15. Miami

Here we are, anchored in the lagoon behind South Beach surrounded by rich homes that have arched verandahs, thick red tiles and palm treed gardens. The water is twinkling where the breeze rasps against the falling tide.

Miami. It is almost a foreign country. The background chatter is Spanish (they say that eighty percent of the people speak a language other than English at home), the music Cuban. In the streets you smell coffee and the sharp dusty fragrance of cigars.

On the fashionable walking street of Lincoln Mall, a middle aged man swoops through the strollers on a skate board. A girl, freshly groomed, wearing a tank top of the finest quality that displays both her cleavage and umbilicus to advantage, pads past the outdoor tables trailing a cloud of expensive pheromone with an after taste of caramel. Men, lunching in their sun glasses, lean back from tall beers with their arms behind their heads. Women crouch together over seafood pasta speaking confidentially. Above them all, in the crowns of the Royal Palms, a colony of escaped Monk Parakeets (imported from Argentina) touch up their nests and stand nodding and gossiping like tenement housewives at their doorsteps.

Everyone is enjoying the warmth of the February sun from that hard blue sky.

Back on the boat as the evening sets behind our neighbor’s palm trees, we have a sundowner in the cockpit and watch as the ugly city high rises are transformed into glittering crystals against the smooth indigo sky.
These are the days we will have to remember as we move north into the cold grey days of northern spring!

14. Big white birds

If you have never watched a Great White Egret doing its toilet, this is how it is done.

You start at the neck with downward strokes of the one toothed comb. Next, you do the inside of the left wing, nibbling away at the down with the very point of the scissors until the loose bit waft away. After that comes the outer curve of the wing, which has to be smooth to generate lift without turbulence or drag. You clasp each feather between the two blades and slide downwards. This snaps together the tiny Velcro hooks on the barbells of each of the barbs so that the feather is rendered crisp as fresh Dacron.

All this can take a while, especially when you are in the fancy lacy stuff for the mating season. You only get one to two seconds to preen before you have to look around a full 360 degrees for suspicious activity:

“…Like that skinny old geek with the camera…who has just taken one step too close…”

That is all I can report for now as the creature lifted up on its pure angel wings and floated off to a less public place.

The Great White Egret (top two photos) is a big bird. But the Great White Heron (lower two photos) is even bigger. It is actually a Great Blue Heron, only white. They only live here in the Keys and are considered to be extremely special. They have yellow legs to distinguish them from Great White Egrets and a black ring around the eye that gives them a slightly mad look.

If what you are looking at is a gigantic white bird with a black head it is a Wood Stork. You can watch them climbing on a thermal to two thousand feet (that’s why there is no photo) before they ski down to their fishing grounds.

Birds. They are one of the joys of cruising. They are always around and the gentle passage of the boat does not disturb them. The daily air show is part of the free entertainment.