Our fearless roving reporter, Captain Jane Tigar, turns her discerning eye to Dinner Key!

View from the marina office entrance. Note the wide fairway and how long a walk it can be from your boat to the gate!

A convenient stop on your way to the Keys is Dinner Key — not just for dinner, of which there is plenty offered — but maybe even for a day or two checking out the historic sites, not the boring it’s good for you kind of sites, the really fun kind of interesting sites as you’ll see in part 2 of this report.
This was our first visit and as some of the best things in life are, it was one we had not planned. Out mast too tall for the 56-foot Julia Tuttle Bridge, we seized a brief weather window to make the outside run from Lauderdale to Miami but needed a safe place to sit out the next storm. So, having at least advanced our position if not to The Keys to at least a place with Key in its name, we found ourselves waiting out the weather at Dinner Key Marina owned by the city of Miami. At $2.50 a foot plus tax for a slip with hook-ups, it’s hardly a bargain by more northern standards, but it’s a real deal compared with close to $4 a foot in nearby Miami and, for our touring tastes at least, there’s much more to do and see within walking distance of our boat.
There are almost 600 slips at the modern cement fixed docks; during the second week of January, transient slips appeared plentiful. During this stormy weekend, we found ourselves comfortable and well protected from the winds and waves on adjacent Biscayne Bay.
Moorings are plentiful here — over 200! — for boats 40 feet LOA and under at $18 plus tax per night. Call ahead though as there are moorings in depths of as little as 4 feet; marina staff told us there was plenty of room for a 5-foot draft and that despite the written maximum of 40 ft, they could take a boat up to 42 feet LOA. Depths may improve by spring as a $1.4 million 7-month dredging project in the marina has been underway since December 2009. There is shuttle service that runs on demand during the week and on the half hour during weekends between the mooring field and the main dock; schedules are at the office.
In contrast with Vero Beach Municipal Marina, this is the kind of marina a cynic would imagine a city marina would be. We were welcomed on VHF Channel 68 with somewhat unclear directions to our slip. This was followed by what my first rate first mate calls “the unobtrusive” style of docking assistance. Not only did no one in a bright colored parka wave to us and with a smile point out our slip, no one even at the last minute offered to take a line. There was, to put it simply, no one to help us. On the other hand, fairways are twice as wide as most marinas so it is easy to maneuver and spin around. Oh, and what the heck, it’s good to know that the marina staff has confidence in our docking skills. Be sure, however, to ask which side of the numbered pier your slip is on. The slips are not numbered with all the odd numbers on one side of the pier and all even numbers on the other.
Clean showers and heads are adjacent to the marina office, all of which is in what I call prison architectural style. If you are at a slip, bear in mind that it can be a very long walk to these facilities. The good news is pump outs are easy — a mobile pump out service is available. Laundry machines look good, but this is such a huge marina for the number of machines, I would not count on this as a laundry stop unless you don’t mind practicing the fine art of getting on line for a set of machines. I’ve seen more machines at marinas a fourth of its size.
There is no fuel available at Dinner Key Marina, but there is fuel at two adjacent locations, though at Grove Harbour Marina where there is a Shell sign, we were unable to find anyone to help us and we refueled much later down the water way.
While we did not sense the lively community “it’s camp!” spirit of Vero Beach City Marina and Marathon City Marina, perhaps this was due to everyone huddling in their boats during the cold snap that caused our four-day stay here.

DIY Docking at Dinner Key Marina

Dinner Key — still worthy of its name.
At first glance, Coconut Grove looks like an over-developed city — much like Lauderdale, just smaller. But if you walk just a few blocks from the Marina, it quickly morphs into a charming village of shops and restaurants. If you want to eat out, it appears the Dinner Key appellation still holds and you have a lot of non-chain choices — Italian, Thai, Japanese, Argentinian, French, Spanish … From the marina office, walk to your left and then follow the edge of the marina, past the small commercial fishing vessels and to the main street. Cross the street and head slightly up hill and you’ll start to see the “charming” part of Coconut Grove, hang a left onto Main Avenue and you’ll find lots to choose from.
For us, this stay, partly due to the excellent provisioning opportunity here (see below) was Dinner on the Boat Key, so we have no restaurant reviews to share. However, it was the weekend of Taste of the Grove, a food and music charity fundraiser held in Peacock Park adjacent to the marina. We can tell you that the items we sampled there at lunch, promising non-chain restaurants include: Atchana’s East/West Kitchen inside the Mutiny Hotel, just across from the Marina; Mayfair Grill at the Mayfair Hotel (excellent pork and jicama salad; and great skirt steak). First mate Michael vouches for Al Fresco’s penne a la vodka. The food at the Ideas restaurant which features “authentic food from Spain” also looked good, but we got full too soon. The Chart House also had attractive looking offerings. We also passed by a restaurant called Focaccio Rustica that looked excellent.

Easy Provisioning Stop
For those who prefer to dine on board, this is an excellent provisioning stop. If you don’t follow your iPhone GPS directions, the Fresh Market, a high end super market, is a 10-minute walk to the right (facing the land) basically tracking the shore line and walking through parking lots, going past City Hall in its historic building and Grove Harbour Marina.
If you are here on a Wednesday, which we were not, check out the Green Market in town; it’s open from 11 to 4 PM. It’s supposed to have locally grown organic produce, local honey and local prepared foods. It’s in the Mayfair Atrium, in the main “cute” shopping area described above.
While we would have preferred no storms and no record cold snaps, we thank the inclement weather for getting us stuck at Dinner Key.
Jane Tigar
S/V Lady Jane

Stayed at Dinner Key as well, agree with the total lack of signage, very little (none) help from the staff, moored out in the middle of Biscayne bay, nasty chop. Old men have more water pressure than the showers, pump out was doityourself with no assistance and the pump didn’t work. Too many white shirts with VHF radios, nobody gets their hands dirty.They can learn a lot from Vero Beach. Not a good experience
Peter Marrek

Our experience exactly ….including non responsive dock hands, ….difficulty in finding slip numbers….etc. etc.
But we love the downtown area and have taken public transportation to downtown Miami….recomend on sunday only. we checked in here upon returning from the Bahamas and had to go to the cruise ship area to check in.
Pierre McCormick

Click Here To View the Eastern Florida Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For Dinner Key Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Dinner Key Marina

Grove Harbour Marina is located in the complex of marinas and marine service firms at Dinner Key/Coconut Grove.

Despite having personally walked over to Grove Harbour Marina adjacent to Dinner Key Marina and inquired about fueling up the day before and having received directions and opening hours, late this morning, no one answered our hails on 16 and we circled for 15 minutes while trying to reach the fuel dock by phone. After several calls, someone claiming to be in the know said someone was coming but it was like waiting for Godot. We gave up and left. I hope this is an aberration. Based on our experience, I wouldn’t count on this for a fuel stop.
Captain Jane Tigar

I am sorry to hear that things are not going well at Rickenbacker Marina. This faciltiy is owned by the city of Miami, and its fortuntes rise and fall with the city’s current state of affairs.

We were long term customers here, both mooring and slip.
The moorings are in the middle of allot of power boat and jet ski activity, in and around the marina, and also exposed to northerly winds which tend to be the stronger winds we get in the winter, what I did and would recommend, pay for the mooring to have access to the marina facilities but anchor in the marine stadium that has excellent holding and is very well protected, gets just a chop even in high winds. You’ll sleep well there. Bear in mind that I have heard over and over that anchoring will be prohibited there but last I heard boats were still anchoring there. On the plus side the moorings are well maintained, screw type and our boat at the time an Oday 39 survived hurricane Wilma on the mooring.
The dingy dock at the marina is just a mud bank under some mangroves so your shoes get muddy and your dingy will quickly foul from the wet decaying leaves inside your boat. That was always a headache. If you are there for just a few days you can put up with it. The bathrooms are in poor condition so you may prefer to shower on your boat.
The marina facilities are in urgent need of a renovation and last I heard the City of Miami had a complete renovation plan for Virginia Key that included the marina putting up some millions for a major refit. Don’t know if the renovations have begun yet or if they will ever materialize.
As for the slips, they have no finger piers which was a major headache with our now double ender, not so bad with other type boats but not ideal at all, and just two pilings outboard, not ideal for tying up either, and with no central pilings it’s very easy to end up banging into the boat alongside on a windy day. With all the power boat action outside the marina and mega yachts passing by on the inter coastal, strong wakes come in and really thrash the boats especially on weekends but sometimes even in the middle of the night I thought I was going to fall out of my bunk. Double up the lines and get a slip as far in as your draft will allow and if you have a choice don’t get a slip beyond 3/4 out on the piers. On the plus side security is extremely tight, cameras everywhere. Nothing get’s lifted at these docs without it being filmed.
An excellent, very friendly and helpful staff, unfortunately at a marina needing a breakwater and major renovations / redesign. Hopefully it will get done.
Jules Robinson

Hmmmmm, sounds like the new mooring field at Coconut Gove (Miami) has some real administrative problems.

We came into the new dinner key mooring field on Dec 1, and they asked us to take a mooring on the outskirts of the field that was a fair dingy ride in and is subject to wakes from boats in the channels before they begin to slow down ‘” we are a 40′ Jeanneau ds40 with a 5’ draft –
As we dinghied in we noted several 40’+ boats with deeper draft closer in so we asked if we could move closer in as most of the field is currently empty ‘”
we suggested a mooring number and told to go ahead and move which we did. Now we are told that the mooring we moved to is a 30′ mooring and the original mooring we were on was a 40′ mooring – in fact i would estimate that over 2/3 of the mooring field is designed for boats less than 40′ and we were told that they can not accomadate any boat greater than 42′ – when i told them a 47′ boat just left for the islands they agreed and told us that the boat was told they could no longer use the field because they were too big –
There is also a very very tiny dingy dock
Trying not to be to prejudical, it appears if this is a test field for the florida anchoring problem they designed it for failure – in fact you may just want to anchor on the other side of the mooring field and not have to pay which is right next to the 40-42’ moorings
just my thoughts
chuck patty and svsoulmates
miami fl

Hello,
As for the engineering of the field I guess what is done is done for now. Short of building a break water all around the field, I don’t know. It’s an unprotected area, so it will be rolly polly from wind, waves and wakes. I suppose the center of the field and closer to land may be the best spot to be in if you have a choice and a lesser draft.
But in regards to the dingy dock I was told that the larger floating dingy dock by the boat ramp will eventually be available to the mooring customers, once the mooring customer showers, baths and offices are installed. However for security purposes my preference would be where they have it now, well inside the marina and close to the harbormasters office, better a small safe dingy dock than one exposed to the street and to the unsavory characters that hang around the boat ramp at night.
Hope things improve.
Jules
S/V Nemesis
Dinner Key Marina
Miami

I keep my boat (70 feet) in Florida most of the winter and in Nantucket Harbor during the summer. In Nantucket we’re on a mooring, there is a Town-owned and operated pump-out boat running 7 days a week, launch service, two good-sized dingy docks and even delivery service. The Harbormaster’s building, at the foot of the Town Dock where the dingy docks are has nice bathrooms with clean showers. The water in the Harbor is clean, so clean that the Harbor is used for commercial scalloping in the fall and winter, and it is certainly clean enough for swimming. The health of the scallop population is dependent on clean water and healthy beds of sea grass. If boats were anchored instead of on moorings the sea grass beds would be destroyed in a season or two.
Contast this with Florida where mooring fields are few and far between, pump-out facilities (let alone pump-out boats) are scarse and out-of service much of the time, and amenities of any kind are limited to say the least. I don’t get it. Florida’s waters are just as precious as New England’s waters. I’ve been reading for years about the damage done to coral by yachts anchoring on top of or too close to the reefs. If there was a mooring field close by (but not too close) and an anchoring ban enforced it strikes me that the problem would be at least partially solved.
Just my opinion.
Nancy