After a worrisome night in a crowded anchorage in Ft. Lauderdale, we left Lake Sylvia this morning at 8:36.  We easily made the 17th Street Causeway Bridge 9:00 opening. Unfortunately, the conditions weren’t as good today as they were yesterday.  The waves were not huge, in fact there weren’t even white caps.  However, they were close together and coming from the east, hitting us on the side.   It was a bumpy ride.

As we went under the bridge, Daisy was quite relaxed, stretched out on the deck, and the water looked smooth.  However, a few minutes after this photo was taken, we turned into the inlet and found different conditions.  She quickly moved to her safe spot under the helm seat. (When we are on the ocean, she is always required to stay under our feet at the helm.  She does not like to be inside, so this is the safest and calmest place for her to be.) A few hours into the trip to Miami, Daisy actually threw up, which she has only done a handful of times in the last four years.  I don’t think she has her sea legs yet, since we have been in much worse conditions and she was fine. It’s been awhile since we have been on the ocean.  We were able to motorsail today and made good time, picking up a mooring ball at 2:30 this afternoon. 

We passed the anchorage at No Name Harbor as we left the inlet from the ocean and entered Biscayne Bay.  We have stayed there many times, but in November, December and January it is always crowded with boats waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas.  There was actually room in the very protected area when we passed it, but we wanted to get to Dinner Key Mooring Field across the large Biscayne Bay.  Here we have the advantage of  laundry facilities, fuel, water, a good dinghy dock, a free pumpout boat, a place to have mail sent, and lots of shopping nearby in Coconut Grove.  The cost of a night here is $20 and the anchorage at No Name Harbor also costs $20 a night, although it is on “the honor system” and I’m afraid some boaters don’t pay.  Getting ashore is much easier in No Name Harbor, only a few feet from wherever you are anchored, which is a definite advantage when we leave early in the morning. Also it is very close to the channel to the ocean.

This is not a comfortable mooring field as it is open to the bay and also next to a very busy channel from several marinas out to the bay. While it is supposed to be a no wake zone, powerboats go past us at high speeds creating large wakes. This is a huge mooring field, with only a few of the boats near us in the photo above. Tomorrow a front is coming through with winds over 20 kts.  This afternoon in fairly decent conditions we got wet taking Daisy ashore in the dinghy.  Tomorrow will be much worse.

It looks like Sunday will be a good day to cross, but I don’t think we quite have our act together to get set up to leave early that morning.   If we don’t go Sunday, the conditions aren’t good for the next week.  This is a time when bringing Daisy ashore before we leave is a problem because we will want to leave very early in the morning.  Ideally, we’ll go to No Name Harbor the day before we leave, saving us perhaps 1 1/2 hours between taking Daisy ashore and crossing Biscayne Bay.