Boot Key Harbor

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We have had a great time sailing in the Florida Keys; the weather is warm and sunny and the water is blue and filled with lots of marine life. We saw many turtles, sting rays, and man o war on our sail down thru the Hawk Channel on our way to Key West. And there are lots of reefs to explore and great fishing along the way too. But the most surprising aspect of sailing in the Keys is how shallow the water is. Most of these beautiful small islands in the chain are surrounded by only a foot or two of water, making them completely inaccessible for the Rum Runner (which draws 6 feet). So in a way, we were disappointed with cruising here because we couldn’t explore the islands we passed and heard so much about like Key Largo, Big Pine Key, and Bahia Honda.

One of the only anchorages we could get into is Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. It is a very protected anchorage, located about half-way down the chain, making it a popular stop for many sailors and boaters. In fact this small harbor hosts around 200 boats at any given time. It is a fun place to visit and it has a very active cruisers net. The cruisers net is an organized network for all the boaters in the harbor. At 9 am in the morning every day the host of the cruisers net gets on the vhf radio and announces the weather, introduces new people to the harbor, and tells everyone what the days activities are (like live music at Burdines or a pot-luck at the Dockside or a lighted boat parade at sunset). There is also a “buy, sell, give away” portion as well as a time for announcements from all the boats. It creates a community for boaters and is a great way for everyone to get to know each other. We met a lot of great people in Marathon and enjoyed our time there.

One day we decided to hop in our dinghy and visit the beach that some of the other cruisers told us about. We had to motor about a mile, thru the river and canals with beautiful homes and private boat docks, until we reached this Atlantic beach. It was a beautiful beach, with sand so white and water so cobalt blue and lined with palm trees. It also had great facilities, a basket ball court, and picnic tables in concrete huts. Of course we had to bring all of our creature comforts to the beach like the umbrella, camping chairs, towels, sunscreen, books, cards, dog toys, and a cooler full of beer and snacks. It reminded us of going to the beach in the Bahamas and we had a great time. That is when we realized that we hadn’t really gone to the beach for a beach day in months, actually since we left the Bahamas, and how good it was to be in the islands again.

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Photos

The Beach!
Enjoying this beautiful beach- sure is good to be back in the islands.

Sandy Nose
Kona loves the beach!

Jay at the Beach
Jay at the beach, under a palm tree.

Jen at the Beach
Just kickin' back at the beach.

Boot Key Harbor
Over 200 boats in this protected anchorage.

Burdines
Lots of great music at this tiki bar and restaurant.

Fish Market
The fish market restaurant in Marathon, home of the Lobster Rubin- yum!

Lighted Boat Parade
The Marathon lighted boat parade, a great holiday tradition.

Comments

[Margaret]

Wow...what fun. It's bad to be in Florida and not get to see you and Jay. We have really had a good time in the Destin area. Didn't get to St. Augustine...really wanted to, but ran out of time and it has rained a lot this last week. We are heading home tomorrow and Gran returns to Denver Wed. Keep having fun...you will always remember these days!!