Miami - sail repairs in a rich man’s world
Karen:
With 70 miles to get to Miami, we knew it would be a long day. So we got up at 3 am, and were under way by 4. The weather was just a little bit stronger than our ‘perfect sailing day’ down to Palm Beach, so we thought we were in for another great day of sailing. We motored out of the bay in darkness and found that we were only able to make 2 knots to get offshore as we were directly into the wind. After we achieved 1.5 miles offshore, we turned south. With the wind on our beam at 12-19 knots we were puzzled as to why we could only do about 3-4 knots when sailing south. The sea state was likely the culprit with waves up to 6 feet high. We had waves coming in the cockpit periodically. Our progress was slower than we wanted. So around 2pm we put on the motor and motor sailed, which got us up to 5ish knots. Michael reviewed our sail plan and found an anchorage 5 miles closer directly in Miami harbour, which we pulled into just before sunset. We anchored next to Fisher Island, an exclusive island for the uber rich, that is not open to mere mortals.
The next day, we wanted to celebrate, so we promised the kids a trip into town for a burger and fries. Michael kept looking at google maps for dingy dock, but couldn’t find one. Literally not one! It turns out Miami has a problem with people living on boats in the inner harbour and has restricted all land access points in order to drive them off. Undeterred, we set off towards Miami beach. We attempted tying up at the community dock but it was actually guarded by a police officer who wouldn't let us tie up. A local gave a us a tip that we could tie up to the bridge close by, and we saw our opportunity at a waterfront park where we could tie to the supports for the pier. We waded to shore, put our garbage in the park garbage cans and headed to shake shack for a delicious dinner. We prayed our dinghy had not been impounded or stolen and thankfully it had not 🙂
Our next repair challenge was to take care of the Genoa. We noticed some of the sun protection fabric flapping in the wind on our last leg - and needed to take the sail down to inspect it. Once we had it down, I could see that the stitching had come loose from most of the leech edge of the sail. It was repairable by hand, but it would be A LOT of hand stitching. The alternative would be taking it to a sail loft to be restitched, which would take a lot of time. So, I gave it a try and found I could do the stitching. I spent the next 2 days on the foredeck, sewing away. Michael wanted to try doing some so I showed him how and we both sewed side by side.
We started using our deck shower and found that it leaks and there is no shutoff. That is not something we can leave alone. We got the bike out and into the dingy again, and I dropped Michael off at the park island across from where we are anchored. He biked in the hot sun to 2 different marine stores to get the replacement parts and also was able to pick up some sail repair tape. The kids were awesome, playing lego and doing artwork together all day while Michael and I focussed on our jobs. 3 times I thought I was done sewing, but found another patch to repair. Finally, this morning, we got the last strip done. We reinforced the areas with sailtape and hoisted her back up. Ready to go again!! Just need to reprovision and we will be out of the USA
Provisioning. Truly a mission in Miami. Here were our options:
Dingy 5 miles to Cocoa Beach public dock - 1.5 hr trip each way for us
Pay $40 to tie up to Miami Sailing Club Dock - then 1 hr walk to grocery store.
Return to the Miami Beach public dock and be cheeky.
We chose option 3. Michael would stay in the dingy and drop me and the kids off to provision - only a 10 minute walk to the grocery store. We would do 2 trips, and Christian would guard the provisions in the park while Flo & I did the 2nd trip. Then Michael would speed back in the dingy to the boat to drop off our groceries while I took the kids to a local toy shop. Great Plan!
We are now fully stocked and ready to leave Miami
