In Miami

We get shelter from yet another crazy Florida wind storm in a friend’s yacht club slip, visit historic South Beach (twice), and see the largest cruise ship in the world make its first arrival at its home port

In my last Travelogue post, I covered our four night stay on a mooring ball at Key Largo. We departed very early on Sunday in perfectly calm weather on crazy calm seas. High winds were predicted for later that day and we wanted to be at our destination — a slip at Miami Yacht Club belonging to one of Jason’s friends — before the wind picked up and the seas started churning. Both Jason and I were pretty tired of being tossed around in the boat in Florida water.

The Trip North

The cruise up to Miami was uneventful. Jason was at the helm. The water on the ocean side was smooth and almost glassy. The sky was bright gray and the water nearly matched, making it difficult to see the horizon. There were a lot of small fishing boats out on the water, probably because the rough water the previous day had made going out a nauseating affair. Of course, it was also a weekend and I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. We saw small fishing boats silhouetted to the east, and more than a few crossed our path from one of the keys to the west.

A fishing boat silhouetted against the eastern sky. The structure to the left of it is some sort of marker at a reef.

We were moving fast. I think Jason had the throttle up to 3000 RPM for the cruise and that was giving us 13 to 14 knots. We had a lot of miles to cover and the cruise was boring. No reason not to dial up the speed to get where we were going as quickly as we could.

We followed one of the Bob423 tracks north to the channel that cut from the ocean side to the bay side at Adams Key. Adams Key had been one of my possible anchorage choices on the way south the previous week, but I’d skipped it because of — you guessed it — high winds. We followed the narrow channel in and found ourselves in a small maze of waterways between several mangrove covered islands, including the far south end of Elliot Key. There was a ranger station there with a dock that Waterway Guide reviewers said boaters could dinghy in to walk their dogs. This was all part of Biscayne National Park.

On the other side of the keys, on the bay side, the water was starting to move. The farther north we go, the bigger the chop got. It was never really bad, but with wind from the south, it would be getting worse over time.

But we didn’t have to deal with really rough water. Before long, we were coming up on Miami. Boat traffic increased dramatically. We reached the first bridge and slowed down to minimum wake speed to follow the channel in.

I shot this photo of Miami from inside the boat as we came up Biscayne Bay. It was a gray day and clouds drifted across the tops of some of the taller buildings.

The sky was gray and the city looked just as gray. We passed the big ferris wheel at the tourist area along the water and the cruise ship channel that had a total of eight cruise ships docked for the day. And superyachts and megayachts that probably only move a few times a year. Miami on a Florida winter Sunday.

The Miami skyline (or part of it) from the ICW.

Getting Settled in Miami

We were extremely fortunate that Jason’s friend Ryan offered us his slip at Miami Yacht Club for the few days that heavy weather was expected. Ryan has a center console fishing boat about the same length as my Ranger Tug and kindly offered to move his boat onto a mooring ball adjacent to the yacht club. As we approached, he pulled out of his slip to reposition his boat; we’d pull up next to him when he was moored and take him on board to help us get into his slip and bring him back to land.

A view looking back toward the yacht club from the mooring field. The weather deteriorated quickly after our arrival in Miami. And yes, that’s a cruise ship beyond the yacht club; we were very close.

The first challenge was finding a mooring ball that didn’t have a boat tied to it. The first few balls he checked had sunken boats tied to them. (This is Florida, after all.) Jason followed him around the mooring field at a distance. He finally found a truly empty ball and tied up to it. Jason came alongside Ryan’s boat. Ryan handed me a fishing rod he didn’t want to leave there and nimbly stepped over the rails on the forward part of my boat. He followed me down the narrow gunwales and into the aft cockpit.

The bigger challenge was getting my boat backed into Ryan’s slip. The slips there have short concrete finger piers on one side of each slip with wooden post pilings on the outside. I know from experience that if I want to get off my boat easily at a slip like that, I need to back in. Jason did not want to try it and I can’t blame him. It took me three tries to get the back end into the 12 foot wide slip, battling a current that was pushing me sideways and a wind that was blowing me backwards. (Did I mention that the wind had started blowing hard not long after we got into the channel at Miami?) By the time I had it lined up, other boaters had shown up on the dock to grab lines. We got the boat positioned in the slip and secured with their help.

We had arrived. It was right around noon and we’d been cruising nonstop for about five hours. We’d covered 53 nautical miles.

Here’s my Nebo log for January 7, 2024. Download a PDF log file with more info. Track Do It Now on Nebo.

First Day in Miami

Lunch was first on the agenda. (Well, second after taking my pups for a quick walk.) Ryan brought us up to the restaurant at the yacht club where we ate at the bar. The place was busy; the yacht club was hosting trials for the US Olympic sailing team so there were lots of small sail boats, sailors, and coaches milling around. (They couldn’t have asked for more wind. Or they wouldn’t have?)

I ordered the highly recommended conch chowder and was not disappointed. I also had fish tacos with sweet potato fries. I sat on one end with Jason between me and Ryan. They hadn’t seen each other in years and did a lot of catching up. I just unwound after the long, fast cruise and difficult docking, wondering if I’d get a chance to use the little pool right outside the restaurant.

It was after 2 PM when Ryan said goodbye and left us. We went back to the boat and took it easy for the rest of the day. The boat rocked a bit in the slip, but not uncomfortably. As the weekend progressed, the wind would get worse but also shift around so it was coming from the south — the one direction we were well protected from.

I spent the afternoon just relaxing while Jason did his own thing. I treated myself to a MasterClass subscription to help me get back into writing. There are excellent classes by Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, among others. This is part of my New Year Resolutions to be more productive and creative. I’m hoping the classes will motivate me and I think they will.

Later, we had leftover chicken mole for dinner. We walked over to the yacht club restaurant and bought a dessert to share. We sat outside and watched a giant cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, head up the ship channel to its intersection with the ICW where there was a turning basis. A while later, it passed us on its way out to sea. By that time, it was dark and most of the cruise ships that had been in port were gone. There would be new ones in port in the morning.

Oasis of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, leaves port on Sunday evening.

Monday in Miami

After a rough night of sleep, I rolled out of bed to start my day. Miami treated us to a gorgeous sunrise.

Sunrise from Miami Yacht Club.

I made breakfast sandwiches for Jason and myself, did some cleaning chores, and showered. Jason went to work — it was his first day at his virtual office since his return to the boat on New Year’s Eve. He set up on the dining table.

I set up on the opposite side of the table. I worked on the blog post about Key West to Key Largo and even managed to finish it and get it online. I responded to comments from site visitors. I contemplated changing the template for my personal blog. I looked at boats for sale on YachtWorld.com. At lunchtime, I made hot ham and cheese sandwiches for both of us.

Later in the day, when Jason was done with work, we took an Uber/Lyft to Miami Beach. It had changed quite a bit since my last visit back in 2015. Back then, I’d spent the night in one of the art deco hotels with my sister. I’d treated her to a 6-day cruise to the Bahamas as a thank you for helping me with a cash shortfall earlier in the year when I needed to finish building my home. I think it had been something like 20 years since my previous visit. Back then, the Art Deco district was still under renovation, but when I came with my sister in 2015 it seemed fully restored and incredibly vibrant. While she hung out in our hotel room, I went down and walked the street, taking in the bright lights, music, and night scene. I really enjoyed it.

But now, in 2024, it was a different scene. Covid had pushed a lot of the restaurant dining out onto the sidewalk, where much of it remained. That meant walking through restaurants as we walked along the Ocean Drive. Each restaurant had a highly illustrated menu posted next to a beautiful hostess or host, trying to entice us in for a meal. It was weird, giving off a tourist attraction vibe I hadn’t felt in 2015. I also noticed that a lot of the buildings had lost their colorful art deco trim; most buildings, especially north on Ocean Drive, were a single color.

 
There are still hotels showing off their art deco design with gorgeous accent colors.

The Avalon Hotel’s look includes a classic car parked right out front.

We crossed the road and took a brief walk on the beach. The ocean was angry with all the rough weather and there weren’t many people in the water. I really liked the funky lifeguard stations and probably could have spent an afternoon walking the beach and photographing them.

Jason had picked a restaurant called Havana Vieja on Collins Avenue — off the tourist strip — for a good Cuban meal. We sat outside on a covered patio among the remnants of Christmas decorations. We shared some empanadas and I had something called Lechón Adado a la Guajira, which was a sautéed pork leg served with rice, beans, and yucca. It was excellent. We walked down Ocean Drive again, but it was too early for any of the hotels to have their famous neon lights on. So we took an Uber/Lyft back to the boat.

After taking care of my pups, we settled down to watch some MasterClass videos. When Jason put some music videos on YouTube, I fell asleep.

Another Day in Miami, Another Trip to Miami Beach

It started raining in the middle of the night, forcing me to wake up and close the hatch over my bed. I slept fitfully after that and rolled out of bed early. I went through my usual morning routine: coffee and puzzles and pup snuggling in bed. Then I fed and walked my pups out in the marina parking area. It was very windy.

I had pastina for breakfast. While Jason set up for his day at work, I took a Lyft to Dick’s Sporting Goods. I’d decided that I really needed a pair of long pants that weren’t jeans or cotton. Something that would dry quickly. That meant hiking pants and that meant sporting goods.

I was the first one in the store at 9 AM that morning. I found a surprising selection, but the women’s styles were just so impractical that I have to wonder whether they’re a joke. Tiny pockets, big wide legs. Or short legs, like capris. Do other women wear this kind of crap when active? Why? I wound up with something from the men’s department, a pair with zip-off legs to convert to shorts. Not really what I wanted, but they fit okay and were the best option. Columbia brand, which I’ve always had good experiences with.

From there, I walked to Trader Joe’s, which was about four blocks away. We needed some groceries and I needed some Trader Joe’s staples on board, like their excellent sardines in olive oil and eggplant spread. I wound up filling three grocery bags. When I tried to roll the shopping cart with my bags out onto the sidewalk, the legs locked up. (Welcome to the big city.) When I explained to a worker that I needed to wait for a cab outside, she unlocked the wheels. The Lyft came, I loaded it up, and I returned the cart.

Back at the boat, I put away the groceries and heated some leftovers for lunch. Then, as Jason went back to work, I settled down to start a blog post about our stay at Key Largo.

Ryan came by around 5 PM. He’d paddled a kayak out to check his boat on the mooring ball — unfortunately, my dinghy was pinned against the dock because I’d backed into his narrow slip so he couldn’t use that. Everything was OK.

We climbed into his SUV and he took us to his house in a quiet South Beach neighborhood. He changed his clothes and we switched from his big SUV to a tiny golf cart designed to look like a little car. Ryan and Jason sat up front while I rode in back, facing backwards.

One of the streets we drove down had trees covered in white lights. I don’t think this was just a Christmas thing.

Jason joined me back there a while later when Ryan stopped to pick up his friend Dave, who was in town from Canada. We all went out to dinner at a Thai place Ryan likes. He ordered for all of us and it was different and good.

Ryan’s wife joined us at the restaurant — she’d been at a meeting earlier — and then led the way to Mac’s Club Deuce Bar, the oldest bar in Miami. (Founded 1926.) Ryan gave us a quick tour of Ocean Drive to see the neon lights along the way.

I shot some video from the back of the golf cart. Here are two screen grabs. I’m pretty sure the Edison Hotel is where I stayed with my sister back in 2015.

Club Deuce was one of those local neighborhood places where everyone knows everyone. But don’t think of Cheers; it wasn’t anything like that. It was dark and loud with jukebox music. There was a pool table and a bar that only takes cash. I had a martini that would have been better if I’d told the bartender to hold the vermouth. While Jason and Ryan continued catching up, I got into a conversation with a guy named Austin from Puerto Rico. I honestly can’t remember what we talked about, but I know it was interesting. I like talking to people with backgrounds very different from mine.

I suspect that just one more drink and I would have had one of those weird nights I can remember for a lifetime. But we didn’t stay long. Jason called an Uber/Lyft for a pickup right outside. We were back at the boat long before 10 PM.

Last Morning in Miami

I woke at 5:30 AM and very suddenly remembered the scheduled arrival of Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. This was a big event, the first time the ship was arriving at its home port of Miami, and Royal Carribean was having an event at the museum along the ICW where the cruise ships turned around. The event was supposed to start at 7 AM and I wanted to see the ship.

Please understand that I have a love-hate relationship with cruise ships. I love the concept of checking into a relatively comfortable “hotel” with a private balcony that happens to be in a different port city every day. But I detest being among so many people at that hotel who, depending on the itinerary, are either there to party and get drunk every day (Caribbean cruises) or spend as little money as possible while checking off a bucket list item (Alaska cruises). I’m also heartbroken about what the cruise ship lines, in their never-ending quest for profits, have done to port cities. And I need to laugh my ass off at people who like “days at sea,” not realizing that their ship is pretty much drifting between two destinations so they can avoid port fees while passengers use the pool, shop, gamble, eat, and drink themselves into oblivion. No value there for me.

It’s the technology of these ships that fascinate me. Icon has 20 passenger decks, multiple pools, restaurants, bars, a zip line, a water park — the feature list goes on and on. And this thing, which is bigger than most buildings, cruises from place to place with a total of more than 9,000 people on board (including crew). I’d love to spend an entire day with a knowledgeable crew member touring the ship from top to bottom with a small group of other interested people.

But no, I’ll never cruise on Icon. Just the presence of features for kids tells me that there will be kids on board. I think my own definition of hell would be a day at sea on a cruise ship full of kids.

Anyway, I wanted to see it come in and I thought I had the perfect viewing location: the top of the MacArthur Causeway Bridge that ran from the island the marina was on to downtown Miami.

Here’s a map of the area showing where Icon of the seas would come in and turn around. I saw the whole thing from the top of the 65-foot tall MacArthur Causeway Bridge.

So after feeding my pups and drinking my coffee, I set out with my pups to find our way to the top of the bridge, leaving Jason just getting out of bed. It wasn’t clear how to get up there, but eventually I found a way. Fortunately, there was a walkway on the south side of the bridge that had a Jersey Barrier between the pedestrian and car traffic. It was crazy loud up there with all the passing cars and my pups weren’t happy. But in the end, it was worth it.

I watched Icon of the Seas’ inbound progress on the Ship Finder app.

I saw the ship come down the channel, led by fire boats spraying water and police boats with flashing lights. I heard the boat’s loudspeakers playing Queen’s We Will Rock You. I even heard the cheers of the Royal Caribbean fans at the museum at the other end of the bridge. I saw people on the ship — all employees; there were no passengers — riding the zip line and waving from the public spaces on deck. There were planes towing Icon of the Seas banners circling the area and drones photographing the ship. After a while, some traffic stopped on the bridge while people got out to watch. It was a crazy scene.

Here’s Icon of the Seas coming down the ship channel. Note the fire boats. The cruise ship on the right is a Virgin ship that had come in earlier that morning.

The boat came to a stop in a turnaround area it barely fit in and, without any assistance from tugboats or other vessels, pivoted 180° until it was pointed back out the way it had come. (Thrusters, baby!) Then it slowly headed back down the ship channel to the Royal Caribbean dock.

Icon of the Seas filled the turning area. In this shot, it has just started its turn; look closely at the water and you’ll see the turbulence created by its bow and stern thrusters.

Although I’d hoped it would turn with its bow facing us (clockwise), the ship turned with its stern facing us. That’s when I realized that the inside of the ship was a wide open atrium offering balcony rooms inside. Note the crewmembers lining the decks.

Jason had joined us just before the ship got into the turnaround area. I think he was glad he’d come. It was certainly a sight to behold.

Once the ship had started heading back down the channel, the crowds broke up. We walked back down the bridge to the boat together.

Leaving Miami

We left Ryan’s slip at Miami Yacht Club a while later. It was a lot easier to get out of the slip than it had been to get in a few days before. The weather was perfect for the short cruise to our next stop, Baker Haulover Basin anchorage. I’ll talk about that in another blog post.

What did you think about this one? Any comments about our travels or activities? Have you been to Miami by boat? What can you recommend to others? Use the comments to share your thoughts. We all learn when we share information. Thanks for stopping by!