Stiltsville

Our next sailing day took us past downtown Miami and past some cruise ships, one of which we found out later was carrying a cousin off on a dream vacation! Through Biscayne Bay out the Cape Florida Channel past Key Biscayne and then back in Biscayne Channel through Stiltsville and then further south through Biscayne Bay to arrive at Elliott Key for the evening.

Stiltsville is an interesting bit of residential living.  Out in the middle of Biscayne Channel, these are houses on stilts.  One of the earliest known houses belonged to "Crawfish" Eddie Walker, who sold a crawfish chowder, along with beer and bait, out of his house.  The crawfish came from right under the house.

Earlier records of shantys on the water are sketchy.  Hurricanes were not kind to the houses, but they kept being built so that at one time there 27 houses there.  A few were used for partying for certain kinds of "clubs," and some were use for selling alcohol as they met the limit of being one mile from shore. 

Celebrities and other high-profile Miamians were known to visit Stiltsville for drinking and other illicit activities, and there was even a Bikini Club, where women who arrived in a bikini received free drinks (no telling how long those bikinis stayed on after that!).

Cool place to sail by the seven remaining structures and wonder about what it was like there back in its heyday.