Dania Beach, FL - 3/15/11 thru 3/17/11

Tuesday (3/15/11)


This morning the day started with a very painful moment. When Ricki went to check on her "crabs" as she has done every morning since she acquired them, they were laying in the water belly up and dead! With heavy heart we were forced to return them to their proper place and threw them overboard. That ruined her day and she stayed inside the boat the rest of the day. The 3 of us guys (Ken, Skip & me) walked the beach and ended up at the Tiki Bar at the end of the park for a couple adult beverages. Social hour was on our boat that evening.

Wednesday (3/16/11)

Things were actually getting better and we awoke early (8:30 a.m.) to go to the beach and look for more shells and /or "crabs". The beach had not been raked yet and we saw at least a dozen Man O' War washed up in the few 1000 feet we walked. The tide here is about 2 feet each way and it is best viewed by the 3 of us guys on the beach where all the spring breakers are sunning themselves. We are having a hard time convincing our doubting spouses that we can't predict the tide without that activity. Wednesday evening Ken's wife flew in from Atlanta for the weekend and we had to have a welcome back party.






Thursday (3/17/11)

Dania Beach is home to a very large nautical flea market each year that runs for 4 days and this was the first day of it and we needed to go check it out. We made major purchases consisting of a fish net, ski belt and a hat for Ricki. What a crowd and it was still a week day! A few hours later we were back to the boats and the 3 guys took off to get Skip's canvas that was being repaired.
Since a St. Patrick's Day dinner was on the agenda for the evening, preparations were in order. Two more looper boats came into the marina, Carlton & Becky Moore on Seamoore and Jim & Brenda Hampton on Dream Catcher so we had a small crowd for the dockside dinner.

Dania Beach Marina - 3/13/11 & 3/14/11

Our air card seems to be very slow here so I have decided to only post on the blog 2 or 3 times a week since it has taken over 20 minutes to load the pictures on this entry alone. Each place we stop on this adventure has advantages over the last one. This one has a beautiful beach just on the other side of the parking lot which has been very busy since we got here last Saturday but of course it is spring break as well as a great place to be.

On Sunday (3/12) brunch was at a restaurant at the north end of the parking lot which was upstairs looking out over the beach. We met Skip & Barb, Stan & Colleen and their friends from San Diego Steve & Mary at the restaurant. The buffet was very tasty and lots of it along with fruits and desserts. The view out over the beach was also neat. There is a pretty good mix of older vacationers here as well as spring breakers.

One of our followers was critical of the photos of sexy girls at South Beach and suggested we also include "hot" photos of guys as well. I am submitting this picture to satisfy that request and sincerely appologize for the poor girl that walked into the picture as it was snapped!

That afternoon we were sitting on our sundeck along with several other boaters and Amanda the weekend dock master that also works at the sister marina, Harbor Side, stopped by to talk. She had recently had these tatoos put on her feet. Very cute.

Saw another blimp fly over. Goodyear this time.

Monday (3/14)

Our marina was recently taken over by a group that owns several including the City Marina at Fernadina Beach. They also own the one just up the ICW about 10 minutes where we have to go for pump outs. Since our marina has a restrictive bridge of less than 20 feet to enter, many larger boats are kept here in the Dania Cut in their marina. One boat had a 41 foot Bertrum on the rear deck which was an eye stopper. I have seen helicopters on boats before but not another boat this large.

Our friend Ken Farthing offered to take the four of us loopers around the area and show us the sights and where West Marine is located. We went to Hollywood Beach for lunch then to the beach area where we saw all these "old folks" line dancing to polka sounding music.

We returned to the boat late in the afternoon very tired and full of food so a nap was first order of business.

Our position is N 26 03.369 W 80 06.763

Dania, Fl - 3/12/11

We left South Beach this morning at 8:30 for our 22 mile run to Dania Beach Marina. In hindsight we should have left 10 minutes earlier since we did miss the first bridge opening by a few minutes and had to wait 1/2 hour for the next one. Most of the trip was thru Miami which we had heard was a trip not to be made on a weekend since all the discourteous boaters are out then. Since it was a little on the chilly side, we went anyway and it wasn't too bad. We did encounter several boats and a little rough water in some of the narrow parts of the Bay but the view was fantastic. All the big homes along the way was something. they just seemed to get bigger as we went along. Water cops were out to make sure your wake was not higher than 15 inches in the slow zones which was most of the way. We did see the Met Life plane that was shooting TV shots at the golf tournament in Miami.

We cleared the bridge coming into the marina by 2 or 3 inches at high tide and after trying to get a 14 foot wide boat backed into a 13 foot hole, the dockmaster decided to move us to another bigger & deeper spot. Catching our lines in addition to Skip and the dockmaster was Ken Farthing who had been a speaker at the last 2 looper rendezvous that we have attended. We enjoyed the social hour after landing and then contacted our fellow boaters Stan & Colleen Anderson whom we traveled with all the way down the rivers from Huntsville to Mobile who are in the area in their motor home with their new air boat being shown in an air boat show. This boat is really unique in as much as it has a cabin on it. Stan actually worked in the factory that made the boat when they got here from Texas and the boat wasn't done. the air boat show had some pretty fancy boats and swamp buggies on display. The show was on the grounds of a rodeo so there was food and drinks available. We returned to the boat after dark and since we were driving Ken's Blazer, we were met by his dog Bob at the gate because he recognized the mufflers on the truck coming in to the marina.

South Beach, FL - 3/11/11

Our last full day in South Beach so we decided to take the South Beach Local again and go to the ocean. As we were leaving the yacht club we noticed the weather forecaster hanging around. According to his forecast ... should be a nice day.



As we were walking to the bus stop, Ricki suggested that I put the camera in my pocket which gave me the first few shots when we got to the beach. So ... for all my male friends I snapped a couple pics before getting caught!

We walked a few blocks from the beach and enjoyed lunch at a neat cafe on the street. To quote my friend Skip .. "this was one of the breast days of my life"

We stopped by the Jackie Gleason Theater on our way back to the bus stop. Next order of business was a stop at Best Buy to pick up the 2nd season of Glee then lastly at Publix to spend another $260 on food for the Bahamas.

We are leaving this awful "spring break place" Saturday morning heading on up the coast to Dania to get ready to cross the Atlantic to the Bahamas. We hope to catch up with Stan & Colleen Anderson there who are having their new air boat in a boat show.

South Beach, FL - 3/10/11

Having decided to spend 2 more days here so we could see a few things, we decided to catch up our laundry before noon so we could take off touring. About the time it was finished the sky turned dark and we had a really hard rain storn that lasted a couple hours. Late in the afternoon we joined Skip & Barb and took the "South Beach Local" bus for 25 cents which makes a big loop around the city and we got off at the Lincoln Street Mall. Our tour guide was a passenger on the bus that seemed to know everything and made sure we knew it as well. Actually he was pretty knowledgeable and it made the trip around the loop interesting. The mall is open with stores on each side and what seems like a hundred cafes down the middle. We needed something "cold" to drink and stopped at a cafe for drinks. The picture with Ricki is so we could capture the 2 young men behind us smoking somthing that didn't smell just right. After a short rest, we went on down the mall and decided to eat Italian.


It is spring break time and we definately saw many unusual sights walking around.

Take a look at the decal on the window ....

This is the rest of the window. This store specializes in jeans that look dirty in case you don't want to work.

We got back to the boat about 9 p.m. and called it a night. Tomorrow we would like to go to the beach and check that out.