You know you're in Florida when...

The wind died on the way to Key West from Mexico which meant we could go for a deep sea drag.  

• There is an embarrassment of high end recreational boats - mainly motor, trawlers, cocktail boats, sport boats.  We have arrived in the land of plenty.

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  We arrived at the Key West channel after dark.  Instead of entering, we hung out between the shipping highways.  The little black boat is Milly.  The other triangles are ships to-ing and fro-ing.  At one point there were more than 250 ship signals.  And these are just little guys like us.  They are huge tankers and cargo ships.  Watch that night was all about staying well out of their way.

  

  We know we have arrived at popular Key West when the dinghies are in a parking lot.  And this is only half of it.  Not only crowded but we had to pay a daily fee to park!  First time.

• Sport boats far outnumber sailboats.  This is a fishing mecca.  Stuart is the sailfish capital of the world.

  

  In Key West, there were several beautifully kept old schooners taking tourists on sunset cruises.  Quite different  from the fake pirate ships so popular in Brazil and Trinidad.

• No European flagged boats.  Europeans need a visa to enter the states.  Often European boats - French, German, Belgian, British, Swiss, Swedish, Italian - dominated the Caribbean anchorages.  In Florida, they are missing entirely.

  

  Polydactyl cats at Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West.  Numerous cats with six digits are the descendants of "Snowball", Hemingway's favourite who he got from a sailor in town.  Six pawed cats are good luck on a boat.  Better get one!
  
  

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Snowball's descendants still curl up on Ernest's chair making the place look perfect to write a few classics.

• Pineapples, mangos, bananas and papayas are imported - they don’t grow in every backyard.  Instead, this is the land of citrus.

• You can flush toilet paper in public washrooms.  Unlike South American and the Caribbean, where signs politely ask you to deposit toilet paper in the bin provided. 

• Like Ontario, skies at dusk in Florida are clear blue, no clouds.  I had missed this in the tropics where there are always cumulus clouds.

  

  The intercoastal waterway near Jupiter where Celine Dion and Tiger Woods have their mansions.  The water and sky competed for our attention with the glam houses.  No one in view at these enormous places.

• Very little litter/pollution.  It demonstrates that education can embed the notion of garbage can use and that cash can enable a recycling program. 

• Wealth abounds visible in magnificent homes, huge well kept pleasure boats and innumerable stores to spend those dollars.

  

  Our overnight anchorage in the intercoastal in Lake Worth had lovely homes on our bow view...

  
  

  

  and an industrial port off our stern.  The multi million dollar homes had the same view out their front windows.  Look at that sky!

• Huge spending opportunity with overt consumerism.  We were gobsmacked by the number of strip malls and big box stores.  In the Keys, Key West is the only town with a main street and neighbourhoods.  The others were store lined strips along the highway.  Shopping is the local sport.  

  

  To be fair, there are also great parks and nature.  This guy was slumbering only a few feet from our feet.

• Life jackets required - rules and regs enforced.  This is, I guess, a good thing.  In Latin America, a person, from construction worker to boater, seems to be responsible for his/her own safety - we saw construction workers wearing sandals.  So it was a bit of a shock to be pulled over in TomTom by the Marine Police.  Our charges: TomTom was not registered - we had no idea that it was imperative - for not having a whistle and for not having life jackets.  Whistle and life jackets were on Milly but that wasn't good enough.  $100 fine.  Peter immediately made up some numbers and put them on TomTom with magic marker.  

• Incredibly hospitable and friendly locals.  We were offered a home in which to do our laundry, a private car to use while at dock, and, the very best, a suite in a lovely waterfront home with dinners made while Milly was on the hard.  Each of these offers was made by strangers, people we had just met.  And each is an example of the cruiser community and Floridian generosity.

  

  Michele and Randy were incredibly generous, offering us their guest suite in their lovely waterfront home before they even met us.  Dinners, breakfasts, rides to chandleries, connections with service people etc. etc.  

  
  

  

  Their dog, Nemo, also played loveable host.

  
  

  

  Randy was the captain of their "cocktail boat". On our day off from boat work, we cruised into Stuart to the outdoor market and then along the intercoastal.  

• Super flat topography - similar to western caribbean - Not a hill in sight.  We miss hills and hiking.  We are looking forward to the Azores.

• Such giant portions that Peter and I can share one and still have leftovers. It is showing.

  

  One of the well attended restaurants in the Keys had thousands of dollars worth of signed bills plastered over every surface.  I don't think it met sanitary standards - kinda gross, actually - but nobody seemed to care.

• Marked absence of pedestrians.  In Latin America, many people walk - there may not always be sidewalks but there are still people walking.  Here there are sidewalks but nobody uses them.  Cars rule.  And there are lots of them.  
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  Stuart, Florida is in Martin County where a bylaw does not allow building over three storeys.   From the water it was easy to see exactly where the boundary was by the sudden end of huge condos.  This conservation area, only accessible by boat, had a huge deserted beach facing the wild Atlantic where we walked and walked for several miles in both directions, only meeting a few others.

  
  

  

  A reminder of the dangers of a lee shore.

• In Stuart, flea markets and second hand stores are remarkably prolific.  Perhaps this is a reflection of elderly, retired folk (who are dying??)  

• There are phenomenal number of golf courses concentrated in a few square miles.  Even though the windward islands cater to tourists, they don't seem to manage golf courses which may indicate lack of funds to desalinate water??  Perhaps a good thing.

  

  There was also a great deal of nature in the huge conservation area.  These were pelicans flying in formation.

  
  

  

  A heron nesting.

  
  
  
  

  

  An osprey nesting on the intercoastal traffic sign requiring slow speeds for manatees.  We saw a manatee in Key Largo chewing on a seaweed encrusted line.  Dolphins were regular visitors at our anchorage on the intercoastal and even at our marina dock.

  
  

  

  This osprey couple were determined to build their home on the arch of the boat, one good reason not to leave your boat unattended for too long.  The birds may inflict just as much damage as any marauding human.

  
  
  

• Strict adherence to holding brown discharge in Milly’s tanks - we must go 3 NM offshore to empty tanks or have them pumped out, usually free of charge, paid for by concerned townships.  Although this is an extra step in our lives, it is appreciated. Latin America does not have the infrastructure or the cultural wherewithal to see the importance of this.

  

  New to us, were the challenges of the intercoastal waterway.  The captain radios the bridge operator on approach to request an opening....  

  
  

  

  ....or we just squeak under, which is rather intimidating.  Our mast height is 61 feet.  This bridge was 64 feet.  Three feet does not seem like a lot when watching from below.

• Temperature at night was blanket worthy when we arrived.  After months of sweating through the night without any covering at all, it is a delight to be cozy under the weight of a blanket.

• Sunset at 7:30 p.m. and getting later every day.  This is lovely although it has thrown off our routine.  When daylight only lasted 12 hours and, depending on the nation and time difference from GMT, gets dark as early as 5:30, we now eat and go to bed at more sophisticated hours.

• And, the main reason for being in Florida, boat work is easy, services are reliable, contractors are plentiful and talented.  We have refitted Milly from top of the mast to bottom of the keel.  A whopping bill but she's happy and ready to cross the great big ocean. Coming soon...our refit.

Mexican Yucatan Coast

Milly sharing the anchorage with the only other boats in Cozumel.

Leaving Belize through the San Pedro cut was much easier than the previous time with the kids when the waves were enormous.  This time they were only moderately large and we were able to follow our charted track out - piece of cake.  We had thought we would stop in the only Mexican atoll and in a large bay on the way to Cozumel where we intended to check in to the country.  However, the atoll was described as an important commercial fishing station and navy base and at the writing of our guide, navy boarded cruising boats and did not allow anchorage.  And the bay is a huge completely undeveloped mangrove shallow with lousy charting.  After our experience with the fishing boat off the coast of Nicaragua, we were a bit leery of deserted anchorages.  Finally, we had a swift sail north and passed both locations in the dark.

Cozumel, the next place to check in, was a lovely island with a busy tourist-centered town.  To our surprise we were the only cruising boat - we had expected some company.  The anchorage was in beautiful sand.  There was no dinghy dock - we hauled TomTom onto the beach through a small surf to go to town.

The melacon was lined with kinda tacky sculptures.  This one featured the underwater world  and happened to frame Milly

Street art??

Checking into the country proved to be an expensive challenge.  The process is different in every country.  Unlike arriving on a plane with immigration and customs represented by one official and one booth, we usually must go to at least two, sometimes three offices.  Here's what we did in Cozumel:

• Visit to port authority - closed for the day at 2 pm

Next day:

• Visit to the port authority - copies of documents made and directions to visit immigration at the airport.
• Walked to the airport.  Immigration at the airport would not deal with us.  Sent us to immigration office across town.
• Walked across town to immigration office.  Forms completed.  Direction to meet with agriculture and fisheries representative in office.
• Agric and Fish young man (very broken English) explained that he had to inspect Milly for produce - oh, oh.  This was most unexpected! and I hadn't prepared by either eating or hiding our produce of which only a pineapple and bananas were visible. We joined his partner in a dog catching truck.  Peter was directed to sit in one of the dog cages - hilarious, no dog - while I scored the front seat an the second official sat in the other dog cage.  They were nervous when I took a picture - this was strictly against the rules.

  

  This is no dog!  Still looking happy.

• Drive to beach where TomTom was "parked".  The guy accompanying us had never been in a dinghy before.  He was obviously more comfortable with the Agricultural part of his job.  He pulled off his big leather shoes and socks and attempted to roll up his pants when he saw, to his surprise and, I think, displeasure that he would have to wade into the water before climbing into TomTom.  Peter and I have worked out a routine for putting TomTom in the water when there is surf.  I stand at the bow in water to my thighs, holding the boat out perpendicular to the breaking waves as best I can.  Peter clambers in, puts the engine down and starts.  I dive into the boat head first or, if I'm only up to my knees, swing a leg up and over as Peter goes into reverse.  This is not a delicate operation.  The official  became a little more chagrined.  As we slowly drove out to Milly, his knuckles whitened from holding on so tightly.  He took the centre bench seat, not trusting the inflated gunnels.  
• On board Milly, he apologetically filled a large garbage bag, first with the visible fruit and then he opened the fridge and loaded it with eggs, cheese, cold meats, all fruit and veg, juice.  Unfortunately, I had stocked up in Belize because we thought we might stop at the deserted anchorages on the way to Cozumel.  Darn it!!  Even though Peter could drive in the dog cage against all rules, the official became officious when it came to confiscating our contraband.

  

  Offending oficina. 

• Back to the beach with a full bag.  Back in the truck.  They offered to take us to the next office we had to visit.  Although I was giving directions, they circled over and over on one-way streets - perhaps it was my Spanish? - finally letting us off a couple of blocks away.
• Walk to doctor's office where an approved doctor needed to sign a health form.  He was not available.
• Back to Milly to recover.

Third Day

• Return to doctor's office.  The doctor saw us immediately.  He looked at us, looked at the form, asked us what boat we were on and how long we were staying, signed the form and ushered us out.  Not a word about health was exchanged.
• Walk to customs at airport.  A plane had just arrived. We could see through our teller-type window that the customs officials were busy.  After ten minutes of standing politely at the window a guy saw us, rushed over, stamped our forms, made copies of our passports, all in record time.
• Walk back to port authority office to show off all our completed forms.  Directed to go to the bank to pay the fee.  Their credit card system was not working.
• Walk to the bank.  Paid fee.  Easy process.
• Walk back to the port authority where the guy who needed to put the final signature on our paperwork was unavailable.  Directed to return the next day in the a.m.

Fourth Day

• Picked up completed forms, signatures intact.  

Quite an experience!  On our walks between offices, we saw a lot of the town , had lunch, restocked our fridge and were amused by the bureaucracy.

We rented a scooter to check out the rest of the island.

The driver.

The east coast of Cozumel was magnificent - wild and undeveloped.  The road edged the ocean and gave spectacular views of many coloured water.

This guy was just hanging out on the lagoon side - waiting for an unlucky tourist to slip in the muck

After a few days in Cozumel, we headed toward the mainland looking for a sheltered anchorage where we could ride out an expected "norther" and explore the area of Talum.  As we approached, we read that boats were no longer allowed to anchor in the one sheltered bay but were expected to stay at a marina south of where we were.  Onward to Isla Mujeres where there was a very sheltered lagoon.  We got there and anchored in the muck just in time.  The norther blew for a couple of days, boats dragged anchor around us but Milly's rocna held firm.

Leaving Cozumel, we crossed paths with Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior.  Very cool!

We had discovered that the east coast of the Mexican Yucatan peninsula is not at all set up for cruising.  Isla Mujeres, the jumping off point to the US or, alternatively, the first port of call leaving the US or Cuba on the way south, is the exception to this.

The whale shark is a big tourist draw here.  We didn't visit during the season when you can swim with these giants but a local insisted on taking our picture with this one.

Mother Nature shares the altar here.

The pedestrian street in the tourist centre was full of souvenir shops but even these added colour and liveliness.

Again, the east shore offered gorgeous blues.

Peter and I tend to seek out cemeteries.  The styles of the graves are so different from place to place that they offer an insight into the culture and history.  These were particularly decorated.

Note the lighthouse, and the two churches.

Isla Mujeres was easy living.  Many cruisers come for a brief rest on their way north or south and never leave.  We biked and hiked.  I went to a yoga studio.  We had dinner with a large group of cruisers twice a week and often socialized with those we met.  For the six weeks we stayed in Mexico, with a very pleasant standard of living we spent less than $1500US.  Amazing.

This estancia was built by a señor for his lover but he was rejected.  Maybe the steps were a touch to steep. 

And we waited and waited for a weather window to sail to Key West.  The northers blew through every 5-7 days so timing was difficult.  Life was getting a bit too comfy - I had visions of staying so long that Milly would grow a beard of seaweed like we saw on other boats in the anchorage.  Finally, we set off for what ended up being a 36 hour sail because we left at the wrong time.  Oh well.

Sunset as we left Isla Mujeres.  For the first time it was at the stern of the boat.