Post #45:  BEACHES, HIGHRISES, MANSIONS, & MEGAYACHTS – Day 293, February 21, 2015.  On Board:  Bob Hall, Audrey Hall, Carly Hall, Pat Coates, Paul Coates, Trish K, Jim K.

The Gold Coast – the Atlantic shore from Miami to Palm Beach – is a seemingly unbroken span of incredibly beautiful sand beaches, highrise condominiums of every design and description, beautiful mansions perched on the water’s edge, and sleek megayachts that confound the imagination. The barrier islands are home to the beaches, and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is the conduit that ties it all together.

We spent six days with seven of us aboard running from Miami to Palm Beach, with stops at Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, and the Palm Beach area. Here is our crew:

The boat is designed to sleep six when the dining area is converted to a bed, so with seven aboard, someone sleeps on the floor. I had the honor at times over the summer and fall, but Carly won out this time:

The ICW on the Gold Coast stretch from Miami to Palm Beach is unlike any other area we’ve seen – for nearly the entire 70 miles, the ICW is within seawalls on both sides and is fully developed, ranging from single family homes to older 70’s-style mid or low rise apartments/condominiums to magnificent highrise buildings lining both shores.  here are some images from the Gold Coast ICW:

Our first stop after leaving Miami was Hollywood, Florida, founded by a man named Joseph Young in the 1920’s. He originally named it Hollywood By the Sea – the “Hollywood” part because he planned to build a motion picture colony on the East Coast, patterned after Hollywood, California;  the “By the Sea” part to distinguish it from a similar venture called “Hollywood In the Hills” in New York.  Hollywood today is the 12th largest city in Florida and boasts fantastic beaches and perhaps the best boardwalk (along with Fort Lauderdale)for walking and biking with sand and waves on one side and restaurants, pubs, and shops on the other. Here are some images from our visit:

 

Our next stop was downtown Fort Lauderdale, about 2 miles up the New River. We experienced a special treat here – our good and longtime friends from our younger skiing days, Bruce & Gayleen Donadt, sold their house, their cars, and their worldly possessions three years ago and bought a 41′ sailboat. They live year-round on the SV Pearl, cruising the East coast and the Bahamas. They were headed south along the coast waiting for a favorable weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, and we, of course, are slowly heading north. So with a bit of planning, our paths crossed in Fort Lauderdale, and we headed up the New River where they were docked to spend a day and evening catching up and breaking bread together.  Here are some pictures:

From our dockage on the New River, we ran just 3 miles to a marina on the ICW, right next to Fort Lauderdale Beach – another of the great beaches and paved boardwalks along the sand.  Here are some pictures from our stay:

An interesting anecdote regarding Fort Lauderdale Beach. Up until the early 1960’s, Fort Lauderdale beach, like most beaches in the South, were segregated – blacks – called “Coloreds” back then – were prohibited from entering or using the beach. In 1954, the County had purchased an isolated section of the beach for Coloreds, promising to build a beach access, tables, restrooms, shelters, and fresh water at what became known as “Colored Beach”.  However, nothing was built, so on July 4, 1961, a group that started with 3 activists and 4 college students staged a “wade-in” at Fort Lauderdale beach as a protest. The group soon grew to over 200 African-Americans who staged a series of “wade-ins” during July & August of 1961. On August 12, 1961, the City of Fort Lauderdale filed suit in an attempt to stop the “wade-ins” and prevent the “Coloreds” from using the beach. A year later, the court denied the City’s request, issuing a decision which effectively desegregated the County’s beaches and marked a turning point in the struggle to desegregate all public facilities in Broward County. Two years later, desegregation, including “public accommodation”, became the law of the land when Lyndon Johnson, to the shock and disappointment of many of his former Southern colleagues in the Senate, forced passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

By the way, if you’re interested in this chapter of the struggle for civil rights and the Johnson legacy, an absolutely superb book is “The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” by Robert Caro. It describes in fascinating detail the gut-wrenching transition from Kennedy to Johnson in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination, and Johnson’s decision and arm-twisting tactics to ultimately pass Kennedy’s civil rights bill – the controversial bill had been floundering in the Senate, and became known as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – the most important and sweeping civil rights law since the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13th Amendment a hundred years earlier.

After two days in Fort Lauderdale, we ran about 15 miles to Deerfield Beach/Boca Raton and stayed at a restaurant/marina.  Here are some images:

Our final destination for this leg of the journey was the Palm Beach/West Palm Beach area, where the Joint Adventure is now. Here are some pictures:

So the Joint Adventure is tucked in at Riviera Beach for a week or so, and we all came home to do a bit of skiing in Vermont.  Paul and I will return to the boat on March 2, and we hope to get a favorable weather window sometime the following week.  If we do, we plan to leave Florida behind and head due east, across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  YIKES!!

 

Post #44 – STILTSVILLE (AND MIAMI) – Day 284, February 11, 2015 – On board:  Paul, Hank, Jim K.

Talk about culture shock! For nearly a month we have been traveling along the Everglades, a deserted anchorage, the Florida Keys – often rural and rustic, always laid back and unhurried – “island time”.  Suddenly we’re docked in downtown Miami – highrises tower over the waterfront and everywhere there is hustle and bustle.  Not complaining, mind you, for Miami is a great and fun city – but things sure did change in a hurry!

Our 50 mile run from Key Largo was quite pleasant, and seeing the Miami skyline rise and grow on the horizon was very exciting:

As we approached Key Biscayne, we saw some houses standing by themselves out in the ocean, built on stilts. We decided to explore, and wound our way through a cluster of seven such houses, known as Stiltsville, with quite an interesting story. The first such house was apparently built in the early 30’s during Prohibition by a character named “Crawfish” Eddie as a gambling house, since gambling was legal at that time a mile or more offshore. He allegedly sold bait, beer, and crawfish chowder, the latter of which he made from crawfish he caught underneath his shack. Eddie’s fishing buddies and others constructed shacks on stilts as well in subsequent years, followed by the construction of several social and fishing clubs – all on stilts over a mile from land and accessible only by boat. In a February, 1941 issue, LIFE magazine featured an article about one such club, describing the Quarterdeck, an exclusive membership only club as a “…$100,000 play-palace equipped with bar, lounge, bridge deck, and dining room, …an extraordinary American community dedicated solely to sunlight, salt water, and the well-being of the human spirit.” At its peak in 1960, there were 27 structures in Stiltsville, when Hurricane Donna severely damaged the Quarterdeck and most of the houses. Some were rebuilt, however, and in 1962 a scam artist named Harry Church grounded a 150 foot yacht on the mudflats of Stitltsville and turned it into a social club called the Bikini Club in which drinks were free to women wearing bikinis, and which featured a sundeck for nude sunbathing and staterooms that could be rented, presumably by the hour. A few years later, the Florida Beverage Commission raided the Bikini Club and closed it down for selling liquor without a license. However, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, effectively destroyed the Bikini Club and again severely damaged most of the existing structures. Following Betsy, Florida decided to assert jurisdiction over Stitltsville, requiring lease payments, refusing to issue new Building Permits, and refusing to allow any structure which sustained more than 50% damage to be rebuilt. The leases expired in 1999 and required the owners to remove the structures at that time at the owners’ expense. However, in 1980, Congress expanded Biscayne National Park to include Stiltsville, so the United States Park Service now had control but agreed to honor the existing leases. Hurricane Andrew destroyed half of the 14 remaining structures in 1992, leaving just seven. As the 1999 deadline approached, the owners and several preservation groups attempted to list the remaining buildings on the National Register of Historic Places to keep them from being destroyed, but the applications were denied because the structures were not yet 50 years old. In 1998, 57 years after its first article, LIFE magazine featured another article about Stiltsville, this time describing the grassroots efforts to fight the federal government and save the buildings. Over 75,000 people signed a petition of support, and in 2000, the Park Service reversed its position and agreed to allow the houses to be preserved. Today the houses are vacant but are being maintained as the Park Service works with a non-profit Trust on a plan to preserve and utilize the remaining seven structures. Quite a story.

Here are some pictures of them:

After meandering through Stiltsville, we ran along the coast of Biscayne Bay and ducked into an anchorage known as No Name Harbor adjacent to a state park:

The twin cities of Miami and Miami Beach are vibrant, diverse cities with an incredible combination of cultures. Our week-long stay coincided with the set-up for the Miami Boat Show, so dockage space was difficult to find and we stayed two days each in four different places, each a unique experience. The first was the Miami Municipal Marina, immediately downtown, surrounded by highrise buildings and the “Bayside” marketplace featuring restaurants, shops, live music on the street, etc. We took several tours of the city to acclimate ourselves,  Here are some images:

After two days in the Municipal Marina on the waterfront, all boats had to leave so they could set up for the Boat Show. We moved to a marina 1.5 miles up the Miami River. Here are some images:

Miami is an incredibly diverse city, characterized by many ethnic neighborhoods from various parts of the Carribean, Central America, and South America.  Of course, Cubans dominate, since nearly 700,000 Cubans have emigrated to America, the vast majority to Miami, over the past three decades or so. The Cuban culture is pervasive throughout the City, but no more so than in Little Havana:  Here are some pictures:

Another unique and fascinating ethnic neighborhood in Miami is called Overtown. As Miami developed in the first half of the 1900’s, blacks were segregated to an area west of the railroad tracks which was originally called “Colored Town”, now called Overtown. Within Overtown is the Wynwood Art District which features incredible murals painted on buildings and walls throughout the district. I’ve truly never seen anything like it on such a scale. Following are a number of photos of just a few of the murals. The artwork speaks for itself, so I have provided only a few captions:

From our dockage on the Miami River, we were fortunate to arrange for dockage for two nights at the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coconut Grove, an upscale area on the south side of Miami. Here are some images:

 

Our last stop in the Miami area was Miami Beach – built largely on fill over a mangrove swamp now some of the most expensive real estate in the country:

From Miami, we begin to slowly work our way in a northerly direction, though we’re going to leave the boat for a little over a week at the end of February to visit home, shovel some snow, and do some skiing.

 

 

 

 

THE RAILROAD THAT DIED AT SEA – Post #43, Day 276, February 3, 2015 – On board”  Paul, Hank, Jim K

Henry Flagler was a man ahead of his time. Despite quitting school at the age of 14, he went on to co-found Standard Oil, to found Palm Beach, and to be considered the “father of Miami”. But he is best known for opening the east coast of Florida to tourism and development by building a railroad south from Jacksonville to Miami.  Before his railroad, the spectacular beaches along the Atlantic were difficult to get to and only sparsely inhabited. Flagler changed all that.

Henry Flagler first visited Florida when his wife became ill and her doctor recommended an extended visit to the warm climate. He stayed at a hotel in St. Augustine, and was so taken by the beaches and the winter climate that he began building luxury hotels along the Florida coast, including the first development in Palm Beach. However, when a hard frost hit Palm Beach but not Miami, he decided to extend his railroad to further south and build a hotel there as well. The rest is history. He had one more goal to accomplish near the end of his life, however, and that goal became an obsession. He decided to extend the railroad to Key West, 156 miles across islands, swamp, and open water, all infested with mosquitos and other insects. The longest open-water segment required a bridge 7 miles long. Concrete was chosen as the structure of the bridge to withstand the power of the sea during harsh winter storms. However, concrete at the time could not withstand the ravages of salt water, so a new salt-resistant concrete had to be developed before construction could begin. The new concrete that Flagler’s team researched and created revolutionized marine construction for many years thereafter. Work began in 1905, but hurricanes in 1906, 1909, and 1910 destroyed much of the railroad that had been built at the time and killed more than 100 workers. Still Flagler pressed on, accelerating the work so it could be completed before he died.  Finally, in 1912, seven years after the start of construction, the railroad was completed.  Flagler, by then blind, traveled in the first railroad car to make the trip from the mainland to Key West.  He told the welcoming crowd: “Now I can die happy. My dream is fulfilled”. The railroad had cost $1.31 billion in today’s dollars, all paid for by Flagler’s personal fortune. It was dubbed the “eighth Wonder of the World”.

In 1935, a massive hurricane destroyed 40 miles of the railroad. By that time, automobile travel was replacing railroad travel, so the State of Florida purchased the bridge. The state converted the old railroad bridges into the Overseas Highway, which opened in 1938, utilizing the undamaged portion of the bridges and building the highway on top of the railway. The bridge was substantially re-built again in its entirety in 1980. Without Flagler, there would be no highway access the Florida Keys  today.

At the risk of boring everyone with more pictures of bridges, this is a pretty special one so I couldn’t resist:

One more interesting anecdote about Henry Flagler – his second wife had been institutionalized for mental illness for six years when Flagler used his political influence to persuade the Florida Legislature in 1901 to pass a law that made incurable insanity legal grounds for divorce;  he divorced his wife the following year. Flagler was the only person to be divorced under the law he instigated before it was repealed shortly thereafter.

After being spoiled by 7 days of calm, near-perfect weather in a row on our way from Fort Myers Beach to the Keys, we’re now in a pattern of windy weather. After 5 days in Key West, a one day weather window opened up and we ran 85 miles to Islamorada on Upper Matecumbe Key (I can’t pronounce them either). Islamorada consists of a narrow spit of land with commercial strip stores along Route 1 and a series of quaint and charming places to stay and open-air restaurants/tiki bars overlooking the bayside or the ocean side of the island. We stayed at one such place tucked in a small, protected harbor. Music is king here, and there was live music throughout the lunch period, the afternoon, and the evening every day. The highlights of our stay were a day of fishing with a guide and watching the Patriots from an open-air tiki bar win the Super Bowl;  here are some pictures:

Our next stop was Key Largo after a run of about 30 miles in sunny, 80 degree weather. We’re back in the Intracoastal Waterway on the Gulf side, which is more protected from east and south winds than the Hawk Channel on the Atlantic side. Here are some images from our stay in Key Largo:

 

Our next stop will be Miami!