After a nice (but brief) visit to Minneapolis to celebrate the Christmas holiday with family, we flew back to Florida with Rose. Tilia was just as we left her. After a quick run to the grocery store, we left the marina and headed just a few miles away to anchor out and get setup for the next leg of our journey.
Our anchorage still had a good view of the Kennedy Space center area, where there was a launch planned for midnight. The skies were partly overcast, but there was enough visibility to see the first portion of the launch. We were far enough away that it took 20 seconds for the sound of the launch to reach us, but it was still impressive even at that distance. This was a nice capstone for Jim’s birthday on Dec 28th!
The next day we made our way to Cape Canaveral. While in Cape Canaveral, we upgraded our dinghy. The dinghy is the primary way we go to and from shore, and we’ve discovered that we wanted more range and cargo capacity. Our old dinghy worked well, but was very wet in any waves or wind and struggled with four adults aboard. The new dinghy has a bigger motor and better capacity. This will give us much more flexibility in choosing an anchorage because now we don’t have to anchor quite so close to places we want to visit.
Cape Canaveral was a convenient place to get the new dinghy and we had a nice time there, but it is a busy commercial and cruise port and not very pretty. We were happy to head out later the next day.
The day after getting the new dinghy, we cleaned up and stored the old one, got the new one set up on the boat, and headed out for an overnight trip to West Palm Beach. The trip was uneventful, but did not feature any sailing due to lack of wind.
We arrived in West Palm Beach in the early morning and made our way to an anchorage near the downtown area. West Palm Beach was a good stop to pick up groceries, enjoy a meal out in town with Rose, meet some other sailors we’ve crossed paths with in the past and have Rose’s friend, Kate, fly in to join us.
With Kate aboard and everything set, we left at dawn the next morning and headed south again. This time it was a day trip, ending at the southern edge of Miami, where we anchored for the night.
The trip south was easy and pleasant with warm, sunny weather. Miami harbor is very busy and we were greeted with cruise ships, fishing boats, speed boats, tugs, jet skis and more as we entered. After an hour of navigating that traffic, we made our way to a quiet anchorage just south of Miami and got the anchor set just as the sun set.
From Miami, we spent a couple days making our way to Key Largo. Along the way we got to sail a bit, explore a dive bar with our dinghy, and take it easy with pleasant days and comfortable anchorages.
