Saturday, February 18 - Coconut Grove Arts Festival

Saturday, February 18 - Coconut Grove Arts Festival

We awoke to another beautiful day.  A little windy, but perfect for walking through an arts festival.    We caught the water shuttle from our boat and headed for the park at the end of the docks.

The Coconut Grove Arts Festival was begun in 1963, and it is still going strong!   Artists come from all over the country, with the most incredibly beautiful art of all kinds.We were blown away by the glass, the jewelry, the sculpture, the wood working, the fabric arts, everything!  We only bought food, a visor and tshirt, things were a little out of our price range, but it was an amazing experience!  And we did enjoy the food. 

We had so much fun, we wore ourselves out and came back to the boat for a rest.  However, we needed milk and ice, and our friend Kevin had told us about a dinghy dock close to Fresh Market, so we headed out.  The water was very choppy, maybe extremely choppy, but Captain Dan did a great job getting us to land.  The place we landed the dinghy was beside a restaurant and marina, and as we were got off the dock a guy came up to tell us we couldn't leave the dinghy.  The dry storage launch was there, and he was afraid we would interfere.  Since I had almost fallen getting onto the dock the first time, I stayed on land and let Danny move the dinghy to a spot on the other side of the landing area.  This little dock was in a corner of the "cove," so we there was quite a bit of trash, including a twin mattress.  Nice.  And there was a constant flow of boats being put into the water.  People going somewhere for dinner, we guessed. 

We walked to Fresh Market, made our purchases, and returned to the dinghy.  The second dock was higher than the first, and we had to sit on the dock and step down into the dinghy.  I made it and didn't even get a splinter!  The ride back to the boat was exciting.  The waves were even rougher and higher.  Since I sit in the front, I got sprayed several times,  We passed this island on the way out, saw a family with two young boys who had kayaked out.  I hope they had a good time.

In addition to waves this afternoon, we heard boats racing, cigarette boats we guessed.  We could see the spray - they are fast boats!

The generator wouldn't start, so we used headlamps and our lantern to get around.  Danny grilled steak and vegetables, even in the rocking water. 

We hope that cruising tomorrow will charge the house battery and we'll be good to go.