the park restaurant.  We won’t be hanging our lights out on the lifelines. 

There is a boat parade in Key Biscayne which we might or might not see, as it is Saturday.  It comes into No Name Harbor so we have to get out of here.  There are other places to anchor nearby, and actually we have to go to a Home Depot in Coconut Grove which is near here.  There is an anchorage or mooring field we could go into and ride our bikes into the city.  A Whole Foods is right where we would go ashore and a Publix is a five minute walk away.

This afternoon we took our bikes ashore and headed out of the park and into Key Biscayne.  Key Biscayne is a barrier island next to Miami. It’s a very nice community, small enough that many people ride around in golf carts which are not like what you would see on the golf course.  We were able to ride our bikes from one end of the island to the other.  Everywhere we went we heard Spanish as there is a huge Cuban community here and in the entire Miami area.   It would be difficult to live here without speaking Spanish as many people in the stores don’t seem to understand English.  I’m not being an Ugly American.  I don’t expect people in other countries to speak English, but it makes it difficult here to make purchases when many of the store personnel don’t know what you are asking. 

Last time we were here we walked into Key Biscayne and it was quite a ways to the shopping areas.  Today on the bikes it was easy.  There is a nice bike trail running beside the main thoroughfare through the city as well as bike lanes on the street and wide sidewalks.  We made a few stops and then found a gate going into a park.  The park was on the ocean (above) and had a long beach which was virtually empty (below).  There was a HUGE parking lot, also almost empty.  We saw a strange picture (below) on the side of one of the lifeguard stations, showing  a swimmer with a line through it.  There are colored flags which warn you of the sea conditions and one does require “no swimming,” but we couldn’t figure out why this picture was on the beach as you could obviously swim there.  There are also miles of bike paths in  Bill Baggs State Park where we are staying, which lead to picnic areas and beaches.

On our way back to the boat we stopped at the grocery store and a CVS pharmacy.  It certainly is great to have the bikes as it extends the places we can go ashore.  Unfortunately Daisy has to stay behind.  We saw one shop she would have liked to visit called “Woofgang Bakery, Gourmet Dog Treats Made With Love.”  Apparently love wasn’t enough as the store was empty. 

Today, a huge storm swept through the northern states dumping up to one foot of snow on the ground in parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.  My mom said Duluth only got a few inches of snow, however it is very cold with wind chills 25 to 35 BELOW ZERO.  Miami broke a record today for the highest recorded temperature in history, 86.  That’s above zero.  There was no wind chill.  Actually, we could have used a little wind chill.