A nice visit in Key West

We are under way northbound in the North West Channel, headed for the Gulf of Mexico with Key West behind us. It's been an enjoyable week and a half, but it is time to move on, and tonight is our weather window. Here in the channel we have over a knot against us, a consequence of choosing a departure to give us a late morning arrival tomorrow morning.

The perpetually-stolen Mile 0 sign was in place when I rode past.

Friday afternoon after my last post here, we passed Miami Beach and Key Biscayne and worked our way up through the Cape Florida Channel, also against the current, and dropped the hook at the south end of the anchorage off No Name Harbor (map). There is seldom room inside the harbor itself, where the state park charges $20 to anchor overnight, but in settled conditions such as we had, outside the entrance is a much easier choice.

Giant LED-billboard boat running up and down Miami Beach.

We had anchored inside the harbor on our first training cruise some 13 years ago, and have not been back since, although we did anchor outside the harbor on our way past Cape Florida last year. I've been wanting to return and have a meal at the Cuban restaurant right on the harbor, the Boaters Grill, and on this stop the conditions were perfect to splash the tender and go into the harbor.

As we expected, there was no place we could have squeezed Vector in the anchorage, and the day-use seawall, which is too shallow for us anyway, was also full. We shared a nice Paella and then strolled around the harbor a bit, checking out the much newer tiki bar just off the harbor entrance, popular for its sunset views over Biscayne Bay.

No Name Harbor as seen from The Boaters Grill.

We decked the tender as soon as we returned, and in the morning we weighed anchor to head right back out the Cape Florida Channel to sea, where we turned right into the Hawk Channel that leads along the ocean side of the keys. The channel is bounded by the keys themselves on one side, and a line of reefs on the other -- North America's only barrier reef.

Sunset over our anchorage from Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne. Vector is off-frame to the left.

We made our usual first stop at Rodriguez Key off Key Largo, pretty much the only anchorage for us between Key Biscayne and Marathon. The wind direction dictates which side of the key we are on, and this time we dropped the hook off the south side (map) and had a dark, quiet night with a couple of other boats a good distance away.

We got an early start Sunday morning, hoping to have more anchoring choices than our usual spot off Boot Key in Marathon, where there was a lot of uncomfortable motion on our last few stops. We enjoy tendering ashore there at the Sunset Grille, but on this pass it was too rough to contemplate that. Sure enough, as we passed the anchorage, the dozen or so boats there were pitching quite a bit in the heavy north winds.

Sunset from our anchorage off Bahia Honda.

Instead we continued to Bahia Honda, where we reasoned there would be some flat water in the lee of the island. We pulled in as tight to shore as we could get, where, indeed, the water looked flat calm, and dropped the hook (map). Unfortunately, while the water looked flat, the relentless swell of the Florida Strait rolled us gently for our whole stay. I find this more annoying than uncomfortable, but Louise was pretty miserable, and we got under way first thing in the morning. In hindsight we should have pressed on at last light to Newfound Harbor instead.

We had brunch at Harpoon Harry's and this sign was in the restroom. For international guests, we imagine.

The early start from Bahia Honda had us in Key West by 1 pm, and we were tied up at the city marina (map) shortly thereafter. Louise had a big nap to make up for a miserable night, and I went for a quick stroll to see what, if anything, had changed from our last visit. I stopped by the Galleon Marina to say hello to good friends Dorsey and Bruce aboard Esmeralde, along with their two young Scottie pups, Maisie and Ollie. I wanted to wish Bruce a happy birthday.

We had figured to be in Key West only two nights, which was all we could get at the marina, and hoping a moderate weather window would hold for a departure Wednesday or maybe Thursday after a night at anchor. So we had arranged to have dinner with them Wednesday evening and we did all our catching up over a few beers and a nice meal at one of our favorites, Onlywood Grill. As luck would have it, though, we ended up staying more than another full week, as our hoped-for weather window evaporated.

Manatee just hanging out in the marina.

If we left first thing Wednesday morning, we might manage a lumpy day ride to Shark River, with the possibility of hugging the coast to make further progress Thursday. But odds were high that we could get pinned down in Shark River, with no services, no Internet, and no access to medical care, if needed, short of a Mayday call and an evacuation. In the end we decided not to risk it, opting instead to stay put in Key West, where we had all of those things, until the next window.

On Groundhog Day we were treated to an impressive, unannounced fireworks display off Sunset Island. No idea why.

The city marina was still fully booked and could not make space for us, which left the option of toughing out the coming windstorm in the anchorage, or else taking a much more expensive dock elsewhere in town. Regular readers may remember our machinations the last time we did this, wherein we had to keep moving between anchorages depending on the wind, and wherein we were often bashing our way ashore in the dinghy or even pinned down on the boat altogether.

Considering we had friends in town and also that my birthday was coming right up, we decided to splurge on a stay at The Galleon resort marina just a few hundred feet away, where I am pretty sure we paid as much for our slip (map) as we would have paid for a waterfront room, but without the housekeeping service. We were just down the dock from our friends and still a very short walk from town. I walked back to the city marina after we re-settled to move the motor scooter we had deployed to a closer spot.

I took in the tail end of the Farmer's Market at Truman Park. USCGC Ingraham museum ship in background.

The big storm blew through last weekend, and while the worst of it was on my birthday and trapped us on the boat most of the day, we were still able to get out for a nice dinner in town, and our friends even braved the elements to join us. We ended up at the other Onlywood location, off Duval street, which has  a patio surrounded by windbreaks on all four sides.

King tides had the Atlantic splashing over the famous marker. Look to the left.

The big blow was done and gone by the end of the weekend, and we had booked only to Monday morning for that reason. But a check on Sunday revealed weather for the crossing to San Carlos Bay would not really be comfortable until today, and so we extended our stay at the marina. The anchorage would have been comfortable once the winds had clocked around to the south, but we had a sort of inertia that kept us in place.

Across 11 days in town, we managed to hit quite a number of our old stand-bys for dinner, and a couple for breakfast. I made it around the island on the scooter a couple of times, including Home Depot and Publix runs as well as a stop at the only decent bagel shop in town. I knocked out a couple of projects, and one afternoon Bruce rented a golf cart and we all went down to Stock Island for a spin through Boyd's, where we stayed in Odyssey so many years ago, and dinner at Roostica, one of their favorites that was new to us. We even made it to the pool and hot tub.

When in Key West... At the tiki bar at the resort.

This morning we asked the marina for a late checkout (2pm is the most they will do), loaded the scooter, topped up the water tank, and had a Cuban breakfast sandwich from the Fishermen's Cafe, another new one for us recommended by Bruce. We were off the dock just before 2 and making our way out of the harbor.

Update: it's now 2:40 am and we are 14nm SW of Cape Romano. As I expected, Internet access disappeared well before I could finish the post, although, surprisingly, we were 26 nautical miles from the nearest civilization when it finally petered out altogether. I did hang the modem high on the flybridge soft top once we hit the ten-mile mark. Breaks for dodging pot floats, discharging our waste outside the 9nm environmental boundary, and having a nice sunset dinner in the pilothouse had me setting down the keyboard numerous times, and I did not get back to it until well into my solo watch.

Caught leaving the harbor, still bringing in lines and fenders. Photo: Dorsey Beard

In just a few minutes, Louise will relieve me on watch. We should be anchored off Sanibel Island later this morning, and will spend a quiet day recovering from our overnight passage, our first since I landed in the hospital. (We had hoped to avoid them altogether until I am off meds, but we ultimately decided a 20-hour overnight between two major population centers was a safer choice than a three-day trip with an overnight stop in the middle of nowhere.) Sunday morning we will weigh anchor and resume our northward journey.