CGSC had the pleasure of having Sergej Berendsen, his wife and young children join us for our Tuesday Night Dollar Dog post dinner forum. He presented a slide show following their 2 year journey cruising from Holland to the Mediterranean, came across the Atlantic in a Rally to the southern Caribbean, up the islands finally landing in Miami and the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.
Below is a synopsis of thier ventures. The room was PACKED with members listening in!
After 2 years in de Med, Caribbean and Bahamas, we finally arrived in the United States of America. Due to family living there, SeaWalk decided to stop at the Coconut Grove, just south of Miami. The Coconut Grove is a truly magical place, a nice combination of the American and European setting.
We found the Coconut Grove sailing club a small but very welcoming yacht club which welcomes foreign yachts. In the area there are numerous big marina's, all very expensive and rather un-personal. The anchorage is wonderful but the county decided to fill it up with moorings to get a bigger piece of the yachting pie. So that's not an alternative anymore. The CGSC has a couple of guest moorings and they provide a launch service to and from the boat. The CGSC is located in the middle of the Grove and it is truly a wonderful place to visit.
Our experience is that CGSC staff and its members are very nice and will try to facilitate to your needs, as they did for ours. The CGSC were very interested in our adventures. They asked us to give a presentation at their weekly club night. We enjoyed that very much as we think everybody did. We had a wonderful time and we will be sure to come back next winter.
SeaWalk is currently in Cape Canaveral after a 20 hours, 190 nautical mile trip off shore doing at best 11,5 knots over ground due to beneficial Gulfstream currents. Just go 15 miles off shore and you get 4 knots extra. The coming months we will be sailing on the ICW towards New York City. We will spend the summer there and in the Chesapeake Bay area.