Which Route to Take?
When I left Key West on March 18th, I decided to run East up the inside of the Florida Keys. The weather was both windy and wavy. This inside route can offer some protection as you run up the wind shadows behind different keys. The downside is… it’s also notoriously shallow in certain areas as we’ll see.
Bye, Bye Key West
I untied the lines, jumped aboard and put her in gear. The pic above was snapped just after leaving Sunset Marina. You can see Dredger’s Key on the left iPad as well as straight ahead. You can also see that I didn’t get an early start (8:32AM).
Informational Layout for Navigation
I like to navigate using twin iPads. You can see that the iPad on the left is zoomed out to get the big picture while the iPad on the right is zoomed in for more detail about depths around Simple Life. I split the screen of my MFD (Multi Function Display) to expose different pieces of data. A chart plotter on the left half of the screen, a rear-facing camera on top-right and a scrolling depth display on the bottom-right.
My chart plotter display is mainly used for showing radar & AIS targets. The rear-facing camera let’s me see boat traffic coming up behind me. The scrolling depth is very important as it gives me depth trending. The instrument display to the left of the MFD shows the current depth in real-time. I believe it is more important to understand how the depths are trending. It goes without saying that in almost every grounding case, the ocean floor came up gradually to meet the boat.
Which Route?
I chose to run the shallow inside of the keys and not the plenty deep “Hawks Channel” running east-west just below the keys. Running Hawk’s Channel does not require as much attention because it’s plenty deep. You’ll never worry about running aground. However, the wind had been blowing hard E-S-E for the past few days and I’m guessing the waves in Hawks Channel would have made that passage a rough one.
End of the Day and the Cruise
After running the inside of the Keys all day, the sun was setting. Lucky for me I did not have that much further to reach my chosen anchorage for the night.
As I approached my anchoring location off Vaca Key, I made sure to tuck in close behind land. I hoped to gain a night’s shelter from the wind.
As I crept closer to the shore it shallowed to only 6.1 feet deep.
Now when I anchor, I always need enough water under Simple Life’s 5′ deep keel to make sure she is not laying on her side when low tide hits.
I had already determined that the tides here were less than a foot. It was currently high tide. The boat was in 6.1′ of water. While I’m fast asleep at 3:51AM, the next morning, I should still have an inch or two beneath the boat.
In the daylight fading you see the two other boats that I snuck past to get close to shore.
Anchored, it’s time to celebrate todays run with an IPA (or two) before bed.
The next day’s cruise was absolutely beautiful. I decided to shoot a short video to give a 360 degree view of what the water looks near Islamorada.
For reference I placed a marker near Cotton Key, Islamorada.
Cotton Key off Islamorada
It’s very shallow here. My shallow water alarm is set to go off below 6′. It is beeping incessantly.
Below I am approaching Grouper Creek in Key Largo. Here the banks starts to close in around you with mangroves.
Soon I was passing Gilbert’s Resort on Key Largo. Even though Covid-19 was shutting down most activities, this place seemed alive with people enjoying the beautiful day.
At this point I was in Biscayne Bay near Elliot Key just north of Key Largo.
Watching the sunset off Elliot key was beautiful.
I cruised on into the night with my heart set on making it to Miami. As you approach Miami you are struck with how amazing the skyline is from the ocean at night.
Visible is the bridge I must go under 
From my anchored location 
Close up
I’ll end this post with a short video that I took from Simple Life while on anchor.
MV Simple Life 