DELRAY MARINA to MIAMI BEACH MARINA / Thursday to Friday, February 4-5 (Day 14-15)

Admiral's Log:     7:35am, Thrs. 2/4/16
                           Temp:  73
                           Winds:  8mph
                           Speed:  8.3 knots

Both of these days were a little longer than we wanted to travel each day. But we had reservations at Hawk's Cay on Duck Key, outside Marathon and need to be there on the 6th. Our plan is to travel an average of 50 miles a day which is usually between 4 to 6 hours. That way if we are staying at a marina we can usually get help docking. 

There are a lot of bridges on this route which slows us down quite a bit. Some we can go under, some we have to wait for an opening. As we pass under a couple of these bridges, we saw giant Iguanas sunning themselves. 

Mike was impressed we saw the Rybrovick Ship Building facility. 

Iguanas everywhere. Loved this one's coloring.

Now I know where some of the 1% live! Oh my goodness! The houses and boats or yachts, would be a better name were HUGE and gorgeous! 
Just a sampling:

Barely see the A1A sign

We forgot the Miami Boat Show was coming up soon, so we could not find a marina! We would have to go to at least Homestead, and that was still a couple more hours away and we were getting tired and the winds were picking up. So we heard Frieda B on the radio say that they were going to Miami Beach Marina. We called and they had room. Not the cheapest marina, being in Miami Beach, but we really had no choice. Apparently it takes 2 weeks to prepare for the boat show. People are asked to move their boats to other marina's to make room for the new boats. We even saw a container ship off loading some of those new boats.

Flagler Memorial Park, looked like a mini Washington Monument.

Docking at Miami Beach Marina was scary! The winds were really howling now and Mike had to back in to the slip with a heavy current as well. Thankfully the dockhands helped us get in safely. We showered at the marina facilities and had dinner at the famous Joe's Stone Crab on South Beach. We had stone crab of course, house salad, roasted tomatoes that were the best I've ever had, grilled asparagus and hash browns.  The service there is impeccable! 

Must wear the bib if you are eating crab!

Upon waking Friday morning, we discovered the winds had gotten worse! Not leaving today, that's for sure! Unfortunately we are at the mercy of the weather on this trip. Luckily they had room for us to stay another night, one condition tho. We had to move to make room for a boat show boat. Mike was furious! The winds were quite strong and we had a hard enough time getting docked in the first place. But had no choice. He did fine and the marina had two guys help, but it was still stressful.

 Barb and I did a little laundry, while Mike and Joe walked to Publix and Best Buy. Joe brought the movie "Martian", but the boat had an old DVD player, so they bought a new Blue Ray player. We had fun watching the movie  (which was pretty good by the way) and eating popcorn. After a yummy dinner of scallops, salad and bread, (scallops provided by Bonnee Jones, thank you Bon Bon!) we went to bed hoping for a better weather window in the morning.