Made it to Key Biscayne and ready to cross

We finally left Vero Beach (affectionately known as "Velcro Beach" because so many cruisers hate to leave there).  From 8 a.m. on Thursday to about 9 a.m. today we motored on the outside, arriving in Biscayne Bay to top off water and diesel, get a convenient anchorage spot, and prepare for our 3 a.m. crossing to Bimini tonight (Friday).  It's only 44 miles but we have to get there to arrive at high tide.

The crossing was a breeze - wish it was!  Too little wind for us to sail except for the last hour.  So, it was a quiet crossing, blessed with a beautiful full moon.  Smokey and "dad"  started out comfortably.

We thought, what the heck, we will toss out the fishing line.  Well, it didn't take too long!  We promptly lost our first lure.  But the replacement lure snagged 3 fish for us!  They are the "usual" Little Tunny, a smaller red meat tuna.  Not my first choice, but when they are that fresh and properly cleaned up, they are yummy!  The first guy was big enough to give us 2 full meals.  Here's Luke, standing at the World's Most Wonderful cleaning station.  Neighbor friend and accomplished woodworker Charlie spent a lot of time with Luke, hand crafting the table.  For size comparison, this fish was 22 inches.

And Luke makes the cut!  Luke takes care of the primary slicing and dicing; I do the final prep work.  Smoke eats sushi. We are a little stale, but hopefully will have caught enough fish to get our cleaning skills finely honed by our return trip.

Onward into the night.  Miami stretches for miles along the coast before you really get to the boat channels into the city. 

And then Miami again, this time in the early morning, this time from the Biscayne Bay side.

We had to wait at the diesel dock for these happy fishermen to fill up their boat with gasoline....400 + gallons, over $1,600 worth!  Look at those outboards!  350 hp each, for a total of 1400 hp!  Think those babies will drink a little fuel when they roar off????!!

Our next blog should be from Bimini.  The posts won't be as frequent as recently since I have to wait until we are at islands where we can get wi-fi.  But we will continue!  I'll let you know that we have arrived.