Wow! What is the golden orb in the sky?! My oh my, it is the sun! Beautiful day in South Beach. Began the day checking down the engine room. Thought it was time to check all the sea strainers. For those who don’t know a sea strainer from a tea strainer let me introduce you the first line of defense to anything that uses raw sea water. A sea strainer filters raw sea water that will eventually pass through your engine cooling system or the HVAC system. The sea strainer is housed in a glass cylinder container with a plastic colander like strainer inside. Raw water flows from outside the boat through a hose through the strainer and into the engine cooling system or HVAC system. In fresh water you check these filters every month or so. Usually, the strainers become coated with a filmy slime that is easily washed off. Well, after several weeks in salt water the strainers contained all sorts of goodies. In addition to the regular collection of grasses and leaf particles, they had begun to grow barnacles. These little barnacle puppies are razor sharp chunks of coral like substances growing inside the filter cylinder! After lacerating my fingers while attempting to dislodge the little buggers I resorted to more manly tools such as screwdrivers and knives to do the work. After several hours I can report mission accomplished!

We rewarded ourselves with wonderful lunch at a restaurant on Ocean Drive, just across the street from the ocean. Now did I mention we had a sunny day today? With that sun comes high humidity and it doesn’t take much to work up a healthy glow (sweat) while walking about. However, we walked about the South Beach area enjoying the Art Deco architecture. We made our way back to the boat to enjoy the A/C and plan our next move.

Tomorrow we’ll move on to Boca Raton or thereabouts. Sea conditions look rather heady - 3 - 5 ft seas and the alternative, the AICW, goes through the highly populated areas of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale (a slow go), so pick your poison. However, a 30-mile run to Boca looks a lot better than a 70-mile run to North Palm Beach. We’ll get to North Palm Beach the day after tomorrow.