Bay Day

If you are here from Saur's blog - you are in the right place. I guess. Sunday is not a huge comment day over there, but I may pick up a few visitors.

Anyhow, for todays post I decided on a tour. Not that great of a tour, but that is hard to do here. I do not want to put up 50 photos because then the page would take forever to load - even with high speed access. Plus I had to drive the boat. Kind of hard to do more than one thing as a time.
By the way, as usual all photos are linked to the full size images. Just click em. Full size images are around 2 megs each. If you have high speed access no problem. Otherwise it may take a bit for the photos to download.

The day started at the Crandon Marina boat ramp. I could have used the FPL ramp at Old Cutler because I was with my dad. He works for the power company. But the Old Cutler Power Plant ramp was a bit of a haul from where we wanted to go, and it was not the best day to be out. So we opted to use the public ramp, paying the toll to get on Key Biscayne and the $10 fee to use the County ramp. Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation needs the money anyway. The boat ramps generate revenue for that department, which is then used (in part) to subsidize the other parks that do not generate revenue. It is a good system. Parks are important and expensive.

So how bad was it today? Lets find out! This is a shot I took while leaving the boat ramp.

Can you spot the rain? Look between the sailboat masts. You can see it better on the full size photo. By the way, all that rain was in the direction of the Old Cutler FPL ramp. So had we used that ramp the ride would have been wet.

As it was late in the morning when we launched, the first thing was to get over to Scotty's Landing in Coconut Grove. Here is the boat tied up at the Scotty's seawall. Notice the chop? well this is a somewhat protected area. In a marina.

And remember the rain from the first photo? Here is it dumping rain on Key Biscyne, right where I launched the boat from about 30 minutes before. But at least I knew which way the rain was moving! Knowing this helps you plot around the rain. I do not like to boat through rain unless I really have to. If I had a cuddy cabin I would rather just drop the hook (anchor) and chill out. In an open boat I would rather tie up somewhere and hide from the rain while having a drink. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Once I crossed under the big bridge going to Key Biscaye, I was out of the open area of the bay. So the water was not as choppy. And to make it even better the weather changed a bit. It was still windy but the sun poked out. The next stop was Jimbo's on Virginia Key. Here is the boat tied up at Jimbo's.

Now this is an interesting photo if you know the area. Jimbo's looks like a shanty town. It IS a shanty town. Nothing there is to code. Code enforcement is afraid to go there. Jimbo's is out of the way and off the map really. You can drive there, but there are no signs for the place. You just have to know where it is. HINT - it is right next to the Virginia Key Sewage Treatment Plant. If you enlarge this picture you can see Fisher Island in the background. Fisher Island is for people with money flowing out of their asshole. On Fisher Island if you only have a three or four million you are BARELY getting by. You probably can not afford to live on Fisher Island with a mere 5 million in the bank. People living there have Rolls Royce custom build them GOLF CARTS. The island is small driving your real Rolls Royce is just not done unless you are going to the ferry to leave the place. But anyway, not too far away from the sewage plant and Jimbo's shanty village is ultra rich Fisher Island. From each location you can see the other. Miami is like this in many places.

And what do I mean by shanty village? Here is a photo of the back of Jimbo's.

Now you may have been to a place that tries to look like it it is laid back tin roof shanty shack - but it is really a concrete and steel structure with plastic "decorations" to give an illusion. Jimbo's is NOT this place. Jimbo's is the real deal. The bar is two tubs of ice and beer cans. Want a beer? Go get one yourself! Nobody is going to bring you one. There is a guy by the door to the beer room that collects your money on your way out. It is really a unique last of its kind place. The UN needs to add the place to its World Heritage list. Jimbo's IS Miami as it used to be, back before the crazy development and urban sprawl.

This is the front area of Jimbo's. If you enlarge this photo the old man in the green shirt and hat is Jimbo himself. He is at his place on the weekends. He recently turned 80. He is a WWII and Korean War Veteran. I think he was a Navy man. If you go to Jimbo's on a weekend you can have a beer with the old man.

I hope you liked this post. If not, too bad. There are no refunds :)