Bill's BIrthday at the Ocean Reef Club

I am writing this sitting on a stone wall outside the Coconut Grove library. For some strange reason it is closed on Fridays! But I have a signal and a hard perch, so, although the sun makes it hard to see the screen, it's fine.
Well...the Ocean Reef Club really did us proud for Bill's birthday. It took us a about three hours to motor up from the Marina Del Mar where we'd had an early birthday breakfast dockside. We had to leave the dock by 7:45 a.m. as the entrance channel to Port Largo Canal is shallow within two hours of low tide. We just squeezed through. The wind en route to the Ocean Reef was, as usual, 'on the nose'! We docked next to one of only three sailboats in the whole marina area. We were the smallest. The sun shone from a cloudless sky, and it was beautifully warm. For the rest of the day we strolled beside the pools, bars and restaurants, occasionally stopping to graze on something succulent from the sea, or sip a restorative cocktail.
Later in the day we had a visit from the Ocean Reef Sales Manager who delivered a lovely gift basket of goodies! I happened to mention it was Bill's birthday, and our dinner at the Galley Restaurant that evening was graced with a celebratory dessert and complimentary bottle of wine. Though all of this came from the sales office, we were not given any type of sales pitch! Strange and wonderful! I think the message they wanted to get out was that they are open to non-members, as, in many of the information books on the area, the story is that they do not welcome 'transient' boaters. The economy sure can turn things around pretty quickly. And there were a lot of empty docks!
The next day we returned to Biscayne Bay through the shallows of Angelfish Creek - again we had to leave early to do it within 2 hours of so of low tide. We had a good, fast sail up through the bay with winds of 20+ knots, but no waves! A bit different from Lake Ontario! We anchored that night at 'No Name Harbour', just at the south tip of Key Biscayne. It was fairly busy with boats waiting for a 'weather window' for the Bahamas crossing. Unfortunately I think they will have to wait for quite a few days as we had a storny day yesterday, and the weather for the crossing will be rough for the next few days. We are back in Dinner Key Marina and Bill is taking this opportunity to get the engine serviced. Tonight we are looking forward to having dinner with Sue and Jean at Monty's on the water. Tomorrow we will probably move off to anchor. This is Southern Vectis signing off...more anon.