A Snapshot of Life at Sunset Harbour Yacht Club

We had planned to stay at Sunset Harbour Yacht Club for two days, and then continue to Marathon, FL. Two days came and went and we were not ready to leave Miami Beach. In fact, we were enjoying Miami Beach so much we decided to stay for a month. Christmas and New Year’s Day in sunny Miami Beach – Woo hoo!

It’s been over two weeks now. Our website www.islandchariot.com has photos showing some of our activities. Every day I think, “Today, I’ll blog!”, and then I do something else like watch manatees or read a book instead. Every time I finish the books on board someone gives me another or recommends one. Then I can’t wait to get to it. The latest is One Cosmos Under God, by Robert W. Godwin. Awesome!

When we’re not visiting the Parrot Jungle, or having a fabulous dinner out, or exploring the area in the dinghy, or visiting friends in the nearby anchorages (by dinghy), our days are simple. Even the most mundane chores at home on land (e.g., doing the dishes together, …) are special while we’re cruising.

Here is a snapshot of how we spend a day in port in Miami Beach on Island Chariot. We awaken when we’re done sleeping, one of the best parts of staying in one place for a while. John and I enjoy cups of French roast coffee together. Elvis Ann joins us for our second cups. Our breakfast staples are cold cereal, oatmeal, eggs, and pancakes, which we eat in a rotation of sorts. We clean up the galley and the dishes, and then move on to other chores. This morning John is washing the boat. I am coaching clients.

I haven’t heard John in a while, so I peek up through a hatch like a human periscope to see where he is. I spot him polishing the chrome at the bow and admire what great care he takes of Island Chariot. Lunchtime rolls around and I wonder what John would like to eat. I peek out of the hatch again and find John in exactly the same position, hand on the rag and rag on the chrome, but gaze focused across the channel. I look back at Bayou, the mega-yacht behind us. She is listing to port from the weight of the crew polishing the port bow, rags in their hands, but gazes focused across the channel. I follow their gazes. A modeling shoot is happening again across the canal from Island Chariot. Bikini-clad, bronze-skin, ample-breasted girls are posing on the 50-plus-foot Sunseeker. All that posing looks like hard work. Our port-side chrome has never sparkled more brightly. I consider calling across the canal to ask them to finish the shoot on the yacht club side of the canal so our starboard-side chrome could sparkle, too!

After lunch, we don our bathing suits and go for a swim. John brings all of our snorkeling gear so we can “preflight” it in the swimming pool before we take a snorkeling jaunt. We wriggle into our wetsuits, booties, gloves, fins, masks, and snorkels, and then jump into the pool to find treasures on the bottom. All the gear is in fine working order. We doff our gear and continue swimming. Winds from the east make perfect conditions for “croc races”. We retrieve our crocs and hold them against the east side of the pool. John says “ready, set, go” and we release our crocs. (Yes, we were the only ones in the pool that day!) John’s right croc takes an early lead, then turns back toward the east wall. Both of mine start drifting ever so slowly, until they pick up the breeze and go flying across the pool. John’s are still back at the east wall. I am the “croc racing” champion, at least for that day!

We clean up from swimming and do another chore or two – clean Elvis Ann’s cage, oil the bike chains, vacuum the salon, shop at Publix, …

We stop our chores and enjoy a glass of pinot noir in the cockpit as the sun lowers in the sky. We decide to go out for dinner. I say to John, “I want to learn how to meditate.”. He laughs and shakes his head. I say “What?” – you know, that why-are-you-looking-at-me-like-I-have-a fern-for-a-head kind of “what?”. He says I am always working on myself. He asks me why I want to learn to meditate. I tell him it’s because I want to reach spiritual enlightenment. I tell him about the monk whose brain the neurologists scanned. (I love it when science and spirituality collide). His brain did not have the red and yellow spikes that the rest of our noisy brains have. He slipped into a meditative state and his scan showed the cool “blue pearl” in the middle of his brain – the rest was quiet. I explained that people who meditate and achieve spiritual enlightenment experience a blue electricity from the bottom of their spines out their heads, and that each religious tradition has a different name for it. John laughs and tells me that he achieves blue electricity when he eats at Taco Loco. He gets it at the bottom of his spine and must bite down on a cold cloth…

…So my brother calls later that day and we have wonderful conversation about their preparing for Baby. He asks me how it’s going with John and me being no more than 50 feet apart all of the time, especially after so much time apart before John retired from the USMC. I tell him all is well, situation normal.