Coconut Grove

Coconut Grove Sailing Club where we are moored is an active club. Many of its members go sailing, even when the weather is not especially pleasant. As the saying goes, “A bad day on the water is better than a good day at work!” The club is conveniently located on Biscayne Bay. It is hosting an international sailboard event. World class sailboarders from all over the world are qualifying for the Olympics. Next door, at Dinner Key Marina, the Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta is taking place. Hundreds of sailors from all over the world are competing in the International Sailing Federation World Cup. It is quite a site to see hundreds of Laser performance boats sail out to the course. Sails announce competitors from over fifty countries, Hungary, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Czechoslovakia and on and on. Now or Never! Is moored right next to the channel where they go in and out.

We rented a car with some friends and did some shopping. Somebody, please remind me why I don’t like to go shopping on Saturday! We did discover a really fine restaurant on Calle Ocho in the heart of Little Havana. “El Atlacatl” is a Salvadoran restaurant apparently named after the last ruler of a people centered in Cuzcatlan in Meso America. The food is magnificent. The Mariscada (sea food soup or stew) is brimming with shrimp and mussels and fish and crab and other sea foods. It is at least as good as the Mariscada of El Tamarindo in Ft Lauderdale where we discovered this outstanding dish. Claudia’s fish had a spicy tomato based sauce and was smothered in calamari rings. We were the only gringos in the place which was full of families who were speaking Spanish. In fact, a little knowledge of Spanish was helpful in communicating with the waitress.