Stiltsville

Biscayne Bay
25 40.36 N 080 09.83 N

Ah what a pleasure that sail was.  When winds blow from the West here that makes an offshore breeze.  The winds can do what they will but the waves never build up.  In addition, we hug the beach coming south in this area to avoid north flowing currents.  They say if you get close enough to the beach so that the depth is 30 feet, you avoid most of the current.  Sometimes that's so close that it feels like one could step off the boat into the surf.

Anyhow, the wind direction and velocity were ideal.  We glided southward at 6-7 knots, with no rocking of the boat for many hours.   Around 3 AM the wind stopped and we had to motor.  Still, it was a fine passage.  26 hours from Vero Beach Marina to anchor down here in Biscayne Bay.

We had planned to go to Dinner Key, but as we got close our enthusiasm waned.  We woulld like peace, quiet and an nap.  Out here, near the famous Stiltsville, we will have a fine view of the sunset, a fine view of the Miami skyline at night, and lots of peace and quiet.   We could have gone in to No Name Harbor nearby, but then we would miss the views.  Winds will be <10 tonight, we do not need shelter.

You have probably seen pictures of Stiltsville many times.  It's pretty famous.  Perhaps you've seen it on CSI Miami's film clips.

Tomorrow's plan; who knows?

Stiltsville: "Crawfish" Eddie Walker built a shack on stilts above the water in 1933, toward the end of the prohibition era, allegedly to facilitate gambling, which was legal at one mile offshore. Crawfish Eddie sold bait and beer from his shack and was known for a dish he called chilau, a crawfish chowder made with crawfish he caught under his shack. Thomas Grady and Leo Edward, two of Eddie's fishing buddies, built their own shack in 1937. Shipwrecking and channel dredging brought many people to the area and more shacks were constructed, some by boating and fishing clubs. Local newspapers called the area "the shacks" and "shack colony".