The SS United States and North from Key West

  

We saw the SS United States offshore from Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale onMarch 13, 2020.

Fort Lauderdale is not yet crowded with
college-break revelers.

The SS United States, built in 1951, was the largest ocean liner ever built in this country and was over 100 feet longer than the Titanic.  In 1952 the vessel broke the record for an ocean liner transatlantic crossing with an average speed of 34.5 knots or 39.7 mph. The record remains today.  The ship was futuristic for its time and had no wood on board except for the butcher blocks in the galley.  She was decommissioned in 1969 when her owner filed for bankruptcy.

Picture from the tug pulling the SS United States.
Source: www.wavy.com

Subsequent owners were unsuccessful in bringing the SS United States back into service or later as a museum.  Finally, Okaloosa County in Florida bought the ship in 2024 with the plan to sink her off Destin, FL to become the world’s largest artificial reef.  Presently, she is under tow to Alabama where she will be prepared for her next career. 

 

Tory and I took three trips ashore
daily when we anchor.

We departed Key West to make the trek up the Florida East coast and return to our starting point on the Okachobee Waterway.  The Florida Keys have both an Ocean side passage and a Gulf side passage.  We elected for the Gulf side passage as it generally offers a little more shelter and better protection from winds with an easterly component.  Such winds were in the extended forecast.

Our West Palm anchorage was right across from the municipal 
dock. We were lucky that the day after we left the dock was
closed for the next four weeks for the Palm Beach Boat Show.

Our biggest challenge can be in finding good spots to anchor with shore access for our dog, Tory.  She doesn’t do her business on our boat, but fortunately does have a strong bladder.  Florida has been putting more severe restrictions on anchoring to protect views and to reduce the chance that a boat might end up abandoned due to storms or an owner running out of funds.  We were able to find appropriate spots off Big Pine Key (where we reconnected with Liz and Jon on Navigator), Marathon, Islamorada, Key Largo, Elliot Key in Biscayne National Park, No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Boca Raton and West Palm.

 

Once ashore, I enjoy finding trails or green space for walking and throwing the ball for Tory.  I often find a number of No Trespassing and related signs in front of every house even in lightly populated neighborhoods.  I subsequently learned that under Florida law a property owner must put up such a sign as without it law enforcement will not take action without a direct complaint from the owner.

House of a Big Pine Key crabber.

 

Such signage was particularly common in Big Pine Key, where many crabbers live.  Not only are owners concerned about their gear, but squatters also moved into damaged houses there after Hurricane Irma.  This led to homeowners being extra cautious.

It was exciting when Liz found
$100 on the Miami sidewalk
until we saw it was play money!

Mike, Melissa, Liz, Jon, Molly and me in Miami’s Bayside.

 

We stayed at a nice marina in Miami, and Rosborough friends Mike and Melissa were particularly helpful in picking us up and driving us to West Marine (twice), the dog groomer (3x), the grocery store, the laundromat (twice) and the hardware store.  Later we all jumped on the free Metromover and went to the famous Bayside area for a great meal at a Cuban eatery.

Next to the marina is the beautiful city dog park that Tory and I visited regularly.  In the adjacent park we met Martini, another Portuguese Water Dog.  Tory is usually timid in meeting new dogs, but the two of them acted like long-lost siblings.

The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Miami to West Palm is not our favorite.  It is certainly a good display of some of America’s opulence, but cruising is often slow due to no-wake zones and waiting for

A common scene in Fort Lauderdale

low bridges to be open.  Where the ICW opens up, it can be overwhelming dealing with speeding boats and boat wakes as high as 3 feet.

My birthday celebration with Liz,  Molly and Jon.

Goodbye to Jon and Liz.

Finally, we arrived at the Manatee Pocket mooring field in Port Salerno, next to Stuart.  Here we celebrated my 75th birthday, which was only dampened by Molly noting that I am now 3/4 of a century old!  After 40 days of cruising together we also said goodbye to Jon and Liz on their boat Navigator.  They cruised to Fort Pierce where Navigator will stay at a slip while they fly home for a month before resuming their trek north.  We will miss comparing notes, sharing sites and playing cards with them.  Maybe, just maybe, we will cruise in the Bahamas together next winter! 

Below are some more pictures of our cruising since leaving Key West.

The Blue Hole on Big Pine Key.  It was a former limestone quarry and is now part of the National Key Deer Refuge.  I saw the small key deer everywhere on Big Pine.

Swimming off Marathon.  Tory was my lifeguard.

In front of the Flagler Museum in Marathon.  We saw a great documentary about the construction of Flagler’s Key West rail line at the Discovery Center on Islamorada.  The bridges were a marvelous engineering fete employing thousands, but hundreds also lost their lives, mostly in hurricanes.

We enjoyed a meal and the entertainment at Lorelei’s on Islamorada.

Looking for fish.

Tory’s dinghy operator

Sunset at Elliot Key.

Lighthouse at Florida’s 
Bill Biggs State Park in
key Biscayne.

We entered Miami Harbor on one of our few rainy days.

Chickens are everywhere, even in Miami!  Molly, Liz and Melissa are in the background.

Goodbye to the Miami skyline.

We enjoyed our walk around  West Palm Beach.

The old classic mega-yachts are prettier than today’s version.

After Port Salerno we cruised up the St. Lucie River and through one lock to the Army Corp’s St. Lucie Marina.  With the Senior Pass the marina only costs $15 a night and includes power and water.

We met two other Rosborough boats at St. Lucie, Cool Change and Sabbatical, and had our own mini -rendezvous before trailering our boats to the St. John’s River in Astor for this year’s Rosborough Rendezvous.  Pictured at Peter (on Cool Change), Jeremy and Dan (Sabbatical), Claudia (Cool Change) and Molly.