Wednesday 2/19/14 – Start 0915, Finish 1536, from Miami Stadium to No Name Harbor

Thursday 2/20/14 –Start 0955, Finish 1630, from No Name Harbor to Miami Stadium

Weather/Sea – sunny 75, W wind 5-10, sea 1-2’-

Captain - John Kwak

Crew – Dan Martin, Paul Kirk

We raised the anchor with difficulty, it was really sucked into the white cement like shell bottom and came up with lots of white mud. The chain was clean however and we only had to rinse off the salt as it came up. The chain goes around the windlass and down a PVC pipe into the chain locker.  The chain has a tendency to pile in a pyramid shape and block the PVC pipe. So a crew member has to lay in the Vee berth  with one arm thru a 6x6 hole and move the chain away from the pipe. Someday I will fix that.

We went under Bay Bridge on the Rickenbacker Causeway and entered Biscayne Bay. Dan Martin had done his sail training course here so he was familiar with the area and even had large paper charts.

We planned to spend the day sailing on different points of sail and that is what we did. We sailed on jib and main, close hauled and beam reach, tacking numerous times, and jibing down wind. We hove to and set the stay sail on the Cutter stay and rolled up the jib and sailed on stay sail and main. All good practice but in light winds it was no challenge.

We entered No Name Harbor a concrete walled cove in Key Biscany Park with room for 20  boats.

We anchored in the cove  and dinghied to the wall to pay the $20.00 fee. Put the money in an envelope and drop in box, on the honor system. I saw no one else pay! We walked to restaurant to check it out and came back later for dinner.

The next morning, hoisted anchor and went to the free pump out on the concrete wall. Then we went  out into Biscayne Bay to continue sailing practice. The wind picked up 10 to 15 knots with some gusts.

Dutchess sailed South at 5 to 7 knots with full Main and Jib all morning nice and steady. We constantly tuned the sails to get them to draw better and go faster. They are very old sails and need to be replaced but not yet.  We hove to with the jib backed and rudder over and had lunch, Dutchess layed as a duck on water. On the way back North we put the first reef in the main and sailed with full jib doing 5 to 6 knots.

We sailed to the Bay Bridge dropped sails and motored back into the Miami Stadium Anchorage and anchored for the night. No charges here!