We went off shore and into the ocean for the first time on Sept. 15th, 2009 at the Lake Worth Inlet just south of North Palm Beach. We didn't want to have to wait for 22 bridges to open to allow us passage down the ICW because they are all timed on when they will open and we don't travel fast enough to reach the bridges in time and have to wait until their next opening time. This would really slow us down as we traveled and we don't move very fast as it is with an average of ~5 knots. The conditions were good as far as the wave height between 2-3 ft., but the wind was only 0-5 knots so we couldn't sail too much. We were able to put all our sails out and motor-sail down to Ft. Lauderdale. The sails helped propel us faster up to ~8 mph at some times! We saw all kinds of jellyfish and JR saw a huge sea turtle that was floating on the surface like trash or some kind of debris. I was asleep on deck at the time we almost hit the big sea turtle, but JR was keeping watch and avoided it without too much issue. I had to sit in the front of the boat because the fumes and wave action were making me sick. I felt much better when I was getting fresh air. I ate pretzels to help settle my stomach. After a little while, I was fine. We got to Ft. Lauderdale after ~10-11 hours and moored at the Las Olas City Marina. They closed at 4:30pm so we were unable to use their facilities without the key card needed for entry. We ate dinner on deck and watched the sunset. Ft. Lauderdale is where the money is at with the awesome houses/ mansions and the mega yachts docked outside their summer/ vacation homes. We liked the marina facilities with their boater's lounge and laundry room, but their showers were like camp showers almost and their wi-fi wasn't working at the time we were there. But we were able to walk a couple blocks to get to the beach and several restaurants and there was even a West Marin nearby we could have gone to if we needed. We took the time to really scrub the deck down with boat soap and cleaned it well for the first time on the outside. We had a huge margarita and calamari at the Rock Bar next to the beach and then we ate dinner at a German bar-restaurant called Beirbraunn and we had bratwurst, weiner, and schitzel (breaded pork cutlet, which is just like tonkatsu only thinner and without the sauce). I like it, but tonkatsu is better. :) We leave after two nights at the Las Olas City Marina to head down to Miami. We again go off shore to avoid the bridges and see the same types of marine life as we travel within a few miles from shore. It takes us ~5 hours for us to get to Government Cut right before Miami. We had decided to go to Crandon Park in Key Biscayne because they were the cheapest place to keep our boat as we heard from fellow cruisers, but when we got there we found out they didn't allow live-aboards and didn't have showers. It would have been nice to have learned this over the phone or the radio as they didn't pick up or reply to the messages I left. And when we called back in St. Augustine they didn't say anything about it either. So we traveled back up to Mia marina because no one else would take us for a month. The other marinas only had space for the weekend, were full, or required a minimum of 3 months stay. So we had to pay the expensive fees to stay here as we had flights out of Miami in just 10 days and we had friends coming down to visit that day from Atlanta. We tried to tow our dinghy behind our boat and found that it doesn't tow well at all and began to fill with water from the wake of Frodo. JR had to jump out of the boat into the dinghy to bail out the boat and save our new outboard engine and then pull our dinghy on deck. During the process, one of the plastic pieces break which hold one of the three seats in place on the dinghy. This happened earlier with another one of the plastic pieces so we will need to fix this problem while we are in Miami. Miami is the most expensive place to bring your boat and we felt the pain in our wallet from the marina docking fees. I think we had to pay ~$80/night and ~$1000/month to dock at Mia Marina. The facilities here were the worst we had ever seen with no hot water in the ladies bathroom, one key to enter the bathrooms that had to be obtained and returned to the marina office, no boaters lounge, no wi-fi, and the pump-out station was not convenient to get to or you had to rent their boat to come out to empty your waste. The marina is right next to the Bayside Marketplace shopping center with restaurants and live music every night. The food at the restaurants weren't very good and the music usually was ranging from bad to awful to needing ear plugs to sleep at night. There are usually taxis at the shopping center, which is convenient and the bus stops are right outside as well. To get to the free metromover rail car, you only have to walk a couple blocks, which can then take you to the Metrorail trains costing $2 per ride to anywhere the lines go. But be aware of the fact the Metrorail doesn't take you to the Miami International airport, you will have to take the Tri-rail (an actual train) costing $5 to get to the airport with a free bus to shuttle you to the airport from the train station. You should take the bus, if you want to save money and have the time. But if you are running late, take a taxi because time is money. We like the food from Manolo's (sweet croissants, filled churros, Spanish tortilla), Joe's Stone Crab (duh, stone crab is awesome), Bali Cafe (curry beef), Puerto Sagua (Cuban Style Shredded Beef), and Foccacia Rustica (mushroom ravioli). Beware of South Beach and all their tourist traps, Atlantic Bar & Grill for example charged us $25 for a huge cocktail at buy one get one free, but you can't give your free drink to anyone else so you end up getting the second drink to go or not drinking it at all. It is just a waste and no fun to drink because you feel ripped off otherwise. This never ends well unless you drink like a camel because those drinks are not weak either, but then again I am the one who is gauging the strength so take that into consideration. Don't bother eating at the Latin America Cafe' (they pre-make their foods and it tastes that way, not fresh), Ham-bur-gesa (sad burgers), and Hard Rock Cafe (I don't know how they survive really). I am sure there are many other places to go and not to go, but I have yet to find out. Coral Gables has a really nice shopping mall called Merrick Park that has lots of high end stores like Betsy Johnson, Jimmy Choo's, Carolina Herrera, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Burberry, Juicy Couture, etc. There is even a nice courtyard to sit and relax or take a break from shopping.
of North Palm Beach. We didn't want to have to wait for 22 bridges to open to allow us passage down the ICW because they are all timed on when they will open and we don't travel fast enough to reach the bridges in time and have to wait until their next opening time. This would really slow us down as we traveled and we don't move very fast as it is with an average of ~5 knots. The conditions were good as far as the wave height between 2-3 ft., but the wind was only 0-5 knots so we couldn't sail too much. We were able to put all our sails out and motor-sail down to Ft. Lauderdale. The sails helped propel us faster up to ~8 mph at 
some times! We saw all kinds of jellyfish and JR saw a huge sea turtle that was floating on the surface like trash or some kind of debris. I was asleep on deck at the time we almost hit the big sea turtle, but JR was keeping watch and avoided it without too much issue. I had to sit in the front of the boat because the fumes and wave action were making me sick. I felt much better when I was getting fresh air. I ate pretzels to help settle my stomach. After a little while, I was fine. We got to Ft. Lauderdale after ~10-11 hours and moored at the Las Olas City Marina. They closed at 4:30pm so we were unable to use their facilities without the key card needed for entry. We ate dinner on deck and watched the sunset. Ft. Lauderdale is where the money is at with the awesome houses/ mansions and the mega yachts docked outside their summer/ vacation homes. We liked the marina facilities with their boater's lounge and laundry room, but their showers were like camp showers almost and their wi-fi wasn't working at the time we were there. But we were able to walk a couple blocks to get to the beach and several restaurants and there was even a West Marin nea
rby we could have gone to if we needed
. We took the time to really scrub the deck down with boat soap and cleaned it well for the first time on the outside. We had a huge margarita and calamari at the Rock Bar next to the beach and then we ate dinner at a German bar-restaurant called Beirbraunn and we had bratwurst, weiner, and schitzel (breaded pork cutlet, which is just like tonkatsu only thinner and without the sauce). I like it, but tonkatsu is better. :) We leave after two nights at the Las Olas City Marina to head down to Miami. We again go off shore to avoid the bridges and see the same types of marine life as we travel within a few miles from shore. It takes us ~5 hours for us to get to Government Cut right before Miami. We had decided to go to Crandon Park in Key Biscayne because they were the cheapest place to keep our boat as we heard from fellow cruisers, but when we got there we found out they didn't allow live-aboards and didn't have showers. It would have been nice to have learned this over the phone or the radio as they didn't pick up or reply to the messages I left. And when we called back in St. Augustine they didn't say anything about it either. So we traveled back up to Mia marina because no one else would take us for a month. The other marinas only had space for the weekend, were full, or required a minimum of 3 months stay. So we had to pay the expensive fees to stay here as we had flights out of Miami in just 10 days and we had friends coming down to visit that day from Atlanta. We tried to tow our dinghy behind our boat and found that it doesn't tow well at all and began to fill with water from the wake of Frodo. JR had to jump out of the boat into the dinghy to bail out the boat and save our new outboard engine and then pull our dinghy on deck. During the process, one of the plastic pieces break which hold one of the three seats in place on the dinghy. This happened earlier with another one of the plastic pieces so we will need to fix this problem while we are in Miami. Miami is the most expensive place to bring your boat and we f
elt the pain in our wallet from the marina docking fees. I think we had to pay ~$80/night and ~$1000/month to dock at Mia Marina. The facilities here were the worst we had ever seen with no hot water in the ladies bathroom, one key to enter the bathrooms that had to be obtained and returned to the marina office, no boaters lounge, no wi-fi, and the pump-out station was not convenient to get to or you had to rent their boat to come out to empty your waste. The marina is right next to the Bayside Marketplace shopping center with restaurants and live music every night. The food at the restaurants weren't very good and the music usually was ranging from bad to awful to needing ear plugs to sleep at night. There are usually taxis at the shopping center, which is convenient and the bus stops are right outside as well. To get to the free metromover rail car, you only have to walk a couple blocks, which can then take you to the Metrorail trains costing $2 per ride to anywhere the lines go. But be aware of the fact the Metrorail doesn't take you to the Miami International airport, you will have to take the Tri-rail (an actual train) costing $5 to get to the airport with a free bus to shuttle you to the airport from the train station. You should take the bus, if you want to save money and have the time. But if you are running late, take a taxi because time is money. We like the food from Manolo's (sweet croissants, filled churros, Spanish tortilla), Joe's Stone Crab (duh, stone crab is awesome), Bali Cafe (curry beef), Puerto Sagua (Cuban Style Shredded Beef), and Foccacia Rustica (mushroom ravioli). Beware of South Beach and all their tourist traps, Atlantic Bar & Grill for example charged us $25 for a huge cocktail at buy one get one free, but you can't give your free drink to anyone else so you end up getting the second drink to go or not drin
king it at all. It is just a waste and no fun to drink because you feel ripped off otherwise. This never ends well unless you drink like a camel because those drinks are not weak either, but then again I am the one who is gauging the strength so take that into consideration. Don't bother eating at the Latin America Cafe' (they pre-make their foods and it tastes that way, not fresh), Ham-bur-gesa (sad burgers), and Hard Rock Cafe (I don't know how they survive really). I am sure there are many other places to go and not to go, but I have yet to find out. Coral Gables has a really nice shopping mall called Merrick Park that has lots of high end stores like Betsy Johnson, Jimmy Choo's, Carolina Herrera, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Burberry, Juicy Couture, etc. There is even a nice courtyard to sit and relax or take a break from shopping.
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