This morning we walked around the tiny 32 acre key named Boca Chita. The island was once a pineapple farm, but was purchased in 1937 by Mark Honeywell, the founder of Honeywell Heating Controls. Honeywell had all the coral stone structures built on the island which included the 65 foot lighthouse and a small peaked roof
chapel. It is said that 
Honeywell had the lighthouse built to help his boat captain find the mouth of the boat basin, but the first time it was lit the Coast Guard ordered it to be turned off because it was not charted as an aid to navigation in the area. In 1945 this island which is accessible only by boat became part of the Biscayne Bay National Park. Most of the vegetation on the island was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 but the few old trees were severely “leaning”.Today we moved on across Biscayne Bay to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. The harbor was 
totally sheltered and gave easy access to docking and a little café. This is part of the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, a beautiful park just 15 miles from Miami and filled with biking trails and white sandy beaches. We took our bikes after lunch for a ride down the water front and we visited the 95 foot Cape Florida Lighthouse which was built in 1825. It was built to help protect shipping from 
the treacherous reefs of the Florida waters and is the oldest standing structure in Miami Dade County. The walls are about 20 inches thick, and they had a example of the brick 
lacing pattern on display by the long palm lined 
entrance walk. The island served as a secret meeting place for runaway slaves looking for safe passage to the British Bahamas. Cape Florida was designated in 2004 as a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site.
I loved the long weathered gray wooden boardwalk past the sea grape trees and sea oats down 
to the hot sand. It was a nice afternoon in the sun on the narrow beach. A sting ray leaped out of the crystal water very near where we were sitting; something we had never seen before. We said hello to a man walking by 
wearing an ACC tee shirt, and he stopped and had a long conversation with Tom about NCAA basketball. There was a hazy view of Miami 
across the water in the distance and the park information said this is a beach where loggerhead sea turtles lay their eggs, just like Emerald Isle, NC.
After a sweet afternoon, we cast off to find ou
r way to Miami into the Intercoastal water way. We passed under Rickenbacker Bridge that connects the mainland to Key Biscayne and past the Government cut which is the deep channel that the cruise liners use to come into the port 
from the Atlantic. The Miami Port is a busy place full of massive loading docks with several freighters and acres of train car containers. After passing under MacArthur Bridge, we found an anchorage 
near Hibiscus Island, a small island filled with elegant mansions just off Miami Beach where we watched a beautiful sunset over the sky scrapers in the distance.
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