Miami

What a culture shock! From deserted beaches, a shop every 20 sq miles and more lizards than humans to ... Miami. Constant traffic on the freeway, constant traffic on the pavement, constant opportunities to shop, eat and repeat.

We started the day with breakfast on Miami beach, a stroll along the art deco hotels and restaurants and back along the shore. For us it was an opportunity to people watch – the beautiful people, the sporty, ripply people, the rather large people and the people with accessory dogs that reflect their owner’s personality. We then went through the rather lengthy process of clearing into the US at the Port of Miami. This meant driving past the incredible cruise ships docked in the Port and the driving past the people boarding those ships... a whole new world.

Back to the boat to move it to the less expensive municipal marina at the end of Government Cut. This involved a rather difficult manoeuvre fighting wind and current to get us safely off the dock. Having tied up using the dinghy the night before, we now, for the sake of speed, had to slip our inaccessible lines and recover them later once we’d tied up to the fuel dock. Then we travelled the mile or so up the cut past the incredible container ships and slid easily into our berth in the marina which was backed by a huge shopping mall including a live entertainment area and flanked by a freeway...

What a difference the Gulf makes.