Coconut Grove Florida Base

..Island Spirit at Coconut Grove..

We have moved from Harbour Cay Club, in Marathon, FL, up north to Coconut Grove Sailing Club in the Miami area on beautiful Biscayne Bay. We were so very lucky when we arrived in the harbor! A mooring owner had just left for two months, opening up a front row mooring, number A-12 and we were able to take it immediately. This is unreal, lucky us! We wanted to be based here in the CGSC mooring field because our friends and Island Packet Yacht owners from Denmark, Judith and Haakon, will be here Feb 11-25, 2015. Basing here, we can easily come and go to shore using the club's 24/7 launch service. We also decided to join the club as a non Florida resident since this club has been so helpful and kind in setting up the seminar that Judith and Haakon are presenting on Feb 18 at 7pm.

IP 380 TOUCHE off Svalbard

These adventurous sailors sailed north from to the Island of Svalbard, far above the Arctic circle. They spent July and August last summer as far as 80 degrees north. The sun never sets all summer long above the circle! They also jumped off their boat to swim with icebergs. OMG, that is crazy. They saw polar bears, walruses, puffins and more. What turned out to be an invite to come over and spend a couple of weeks in Miami has grown into three Miami Boat Show presentation and one Sailing Club presentation sponsored in part by Ed and Debbie Whiteaker of Whiteaker Yacht Sales. THANK YOU! Judith and Haakon are the latest super stars among our Island Packet Fleet and we look forward to hosting them.

What do we like about the Coconut Grove Area?

Coco Walk our local hangout at Starbucks

WOW, what is there not to like? We love the beautiful waterfront with palm trees and walkways for miles along the water. These walkways lead into city parks with rubberized trails and boardwalks along Biscayne Bay. Coconut Grove has a town center, half a mile up the hill from the harbor, where you will find pubs, restaurants, Starbucks Coffee shop, surf shops, movie theaters and much more. We go for 4 mile walk every day. First, we ride the launch into the docks and then hit the parks and trails, usually taking a coffee break along the return route.  We really like spending time in the Coconut Grove area.

Typical action at the sailing club

The CGSC has a club bar and a cafe where they have taco night on Tuesdays for $5, fajitas on Wednesdays for $13, and live bands usually on Friday night. The bar has a happy hour every week night with 2 for 1 drinks. All this is only open to club members. The club also hosts world class sailing events and sailing classes open to the public. Last week it was the RsX world cup and this weekend the Melges 20 Audi Cup is here. We have bumped into several Olympic sailors and have seen sailors from all over the world. This is THE sailing club in Florida.

Here are some photos of the area.

Sailing Biscayne Bay with Miami over the bow

 

The Coconut Grove Sailing Club Bar

Island Packet Buddies, Hayden, Roger IP45 Sanderling and Dave IP37 Cay Paraiso

Our local shopping Fresh Markets store

View of the Harbor from the Sailing Club Bar

Radeen at the club

Hayden, happy to be sailing Biscayne Bay

Heading over to South Beach for the weekend for a Wallcast Concert

Typical car in SoBe

Island Packet Buddies Jim and Loretta IP380 Plan Sea with Radeen

The Collin's Canal, passing under bridges via the dinghy into SoBe

The Main Channel at Miami on a Friday, 5 ships

Ahhhh, sailing on Super Bowl Sunday

My favorite photo subject, Radeen checking her phone

Now THIS is the way to do laundry, drop it off, pick it up finished

Remember, this is a sailing club, Here is a Melges 20 sailing off our cockpit

Our beautiful walking route along the harbor at Diner Key Marina

They presold 85% of these new twin high rises before construction started
1 to 2 million dollar condos. Coconut Grove is one of THE Place to live in South Florida

We plan to be here until the beginning of March when we will look for a weather window to sail to the Bahamas and into the Abacos. Sail along....