Running the Inside of the FL Keys

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.

My track leaving Key West and anchoring inside Marathon. I can’t stop interpreting this picture as a view from space. A planet with the Keys curving across it’s surface.

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.

Sharing my anchor spot with these two while Social Distancing

Anchored, it’s time to celebrate todays run with an IPA (or two) before bed.

Jai Alai by Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL

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.

Islamorada near Cotton Key

For reference I placed a marker near Cotton Key, Islamorada.

It’s very shallow here. My shallow water alarm is set to go off below 6′. It is beeping incessantly.

Zipping along at 5 kts with inches beneath the keel.

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.

Approaching Miami from the ocean at night

I’ll end this post with a short video that I took from Simple Life while on anchor.

It seems like a framed photo rather than a city all lit up and alive with activity

Key West Reloaded

Covid-19

So it’s March 13th and the bars on Duval St. are open and seems worried about the Covid-19 pandemic but that will change by the end of this post.

Five Days

Preppy flew back to Boston yesterday but I rented my slip here in Key West for another five days. I was happy that Teresa had decided to drive down for the weekend so we could spend that time together. We started our weekend by hoping on the scooters and hitting Duval St.

1st stop Pinchers Crab Shack.

There was a woman playing guitar and she was great.

She kept us laughing the whole time

We were enjoying some beer, margaritas and bang bang shrimp (wow those were good).

The table is covered with brown paper which I keep spilling IPA on

It’s happy hour so they bring you 2 IPAs every time you order one 😉

I’m not sure how we missed the “Bucket of Fun” on that menu?

At one point a patron of the bar was proposing to the the guitar player by offering her a roll of toilet paper. At first it looked like he was going to win her over with the roll but she was clearly holding out for more.

You can see our scooter handlebars behind the singer and it was time to jump on them and go exploring Key West before this happy hour slows us down. So off we went scootering.

Southernmost Point Buoy

When in Key West, you must stop at the Southernmost Point Buoy and take a picture. There was a line to take a picture so we figured we’d simply stand in the street and take a selfie with the famous buoy.

Tuck & Roll

I forgot to mention to Teresa that when scootering, you cannot take your hands off the handlebars for any reason. Cow Key Channel Bridge (pictured below) was the scene of the horrific crash. Rather than wait for the med flight to arrive, Teresa agreed to scooter back to MV Simple Life where I would bandage her back together.

Boat Cruise

The next day was warm and sunny so we figured we’d untie Simple Life and slip away from the dock for a boat ride around Key West.

You can see the northern tip of Fleming Key behind us. Fleming Key and bridge that connects it to Key West are part of a section of the Naval Air Station Key West called “Trumbo Point” and are inaccessible to civilians without US Navy clearance.

Duval St Take Two

The next day we explored Key West again. This time via Uber and somehow we still wound back up at Pinchers. Teresa was born and raised in Florida and grew up on seafood. I think she’s working on converting me into a seafood guy. We had just enough time for one last obligatory selfie before our Uber arrived to take us back to Simple Life.

I pretty sure the 2for1s were flowing this night 😉

It was a weekend to remember.

Publix Run

The next day I put on my backpack climbed into the dinghy and set out across the shallow bay to Publix supermarket. Figuring I could carry four times as many groceries in the dinghy than the scooter, my plan seemed to make sense. The plan was to land the dinghy along the roadway in front of Publix. This resupply mission would ultimately fail. I had drastically underestimated just how shallow the water was around Salt Pond Keys and especially as you get close to the roadway.

Dinghy path shown in red from marina on right to Publix at the bottom

Feeling defeated, I returned to the marina tied the dinghy up and hopped on my scooter for multiple resupply runs. It was March 16th and people were still shopping without masks or protective gear.

While Simple Life has a fridge and freezer with a separate sub-zero freezer I could load up on perishables and simply freeze them but like most boaters I prefer to stock the pantry full of non-perishables.

Good thing I stocked up on beer because on March 17th at 5PM on St. Paddy’s Day, the FL Keys shut down all the bars due to Covid-19. My plans to enjoy a few IPAs @ Irish Kevin’s on Duval St. died a few hours before it would have started. Maybe another time?

Dinghy Fishing

I’m now back at the boat and tired from all the lugging food & beer on the scooter. The night was warm so I figured it was a great night to go fishing in the dinghy.

Plenty of height to squeeze the dink under Cow Key Channel bridge

On my last night in Key West I was reading on Facebook a post from a fellow trawler guy who motored past a a 63′ Viking sport fishing boat aground on a jetty. He snapped this photo in the early morning before the sun came up.

Seems the boat ran into the jetty in the night. I felt horrible for the captain of MV Fuelish Pleasure as this kind of thing can happen to any captain when you lose situational awareness. Sometimes when it’s pitch black out and you have the brightness of the chartplotter turned way down it’s hard to see all the chart detail. Add to that the boat is bouncing up and down and it’s easy to make a mistake in the dark.

The captain may have been trying to pass between two shallow spots on the chart and might not have noticed the thin line that depicts a rock jetty. It’s very easy to do.

The arrow points to a thin chart line that is a rock jetty

The chart above is of the St. Mary’s Inlet where this accident occurred. It is right on the Florida – Georgia line between Cumberland Island to the north and Amelia Island to the south. You can see my route line in red where I would was anchored in the Amelia River near the #1 waypoint. I used this route to exit that same inlet in 12 days after leaving Key West. I did a 40 hour solo offshore beginning the morning of 3/27/20. You’ll read about that when I catch up writing these blog posts. I’m glad nobody was injured in this accident.

Preppy Aboard

Downtown Fort Myers

I had been waiting for a good friend of mine, Preppy to fly into Fort Myers. That day has arrived. As soon as he had stowed his bag in the guest stateroom we dropped the Segway scooters on the dock and it was to explore downtown Fort Myers. First stop… Ford’s Garage for a burger and some IPAs.

Ford’s Garage’s bar has a beer cooling feature that I had never seen. It’s a refrigerated chill plate the runs the whole length of the bar. The bartenders and customers place their schooner beer glass on the chill plate to keep their drinks cold. The humid Florida air has the effect of creating a layer of frost on the chill plate that makes a great low friction, melted frost, beer spinning activity. I felt some strange addiction to spinning my IPA. Like a fidget spinner but for an IPA.

IPA spinning addiction… It’s real folks!

Fort Myers Beach

A day after Preppy arrived and my slip rental at Fort Myers Yacht Basin has come to an end. I need to push on to Key West and eventually start making my journey back home to RI. Schedules in long-range transient boating rarely work due to issues with weather, repairs, etc. You must plan to have downtime.

Preppy & I got a late start leaving Fort Myers and made a short cruise to Salty Sam’s in FMB for the night. Fort Myers Beach is a fun location and it was time to put the dink in the water and go out for some drinks. First stop… Matanzas Inn.

Oklahoma!, Oklahoma! It’s not the Safe Word but the bartender’s name!

Back aboard, Preppy wasted no time cooking up Bubba burgers with peppers & onions on buttered buns.

Naples Not Marco Island

We were planning on stopping in Marco Island as a HS friend has a place there and I thought it might be nice to ping her and see if she and husband could meet up for a drink. However, the weather and Covid-19 were not making that a reality.

Windfinder Pro app shows a strong East wind that made our trip a bit lumpy

We decided that we would come in from the Gulf at the Naples inlet and find a place to anchor inside for a day or two until the weather settled. The inlet was rough with breakers on both sides but once inside it was peaceful. We motored all the way into downtown Naples searching for a marina or anchorage deep enough to hold Simple Life’s 5′ draft. Repeatedly we ran into shallows at each anchorage we attempted. With no open slips at marinas either, I thought we’d have to go back out the Naples inlet into a lumpy gulf of Mexico and forge on to Marco Island? However, there was one last anchorage just inside the inlet. Our anchorage of last resort turned out to be safe haven.

Naples Inlet and our anchorage can be seen

This Naples anchorage was peaceful and turned out to the first of two stops along our route to Key West.

Shark River in the Everglades

When we left Naples we set a course directly for the Lower Keys and ultimately, Key West. I have read that Marathon is defined as the “Middle Keys” between Key Largo in the “Upper Keys” and Key West in the “Lower Keys”. The wind was 20+kts out of the East with gusts much higher. The path I had chosen took us quite some distance from the shore and thus gave the wind more water to blow across (properly referred to as “fetch” or the distance traveled by wind or waves across open water). The larger the fetch, the taller the waves. We needed to seek out smaller waves as taking large waves on our beam was not enjoyable. So we decided to make a 90′ turn to port and run head-on into the waves till we were closer to shore before turning southward again. This also meant that we were going to have to anchor somewhere along the shore rather than our original plan to make it to Key West before nightfall.

Our trip from Naples to the Everglades to Key West and then the inside Keys route to Miami and points north

The depths were shallow for a long way in as we approached the Little Shark River anchorage just north of Cape Sable. We found a sailboat anchored here and chatted a bit on the VHF as we dropped anchor. A friendly couple who told us she was local to the Everglades area and he was from Alaska. They said they spend quite a bit of time in this particular anchorage.

The next morning we ran south down the coast till the southern edge of Cape Sable. At this point it was advantageous to do another 90 degree turn, this time to starboard and put the now increasing waves on our stern. The rest of the trip down the lower keys was spent with a following sea.

Caldera or Northwest Channel?

We were looking to get out of the following sea and into Key West. I decided to take the narrow and winding Calda Channel which I had successfully navigated in 2018. It’s much faster to take this channel then have to continue west till you get to the larger, much deeper Northwest Channel. The NW Channel is used by the Key West Express high speed ferries that run between Fort Myers Beach or Marco Island and Key West.

Big waves and shallow water are not a captains friend. Still traversing the Calda Channel would shave off over an hour of travel. However, we only made it to the first Green #1 Daymark before we slowly ran aground. The shallow water alarm is set at 6′ and it was blaring away. I backed up and attempted to poke the bow around to see if I could find deeper water and a path further into Calda Channel. No luck! We had to spin in the wind & waves and make our way further west to the official Northwest Channel. (see picture below)

As we entered the proper Key West Northwest Channel we found plenty of water and a wide easy to navigate channel (pictured below)

There are two ways into Key West.

1. Key West Main Channel as it is called which comes in from Hawk’s Channel which runs the whole south side of the Florida Keys.

2. The NorthWest Channel that comes in from the inside of the Lower Keys or Gulf of Mexico.

As we approached the end of the NW Channel where it meets the Key West Main Channel we saw the cruise ship which is often docked in port. It was March 9th and Covid-19 virus infections were increasing in each US state. We could only guess that the people we saw on the room balconies were crew disinfecting rooms and not passengers?

As we passed this cruise ship I’m guessing the people aboard during the Covid-19 pandemic were disinfecting it?

Wisteria Island

Now in the main channel we are passing Tank & Wisteria Islands (pictured above on left side of Key West). All around Wisteria Island is the Key West Anchorage and the boats here are mostly permanent liveaboards. Sadly, their boats are often lost to frequent hurricanes ex. Wilma, Irma, etc. Many who homes got sunk moved onto Wisteria Island and setup tents to live. There is a legal battle about who owns Wisteria Island and if it is dangerous. I have wanted to dinghy over to the island but have never done so yet. What is the truth about this island? Is it safe? IDK

Feel good story about the Children who grew up on Wisteria Island after the 2005 Hurricane season shipwrecked them – 10 min

Is Wisteria Island safe? IDK But when $ is involved you can expect corruption – 10 mins long

When you motor through the anchorage you will be amused at how creative some are with building floating log cabins or sheds to hold the things they need. It reminds me of the 1995 movie Waterworld.

I had called several marinas and finally booked a 10 day reservation at Sunset Marina on Stock Island. Stock Island is the first island as you leave Key West.

Sunset Marina

Nobody from the marina was there to catch our lines but a couple cleaning the bottom of their boat were kind enough to catch a line as we backed in.

Once tied up at the dock it was time for some IPA and steaks.

Pub Crawl

Then drop the scooters on the dock and ride into Duval St. in Key West for some bar hoping.

Scooters

Exploring Key West on scooters is a blast. Have I mentioned that I believe the pair of scooters was a perfect addition to MV Simple Life? I bought them on Amazon if anyone is interested.

Now driving around on a scooter with a big dorky helmet can look a little silly but be sure to make sure your friend has not stuck childish pins in your helmet to make it look even worse. I did not notice this pin until I had already driven all around Duval St.

Beer Run Turned Police Crash

Even funnier was what happened on our way scootering back to the boat from a beer run. So Preppy and I are scootering past a pair of policemen who are sitting on the hood of their car which is blocking the road that leads to our boat. I’m not sure of the legality of scootering down the road so you try to avoid any law enforcement of such behavior. So I’m in the lead and I say “hello officers” as I speed by the front of them and prepare to stop and take a hard left turn onto the sidewalk. It’s in that moment that I hear Preppy look over at them and say “Hi guys” as I feel Preppy slam into the back of me now that I stopped to turn. It sends me flying forward on the scooter off the sidewalk and into the grass but somehow I managed to stay up even with a 20 lb. backpack full of beer. I knew the right thing to do in that moment was… DON’T STOP. Just keep on scooting like nothing happened. I was dying laughing but I’ll bet not as hard as the two officers!

Preppy Fly Home

When the day came for Preppy to fly out we called an Uber and walked past the tarpon swimming in the marina

It was lots of fun having Preppy aboard but he must get back to New England especially with this Covid-19 Pandemic worsening.

Ocean Reef Club – Key Largo

It was time to take a road trip from Cape Coral to Key Largo to visit a friend. It’s about a 3+ hour ride which takes you down Alligator Alley. Alligator Alley is the long east-west section of Interstate 75 shown crossing the Everglades.

When we got to the end of Alligator Alley and headed south down route 91 (shown as route 1 in the picture above) we drove past this 450′ tall guitar.

When we arrived in Tavernier in the FL Keys we stayed at an inn on the canal.

Creekside Inn

As we explored a bit we came about The Mar Bar. A small tiki bar along the canal. Just in time for an IPA.

We were not done yet… time to seek out the next watering hole.

The next morning it was time to drive up-island to the Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo. When you are driving to the FL Keys, there are two roads that cross over from mainland Florida. The first is Route 1 and the second is Old Dixie Highway.

If you take Old Dixie Highway you must turn left and follow an empty road that terminates at the entrance gate to to the Ocean Reef Club.

You must be on a list of expected guests of an Ocean Reef member. They will ask for drivers licenses of all those in the vehicle and scan them as well. It’s novel to see a security gate that actually questions those who enter.

I was interested in visiting the marina incase I wanted to visit by boat.

Next we made a quick stop at the onsite airport. Just in time to catch a private jet coming in for a landing.

Ocean Reef Airport

We took a stroll through the village to see all the interesting shops.

I was having so much fun I had not realized it was time for us to go.

I look forward to my next time with these two.

Crane Key

Key West is so much fun that if you are not careful you wont ever leave. That said we made impromptu plans not to return the way we came and instead take a route east up the inside of the keys and cross over to the West coast of Florida. Our float plan for the next few days includes anchoring at these locations: Crane Key, Shark River in the Everglades National Park, Big Marco River, Sanibel Island, Fort Myers Beach. Once at FMB, our plan is to cruise down the Caloosahatchee River, crossing lake Okeechobee and East out the St. Lucie River to Stuart, FL where we will rejoin the Atlantic ICW. We are excited to traverse the Okeechobee Waterway.

The Okeechobee Waterway is just a small segment of the Great loop. The Great Loop is route Kelly & I plan to traverse possibly this Fall or next year. The Great Loop takes you down through the middle of America via the river system. It’s an opportunity to see the heartland from the banks of the rivers.

We understood that many of the anchorages we would spend time at would be off the grid, ie. no cell phone reception or places to get fuel, water, ice, groceries, etc. Step one was to re-provision the boat. Kelly keeps lists of what the boat needs for food and supplies so we took the dinghy in, grabbed an Uber and it was off to Winn Dixie for some groceries. It was particularly windy and the ride back with a dinghy full of groceries was a wet one with sea spray blowing over the bow, which was weighted down with beer and food.

We let go of our mooring line in Garrison Bight Mooring field around noontime and navigated our way out a narrow channel on the North side of Key West called Calda Channel.

The “color of the water” is a phrase I keep saying here in Key West. I’m just not used to seeing such bright greens and blues.

We followed a route that kept us in the deeper water for ease of navigation until we passed Cudjoe Key where we turned into Cudjoe Channel to navigate over the 5-6 foot depths to Crane Key. The Cudjoe Channel entrance daymark and buoys were missing, forcing us to keep an eye on our location to the shallows.

Crane Key turned out to be just a small key with scrubby, low vegetation. As the sun went down it was time for refreshments on the bow.

As the sun set, the 98% full moon rose. It seemed so bright in this remote location you might mistake this picture taken at 8PM as the sun.

Very early the next morning I snuck out on the back swim platform to do some night fishing under the moon streak. Luck had it and I caught a few fish!

We tossed this beast back into the sea and then began the “What kind of fish was that?” research. Thankfully, the internet is full of webpages as well as smartphone apps that help with this.

Identifying the species is just the first step. Next you need to figure out the fishing regulations for the state you are in. Size restrictions, open/closed seasons, etc.

I search the Apple App Store and found a great app called “Fish Rules App”.

Dry Tortugas

We’ve piloted MV Simple Life from Warwick, RI all the way to Key West, FL. We might as well make the 70 mile trek to the last seven tiny islands referred to as Dry Tortugas. US Highway 1 ends in Key West but the FL Keys continue West into the Gulf of Mexico. The last stop, Dry Tortugas, is a national park and is home to Fort Jefferson.

We awoke at sunrise, had breakfast and let go of our mooring. The winds were picking up but the predicted sea state was something we were OK with. We put Mallory Square in Key West to our stern and began motoring South. Very quickly into the journey you realize that there is no cellphone service outside of Key West

The first clump of low-lying keys that you pass of to starboard are part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge.

What is very cool is that there are half dozen or so home on Ballast Key.

You could clearly see on of homes as we passed.

The next set of islands are the Marquesas Keys.

We had planned to use an anchorage just along the western shore of Tin Tin Key. However, in-route we decided to go the whole 75 mile distance in one shot.

You can see the Marquesas Keys in this video.

On our journey, we passed many sea turtles flippering their way against the waves.

[Insert Youtube video of sea turtle passing

The water color at in this area is just amazing greens and blues.

When the cloud shadows move over the top of the water you’ll see distinct shades of blue.

Along with sea turtles we saw manta rays on the surface. I attempted to catch it on video but alas it dove as we passed.

[insert YouTube Video of Manta ray ]

The wave heights were beginning to pick up and you can see MV Simple Life is surfing at times in this following sea. When a wave would lift our stern our speed would increase about 1.5 knots we compared to our speed when we would slide down the back of a wave.

[insert surfing waves YouTube video ]

I had to keep my speed up to try and keep up with the following sea and at times our speed hit 10.5 knots. Keeping the speed up also meant a shorted duration in a following sea. After about 9 hours we could see Fort Jefferson off to starboard. Also noteworthy is Loggerhead Light on Loggerhead Key

We quickly raced around the narrow channel and found a spot to anchor in the small harbor. Shortly after anchoring many small commercial fishing boats appeared and two anchored along side us. I found it interesting that with the anchorage full, the fishermen decided to tie one boat off the back of the other anchored fishing boat.

This allowed the two boat to fit where only one could have using the traditional every boat rides on it’s own anchor.

There is a sea plane that takes visitors to the island and we watched as it raced over the surface prior to takeoff.

[insert sea plane YouTube Video]

It had been a long day but I brought the dogs ashore as I checked out the small island. On my way back in the dinghy I noticed the sun was going down so I raced the dinghy out to where I could get a good video of it.

[Insert sunset video]

If watching the camera view bob up and down as bounce in the waves here is static picture.

At night, sitting in the aft cockpit and looking up at the most amazing starry night. I must have seen twice as many stars in that black sky than ever before. As they wind howls over the boat and the stars rock in the sky you sip your beer and feel very small in the universe. It really is moments like this that will stick in mind.

Before retiring to my cabin, I decided to put the underwater lights on and to my surprise there we big fish maybe 2 footers swimming just a foot below the surface.

[insert YouTube video of underwater lights fish]

The morning came and unfortunately things were pulling us back to Key West. I rounded out of the entrance channel and we took the waves head on for our return trip

[insert YouTube video of waves head on ]

Just as we were arriving back in Key West we passed this sport fisher towing a small commercial fishing boat. It’s a long way home at tow speed.

I leave y’all with a reminder to never go to long before starring up at the stars and a dinghy sunset pic from Dry Tortugas

Key West

The trip down to Key West was full of things to see. It started with an overturned vessel. We saw a diver in the water possibly attempting to flip it? Hope nobody was injured?

There was a diver in the water hooking lines to the overturned hull

As we got closer to Key West, the water became a beautiful green-blue color.

We passed SV Toucan, a 40’ Manta catamaran underway and hailed them on the VHF offering to take some pics of them. Capt. Elizabeth thanked us and returned the favor.

The crew of Toucan would later invite us for a “Sundowner” which is live-aboard speak for why don’t you dinghy over to our boat just before the sun sets and we’ll do drinks and appetizers. They were terrific hosts and I enjoyed getting a tour of their amazing catamaran. If I get a copy of the selfie we took, I’ll post it here.

When you approach Key West from Hawk’s Channel (ocean side) you see sights such as huge cruise ships underway in the channel and others docked.

You pass Margaritaville Marina and many anchored boats.

Looked like they had student sailors aboard?

The US Coast Guard Key West station is down here and they have a large ship docked.

The Navy’s Naval Air Station and Army Special Forces Underwater Operations have a presence in Key West. We passed the many buildings with military logos and such.

US Army Special Forces Underwater Operations building logo

At one point a couple of inflatables with Army Special Forces motored by.

We grabbed a mooring ball in Garrison Bight Mooring field rather than fight the crowds in the different anchoring locations. Garrison Bight is the only real transient mooring field that I am aware of here in KW. The mooring field is run by Key West City Marina. Getting onto the mooring is a lot like in Boot Key Harbor where the mooring ball has a short pennant line that comes up from below the ball (rather than on the top of the mooring ball as it’s better to keep the scope angle low leading to the mooring anchor itself). Up North in Rhode Island, most mooring ball pennant lines are mounted on the top and have either a single long pennant line or a single that spits into two lines with loops for throwing over your bow cleats. Here in Key West the mooring pennant line is very short with a thimble that you must thread two of your own dock lines through. They ask that you keep a minimum of 10 feet between the boat and the thimble. The winds can really blow down here and they don’t want you short tying to the ball and potentially dragging the mooring anchor.

Dock lines through mooring pennant with thimble at end

Once tied up it was a bit of long dinghy ride into the marina office which is located in a different location than the transient dinghy dock.

We arrived on St. Paddy’s day so we wasted no time getting an Uber to Duval St. and hitting some of the local watering holes like Hog’s Breath Saloon. Want to see the drink menu? It’s on your plastic cup (not a bad idea). I had to do a Gumbash Smash just to make Danny & Dina smile. (Inside joke)

Every bar should do this. Starting at the top…

We found that the Sunset Pier had a good band playing and spent some time there taking selfies and enjoying the cool breeze off the ocean.

We ate at Margaritaville’s and found it was less crowded than adjacent restaurants due to the St. Paddy’s day crowds. The food & drinks were good.

The dinghy ride back to the boat was hysterical as we had not paid enough attention to where we left the big boat and we were driving around in the dink trying to find Simple Life. Fish were jumping out of the water as we skimmed over the shallows at high speed.

While there I got to visit places like The Green Room.

The Whistle Bar (AKA the Bull)

Is it the “Whistle Bar” or “The Bull”? – Branding issues?

We joined the 1st ever Key West Cruisers Net Social at Key West Waterfront Brewery (right on the water). We had lots of fun sharing drinks and stories with other live-aboard cruisers.

They teased me a bit being a live-aboard cruiser on a trawler vs. Sailboat but I like to tease them back a bit 😉

Waterfront Brewery right on the water, nice breeze

Lots of fun drinking & chatting with the other cruisers

We made the first ever Official KWCN Social

Don’t you just love the banter between sailors and those who went to the dark-side?

Some nights were dead calm which can get hot aboard without a breeze. Other nights the breeze was blowing in through the hatch and you needed a blanket to keep your toes warm. The funny thing about no wind is… the boats tend to spin randomly rather than all lining up with the wind. Our neighbors on a Manta 44 power catamaran had to jump in the water to untangle their mooring line that was wrapped around their mooring ball.

I offered help but they wanted to fix on their own. He’s a trooper

At night we would see amazing sunsets as we relaxed in the aft cockpit with a drink or two.

Boot Key Harbor – Week 2

We spent a total of two weeks in BKH (Boot Key Harbor). While there, a go-fast boat poker run paraded by.

We got to see a manatee even if the video evidence is quite brief.

We spent time at the Sunset Grille which is at the start of the famous Seven Mile Bridge

One of the best things about being a cruiser in BKH is the “BKH Cruiser’s Net” that is broadcast every 9AM on VHF channel 68. This communications link (along with their FB page) ties the live-aboard boater community together in a way I wish landlubbers did. Communicating with your boating neighbors everyday in just the two weeks connected us with more neighbors than our 13 years in our previous land-based home.

There is a format to “the net” that starts by allowing new cruisers to introduce themselves and departing cruisers to say goodbye. They then do announcements about rules of the harbor, weather, meet-ups, Charity work, etc. They allow boaters to ask questions of the group (ex. Can anyone help me program my Raymarine autopilot?) The amount of boating knowledge in the community is impressive. They hold a buy/sell/trade/give-away/ask-for different items cruisers want/don’t want. They do a trivia section and end with different boaters contacting each other on other channels to discuss business of sorts.

Through the Net, I learned of a cruiser, Capt. David of S/V Expectations who was offering to share his knowledge of the NW Caribbean.

David shared a book and his notes about sailing in the NE Caribbean. A popular route from Key West is to sail along Cuba’s coast to Cozumel, MX then down to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Roatán and Honduras. I and many other captains jumped at the opportunity to talk with this life-long boater to pick his brain about navigating these areas as well as his fishing tips. Below are two lures David was suggesting as well a pneumatic spear gun in lieu of a gaff.

David spent many years in Rio Dulce, Guatemala where it cost him $125/month for a slip. Not a bad deal to live in paradise.

Living on a boat we often spend time staring at the night sky. When you look around boat the sailboat anchor lights sway to and fro like dancing stars.

On one particular night I was staring up at the stars when I saw a meteorite or possibly a piece of “space junk” come flaming down to Earth. It only lasted about 2-3 seconds but it was an amazing sight to see. I was moved enough that I submitted an online “Fireball Report” at amsmeteors.org

While we were in the harbor there was a salvage operation going on that included an old sport-fisher with a bar and block on it’s bow being used to raise up a sunken vessel (possible Hurricane Irma victim).

Yes, that is an outboard mounted to the back of that sport fisher. You’ll see all kinds of things like this moment where boaters just dropped a full-size fridge on the bow of their runabout to deliver to a larger boat in the harbor. The community here donates items to fellow boaters in need. Many of the boaters here live life on a shoestring budget and donations are used when the budget is dry.

While listening to the net you’ll hear requests like the one from a family of 4 living aboard a 28’ sailboat bound for Guatemala that were looking for play dates for their children as well as home-school lesson plan swapping. I look up to these cruisers for their self-sufficient life style.

Each night we join in blowing our conch horn to announce that the sun has set.

We enjoyed dinking around the harbor with the dogs

We motored through Sister’s Creek and found many great sights of birds, boats and one spectacular tree.

But best of all were the sunsets in BKH

Boot Key Harbor – FL

Boot Key Harbor Florida

This last week we have been in BKH – (Boot Key Harbor). The week was made extra fun due to Susan’s visit. Right off the bat, Susan & I decided to do some snorkeling out at Sombrero Reef. We took the dinghy out via Sister’s Creek. Here are a few photos of the homes along Sister’s Creek.

As you exit the mouth of Sister’s Creek, off to port you’ll find Sombrero Beach.
Sombrero Beach is both dog & dinghy friendly.

Sombrero Reef is marked by a tower approximately 4 miles offshore.

Chart out to Sombrero Reef

Tower at Sombrero Reef

The dinghy ride out to the reef was a bit wavy but the water was nice and clear.

Upon arrival we tied to one of the free buoys provided by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Buoy Program . Anchoring is prohibited due to possible damage of the living coral below.

While Susan has snorkeling and SCUBA experience, it all new to me. It’s not easy getting into all that gear in a small dinghy. Once suited up we snapped a quick pic.

The only underwater camera I had was an actual Kodak disposable film camera (not digital). So much for being a tech-guy. The film says it expired in 2006 but it was still in the packaging. Anyone know where to find a fotomat booth in the Keys 😉

Kodak Film Camera — Film inside expired in 2006 but the best I had to go underwater

I was amazed that the fish completely surrounded me. Attempting to swim, I had to avoid touching the fish. Below us we could see two scuba divers and their bubbles racing to the surface.

[ Insert snorkeling photos once developed ]

Back at the BKH dinghy dock (one of the largest dinghy docks I’ve ever used). They have some great dinghy dock rules that separate the hard dinghys from the soft (inflatable) dinghys. Dinghy etiquette demands that you leave your engine down and tie with a long enough painter line that when other dinghys approach the dock for offloading persons and gear they can push your dinghy out of the way and contact the dock directly.
Once offloaded you simply tie your dinghy with a long line and push it back off the dock. I wish everyone knew to do this. I can’t tell you how many times I have landed in Block Island’s Boat Basin at the Oar restaurant and had to climb over many dinks that were “short tied”.

7 Dingy Dock — Dinghy Dock at Boot Key Harbor

Now it was off for a drive to Key West. Our drive down Rte. 1 was lined with colorful water and dark ominous clouds.

We saw many of these lizards that I’ll call it a Bearded Dragon. Reptilian experts chime in please.

We arrived at Key West for some shopping for the kids back home and a few drinks. We started our walk at the Harbor Walk end of Duval St.

Walking Duval you see many great sights.

We stopped in Irish Kevin’s for a little music and an IPA. Check out their webcam

We also grabbed some food & drinks at Willie T’s which is an interesting bar as the walls are covered in money with written quirky sayings on them like “Show me your pineapples”.

12 Willie Ts — Susan & I enjoying apps and drinks at Willie T’s

Lastly, it was time for some dinner & drinks at Lazy Days South.

13 Lazy Days South — Kelly & I enjoying happy hour at Lazy Days South bar

Key Largo South

We awoke early in the AM and took one last look at downtown Miami before departing from our anchorage off Key Biscayne.

This fine yacht was next to us when we left.

The Border and Customs Patrol boat passed us like a bullet.

We passed through narrow cuts in the mangroves.

There were many hazards to watch out for. This broken daymarker piling was snapped off at the waterline. Someone attached a green pole to make it a bit more visible. I can only imagine what it must be like to slam into one of these pilings so hard that you shear it off. Ouch!.

The bigger challenge in the Keys is water depth. It’s so shallow that you have to vigilant about staying out of the ‘skinny’ or shallow water. At times we saw depths in the 5′ range just inches below our full keel.

I think a captain wiser than I would say… “Thou’s Speed Over Ground shall not exceed a water’s depth”.

As we arrived into Key Largo we past the Anchorage Yacht Club to port

and a bar to starboard.

As we continued.. the water was an amazing shade of bright green.

Kelly enjoyed the breeze as the temp was somewhere in the 80s. Just a great day.

We originally thought we’d stop and anchor somewhere mid Key Largo but we instead did almost 10 hours South. The wind was blowing hard and we needed to find somewhere to anchor that would offer us some protection from the wind and waves. We picked a little shallow cove that we found a good spot to drop the hook. It was so shallow that as I backed down on the anchor @800 RPM and the sandy bottom was being kicked up by our thrust.

Tonight as we await the moon’s rising we are making plans for Boot Key tomorrow.