Fort Lauderdale fun - Miami monsoons

Fort Lauderdale is one of our favourite ports of call on the way south. This year we were lucky to find a mooring ball at Las Olas. We used it for a couple of days before moving in to a dock. Our batteries were going flat due to a malfunctioning (non-functioning!) newly-installed alternator,so we needed to be plugged in.
Things to do in Fort Lauderdale: Enjoy a dozen plump and juicy oysters at the Southport Raw Bar; walk the endless icing-sugar beaches before the crowds arrive, and definitely not on a weekend; take a water taxi ride to view the 'For Sale' signs on the beautiful palaces of the once rich, but probably now infamous; join the 'Happy Hour' regulars for a martini or three at 'Casablanca'; watch the world go by from a tall stool on the sidewalk of 'H20'.
We were also on the look-out for a 'weather window' to allow us to sail down on the outside route to Miami. It's only about 30 miles, but with winds each day in the 20 plus knot range, the Atlantic seas were rather angry-looking! The weather, since our idyllic two weeks in Fort Pierce, was, though still very warm, becoming more and more unsettled. There didn't seem to be much to choose from, so we picked the best option of a bad bunch and set off to catch the 8 a.m. bridge opening out into the wild Atlantic on Thursday, 2nd February. We were lucky. The six foot waves had subsided to less that half their size, the wind blew a pleasant 15 knots and we had a very pleasant and fast sail down the coast, reaching Miami in four hours.
We were happy we made the trip that day because the weather deteriorated after that. We spent two days at Dinner Key Marina and, during that time, following the advice of other sailors, became members of the Coconut Grove Sailing Club (CGSC), situated right next to the marina. Now we could take a mooring in the sheltered bay, so different from the exposed Dinner Key moorings. Now we could also use the facilities of this low-key, purely-sailing club, and now we could dance on the veranda to the Friday night band! That Friday the 'Solar Dogs', a folk/blue-grass group, were playing. We had seen them at an open-air concert in the lovely 'Barnacle Park' last year, and we were not disappointed.
The moorings here are VERY close together, and the boats dance around and beside each other in a frenzy when the monsoon rainstorms and accompanying winds we've been experiencing, set in. Miraculously each boat pulls up just short of its' neighbour. So far, anyway.
Mary's schoolfriend, Sue invited us out to a lovely dinner at her house on Saturday. Since then, we have been enjoying the delights of Coconut Grove while dodging the incessant (and highly unusual for this time of year, according to locals) tropical rains!
We are looking forward to a visit from our RCYC friends, Carole and Bob, this weekend, and keeping our fingers crossed that the weather improves so that we can do some sailing in lovely Biscayne Bay.