On Wednesday morning we left Anchorage Resort in Key Largo and headed up the mangrove-lined Jewfish Creek into Barnes Sound. After passing under the Little Card Sound Bridge, we entered Little Card Sound, then following the ICW passed through the Card Bank into Card Sound. After the passage through Cutter Bank, we were in the broad shallow Biscayne Bay. The wind was up this day with gusts up to 25 mph and 2-3 foot swells even in the Bay. As fate would have it just as we were passing the Ragged Keys, the most exposed part of the Biscayne Bay, we suddenly felt the starboard engine vibrating and guessed we had run over something that had gotten wound around the propeller. For last 90 minutes of the trip, we had to chug along at 7-8 mph to avoid further vibrations, rocking and rolling in the swells of the Bay.

Miami from Biscayne Bay; Miami looking up the Miami River; the Port of Miami

You can see Miami from over 10 miles away in the Biscayne Bay, gleaming on the horizon. We headed up the west side of the bay in the channel, passing Coral Gables, Coconut Grove and Dinner Key. We had looked into staying in some of these places, but either all the marinas were still closed to transients due to Hurricane Irma or they couldn't accommodate a boat our size. As soon as we passed Brickell Key and the entrance to the Miami River, we turned east passing the towering cranes of the Port of Miami on Dodge Island. At the end of Dodge Island lay our destination, Miami Beach Marina, right on the southern tip of Miami Beach!

The Miami Beach Marina is located in the brand-new SoFi (south of Fifth Street) area, reminiscent of Battery Park City with its esplanades, parks, apartments and restaurants along the water with a view of Miami across the Bay. After cleaning up Salty a bit, we went and had dinner at Joe's Stone Crab, right outside the marina - an expensive, but must-do in Miami Beach. The stone crabs are amazing. The Marina is very wakey with lots of commercial and pleasure boat traffic passing the marina at all hours with surprisingly little wave attenuation - so it promised to be a fun, but rocky week in Miami Beach.

The lovely Miami Beach Marina

The next day we paid a diver to check out our props to find the source of the vibration that had developed the day before in Biscayne Bay. He immediately found and presented us with a large yellow nylon mesh bag (as might be used for onions or potatoes) wrapped around the starboard prop. It's amazing that these guys can stay down under water for nearly two minutes in a free dive. But more discouraging is that we didn't even see this thing coming and had likely run over it while it was camouflaged by leaves and other debris that were floating in abundance that day.

The rest of the week we spend touring South Beach and all the amazing public amenities, piers and pathways along the water and the beach. We rode our bikes up to Sunset Harbour Marina and took a look at the only other major marina in south Miami Beach. They do take transients but also have dockominiums for sale - very tempting if we decide that Miami Beach and the newly fashionable Sunset Harbour is the place to be.

Sunset Harbour Marina

The food is great in Miami Beach - so many restaurants in SoFi (Planta, Gaby), Espanola Way (Havana 1957!) and of course we had to dine at Gianni Versace's mansion - now open to the public for dinner. Great bicycle trails allowed us to bike all the way up to north Miami Beach, as well as over the Venetian Isles to Sea Isle Marina on the Miami mainland.

Joes Stone Crab; Ocean Drive at night; Miami Beach!

Espanola Way, Gianni Versace Mansion; mosaic pool at Gianni's Restaurant

Having thoroughly enjoyed Miami Beach for a whole week, we prepared to leave for Fort Lauderdale to get some servicing done for Salty (an ever-present need for this baby).

Salty with Miami in the background