Hi,
I've been sailing on the Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years now, mostly
weekends and a week here or there. All I know of the water I learned
from this bay. Now I'm getting ready to take my boat south for the
next six months, Florida I suppose. I have no real plan other than to
be some place warm with some nice places to anchor. My inclination is
to make for the keys for no other reason than it's as far south as I
can go and still be near land.

My question is, well, how are the keys? How's the bottom? Good
anchoring? Good sailing? A nice place to be? I'm serious. I really
don't know. All comments and suggestions are very welcome.

-Rick

x-no-archive:yes
(Richard) wrote:

Hi,
I've been sailing on the Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years now, mostly
weekends and a week here or there. All I know of the water I learned
from this bay. Now I'm getting ready to take my boat south for the
next six months, Florida I suppose. I have no real plan other than to
be some place warm with some nice places to anchor. My inclination is
to make for the keys for no other reason than it's as far south as I
can go and still be near land.

My question is, well, how are the keys? How's the bottom? Good
anchoring? Good sailing? A nice place to be? I'm serious. I really
don't know. All comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Going down the ICW there's very little place to sail - mostly just
using the jib for a little extra boost. Sometimes you can sail in the
sounds (Albemarle, Pamlico) of NC. Otherwise the channel is too
narrow and turns too much to be able to sail a whole lot. [I know you
didn't ask about the trip down, but I'll get to the Keys in a minute.]

In Florida there's almost no place to sail - maybe the Indian River.
And there are so many power boats especially on weekends that it
wouldn't be too safe to do that anyway. We tend to go outside from
Ft. Pierce to Miami (which takes us less than 24 hours). We did the
stretch from Lake Worth to Ft. Lauderdale inside just once and never
again. We can't go inside from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami anyway because
of the Julia Tuttle bridge which is only 55 feet.

If you go down to the Keys in the Hawk Channel from Miami (on the
ocean side) instead of down the ICW (on the Gulf and Bay side), there
is good sailing but not much in the way of places to spend the night.
We don't usually travel in the ICW or close to shore at night because
of crab pots, unlighted fishing boats etc. We go that way because we
draw 5 feet and that's about controlling depth in the ICW side of the
Keys. We're just more comfortable with more water.

The bottom in the Keys tends to be sand, rock and marl and not mud
like we are used to in the Chesapeake.

Some places will require you to take a mooring, which is cheaper than
a marina but more expensive than anchoring. We've been stuck on a
mooring in Key West (not Marathon) for a week while a Noreaster blew
too hard for us to want to take the dinghy in to shore.

You have to be careful not to damage the coral or the grassy areas
when anchoring (or running aground) or you will be subject to a large
fine, and I understand the whole area is a no discharge zone now. The
moorings (if you have a small enough boat -under 40 feet - we don't)
in Key West are supposed to have a pumpout boat that will come around
to the do the pumpout.

We like the Keys, but it is expensive in the winter - not just for
marinas, but there's a lot of other tourists there. From Key West you
can sail down to the Dry Tortugas. They have a big Race Week in
January.

http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/ba504/


grandma Rosalie
http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/