Life in Boatland

  The water is finally blue, a beautiful blue.  The ICW water was the color of coffee, tea or espresso.  Since we were running today in the Atlantic, the pollution is behind us and we really enjoyed the sight of clean, teal colored waters.  We were only in 15' deep areas and at some point the water was so clear, we could see the bottom, so so cool!!  We left Miami around 9am to make the 9:30 bridge lift.  We followed our navigated path. It took us past the 6 or 7 cruise ships that were in port.  We didn't get very far when we heard some poor boat being hailed by the police, apparently that waterway was restricted and pleasure boats were not allowed. We didn't recognize the name of the boat being hailed.....but we were the only boat going that way, and we were going west as the police had said, oh crap, they were talking to us!!  "I think they are talking to us!!"  Sure enough, the police boat came racing up to us with lights flashing,  we slowed down, stopped and

  Great day!  We left the marina early this morning and fought our way through 6 bridge lifts in one hour.  We only missed one bridge but that was because one bridge operator lifted late in order to accommodate a sailboat that wanted to go through too.  That 6 minutes of delayed opening messed up our timing for the next bridge.  No biggie.  We arrived at Venetian Marina about 1pm.  The dock master tried to put us in a 15' slip and the boat is 16' wide so we moved to a little bit bigger spot.  Yay, we made it.  David found a dog park and it was a short walk for all of us.  Ellie wasn't interested in playing with the other dogs, she just wants to play with her toy.  The first time I threw it, some little punk dog snatched it away from her and then did laps around her for about 10 mins. Punk dog's dad was on the phone and ignored his little darling.  At minute 11,  I started chasing the Punk and got Dad's attention.  After 2-3 more mins Dad finally got it away from him