Cruising South Florida and the Keys

When we left Vero Beach back in late January, we were going to continue down the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale to start our new writing assignment. Our first stop was at Lake Worth. It’s actually in Palm Beach and is very popular with the boaters headed to the Bahamas. It’s a large bay that is well protected with good holding for your anchor and some really pretty scenery. We were surprised to see Tiger Woods’ boat pulling into a marina just after we got our anchor set. The marina where we saw it is where he keeps his boat PRIVACY. We don’t know if he was aboard at that time but probably not.

After stopping there for the night, it was off the next day heading to Ft. Lauderdale. The trip isn’t too far, but there are 28 bridges along that stretch. There are probably more bridges in that section than on the rest of the ICW total. It took us forever. Between the “no wake” zones and trying to schedule the bridges that had to open for us, it was a nightmare. Fortunately we are able to get under most of the bridges without them having to open. However, it still took us almost 9 hours to go about 40 miles when it should have taken us about 5 or 6 hours (seems slow doesn’t it?). We did see a lot of fantastic homes. Some of the homes had to be 10 or 15 thousand square feet, and a lot of them also had huge boats tied up at a dock in front.

We stopped in Ft. Lauderdale at the New River Marina. It’s a great place because you’re right in the middle of town and walking distance to just about everything. New River is a very narrow, tight river running right through the middle of town and has an amazing amount of boat traffic. You’ll see little boats like ours (36 feet or smaller), and then you’ll see a maxi yacht of 150 feet or more. It’s unbelievable…and most of the river isn’t more than 100 feet wide with boats tied up on both sides. You have to see it to believe it. We wonder sometimes if everything will fit.

 The New River...it's crowded and narrow

We stayed for 3 or 4 days in Ft. Lauderdale and then decided to continue to Miami. Miami is the very first place that we stopped after arriving in Florida four years ago. So we thought that it was the perfect place to begin our 5th year of full-time cruising. We needed to do a bunch of updating to the Waterway Guide so we took a couple of days and did some writing trying to get used to our new “job.” All we really do is update the existing copy in the books and make any changes or comments that we deem appropriate. In some of the areas there are a lot of changes and in others there are no changes to be made. It’s up to us. Anyway, after a few days in Miami waiting for some good traveling weather, we moved on south to Dinner Key which is in Coconut Grove, FL, and it’s in the upper Keys. We decided to stay in a marina because we needed to have someone come and check our batteries. We were having a problem and needed someone who knew a lot more than we do. After finding our problem, we had to wait out some bad weather before we moved to “No Name Harbor”. Still in the upper Keys, it’s a place we had heard a lot about but had never been to before. It turns out that it was everything everybody had said and then some. It was a great spot! There was room for about 20 boats or so to anchor and very popular with the local boaters who could come in and tie up for the day (overnights are not permitted on the wall) to the seawall and have lunch or dinner. It was crowded, but we had a good time.

No Name Harbor on Biscayne Bay

Bud and Elaine with Biscayne Bay in the Background

Again, we waited out some nasty weather for a couple of days and then were off to Key Largo, which is the official start of the “Keys”, at least according to a lot of people. We decided en route to skip Key Largo and continue along for 20 miles to Islamorada which is another spot we stopped at four years ago. There is a tiki bar and restaurant there called Lorelei’s that was closed the last time through because of damage from Hurricane Wilma. We anchored in seven feet of water just off shore and out of the channel and later in the day we went ashore for “happy hour.” Wow, what a great place. Part of the building is enclosed but most of it is open air. You can eat out on the beach where they have tables and chairs or in the tiki bar where they have live entertainment every night. It’s a really neat spot and one that is on our “do again” list.

Off the next morning bright and early to Marathon, one of the most popular spots in the Keys. Next to Key West, Marathon is a major jump-off spot for the Canadians who are going to Cuba and everyone else who is trying to get to the Bahamas. This year those two destinations have been tough to get to because of the weather. In order to get to either Cuba or the Bahamas, you need to cross over the Gulf Stream. When making the crossing, you don’t want any wind from the north because the waves in the Gulf Stream get huge. This year we have had a tremendous amount of wind and most of it has been from the north. That’s one of the reasons it’s been so cold down here. Well, when we got to Marathon everything was full. All of the moorings (225 of them) and the marinas (several) were jammed. Fortunately we had called a couple of days prior to our arrival, and one of the marinas said they were full but might be able to accommodate us. We called the marina and they said they could put us up if we didn’t mind being tied up to the seawall. “Absolutely” was our reply. Well, when we arrived there were four other boats tied up there also. We had everything including cable TV. In talking to the boaters behind us, we found out that they were from Simi Valley, CA (which is where we lived for 35 years). We couldn’t believe it! She had graduated from Simi High School, and he’d had a business there for a number of years before they moved to Colorado. It’s really a small world!

We ended up staying in Marathon for 10 days. We really had a great time. We knew several people in the marina and were able to get some projects done on the boat that we had put off. All of the services for boats are there and supplies are easily available.

Sunset in Marathon

Marathon is always crowded

We waited once again for weather to improve. We needed to cross the Florida Bay and enter the Gulf of Mexico in order to start heading up the West Coast of Florida. Our course would take us almost due north and, of course, that’s where all of the storms had been coming from. We needed a good 3-day weather window. A short stop in the Little Shark River, which is in the Everglades National Park, then on to Goodland was our itinerary. The Little Shark River is unbelievably remote. Nothing works there; no cell phones or computer, nothing ashore…nothing but mangroves. It’s very pretty and a really protected anchorage. The night we were there, there were fourteen boats anchored, everyone just traveling through the area.

Diamond Girl anchored in the Little Shark River

The second day we left early and traveled to Goodland. It’s a very modest town, what there is of it. We wanted to go there because the Waterway Guide hadn’t been updated in this area for quite awhile. Getting to Goodland is a real experience. Very shallow! Looking at the charts we knew that there were some areas that would be challenging. We were right! Our boat draws four feet. We got down to 4.2 feet several times while entering the pass to Goodland. Once we got into the pass and the small channel, it got deeper and that was a relief. We passed the small town, and found several markers that were missing (that’s why we were reviewing this area) and a few other shallow spots, but we also discovered how beautiful an area it is. It’s dotted with small islands that are nothing but mangrove forests. They are so thick that you can’t see into them more than a few feet. We were very glad that we had ventured into the area because not very many do with our size boat.

We stopped for the night at Marco Island. It’s an upscale area and the start of all of the high-rise condo buildings on the West Coast of Florida. You can see them for miles from out in the Gulf. We’ve been there before so we just used it as an overnight stop, and then we moved on to Naples. Naples, also, is a very upscale town. It’s much larger than Marco with more shopping, restaurants and boutique shops. It will definitely be a stop for us again.

The other day we had some California friends call us. They were here visiting some mutual friends of ours. We met for lunch and got caught up on all of the gossip from So Cal. We had great conversation and it’s always nice to be with friends.

We will be off again soon to continue up the Florida West Coast. And, as always, we will keep you up to date.

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