A community of people live together just off the shore of Coconut Grove in Miami in the waters of Dinner Key. The anchorage is much like a neighborhood on Biscayne Bay — neighbors on the next boat over might offer water or help with a problem, and the community looks out for garbage they can pick up to keep the area clean.
The people live here on their boats for various reasons: they have businesses on the water and find it easier to stay there, they’re retired and don’t want to deal with neighbors living too close, or they’re preparing for a voyage and need a home port to get ready in.
“ It’s freedom. It’s tranquility. I wake up in the morning, I got porpoise swimming by my boat. It’s our God-given right as Americans to be free,” said Captain Burt Korpela, a man in his fifties with reddened skin and hair curled by salt breeze and bleached by the sun — the trappings of a life spent on the water…