Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - Layover at Crandon Park Marina

I was up fairly early and on my way to the northern part of Key Biscayne.  Bruce had told me about a great marina there.  I had called them but they had no openings.  I wanted to top off my fuel and water before leaving for the Bahamas and figured I'd come up with some place to anchor that night. 

The trip down to the marina was a little surprising.  There was much more fetch than I had expected and the wind was NE around 15.  I was towing the dink and it got a little rough at times.  Also, I passed through a fairly narrow channel to save time. The depths were charted at around 6' but I never saw under about 8'.  I don't mind cutting corners so much when the tide is rising and there is no wind but it was windy that day.  So I stayed on the windward side of the channels in case the worse happened.

As I approached the marina, I called them and it sounded like they might have an open mooring.  I got fuel and water and got the only mooring they had left.  Moorings are nice because there is less work and they give you a feeling of security (so you get a good night sleep).  It was a really nice facility and I would go there again without hesitation.

I spent the afternoon getting the dinghy on deck and lashing it down for the crossing.  I also swapped out anchor rodes from mostly nylon to my new 60' piece of 5/16 high tensile chain - then to nylon rode.  It took a while changing out and re - "mousing" shackles (wiring the pin in place with mousing wire).