Key West to Key Largo

We left Key West Saturday morning via Hawk Channel, nice and sunny but a bit rough 3 footers.  Went inside to Florida Bay at Biaha Honda State Park.  The park looks like a good place to take Owen & Izzy when they visit next month.  The bay was calm but loaded with crab pots and very shallow.  We ran over two crab pots and confirmed that the spurs work.  

The  opening in the old Key West Railroad bridge to Florida Bay

The bay side beach at Bahai Honda State Park

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Marathon at Blackfin Marina and Resort.  The marina is just a small canal, narrow but deep.  It is a small quiet laid back place. Kind of like stepping back in time 50 or 60 years, with lot’s of friendly people here.    Washed all the salt off from the days run and had a quiet dinner aboard. 

Looking for a hand out.

A couple of shots of the Blackfin Marina.

Sunday Sunrise.

Sunday we biked to K-Mart and Publix, found a “lookie bucket” at K-Mart which the grand kids should like, John has already checked the zinc on the boat with this bucket  and said he needs to look for a replacement.  After stocking up we headed off to find Boot Key Harbor.  Missed the turn and instead found Sombrero Beach after a nice but long bike ride on  the way back we did find  the road to Boot Key Harbor.  It is quite large with many boats moored.  We had lunch at Sombrero Marina and saw a couple of Lopper’s boats we had seen on our travels.  Unfortunately neither were aboard.  Back at the marina we met some fellow loopers Bill and Deb, traveling with their friend on 5 C’s.  They were from Michigan, it was nice to meet and chat with them.  We had another quiet dinner aboard.

A couple of shots of Boot Key mooring field, wow were there a lot of boats. 

Monday morning we had a pump out (sort of) there may be a problem with our holding tank gauge, will have to check it out in Key Largo.  The wind had picked up as we pulled out of the slip and we had to back all the way out of the channel.  No bumps or bruises along the way. 

Florida bay was full of crab pots, ran over 2 more and there was a slight chop.  Went outside at Channel 5 and into Hawk Channel in the Atlantic and it was quite choppy, 3 - 4 footers.  The seas calmed down as we got closer to Key Largo.  

The old railroad bridge with the arches next to the new highway bridge.

Tried to capture the turquoise color of the water.

Something Special called just as we were entering the Key Largo canal. We were busy and not able to answer them right then but sent off an email later.  We haven't seen them since the crossing, hopefully we can get together and catch up while we are here.  We gave the boat another good washing (salt water is icky) and settled in to our new home for a month.   

Our welcoming committee

There are no other Loopers here but there is a celebrity of sorts.  The African Queen is kept on a lift  here.  It is in the process of restoration and needs to reproduce the boiler.  Other than that it looks like it did in the movie.  They take people out to for a ride raise money for the new boiler.  We also found a restaurant where they did some of the filming for the movie Key Largo.  It's on the Florida Bay side and is reported to have great sunset views as well as all sorts of Bogart and Bacall memorabilia.

Cruising on the African Queen, this pic doesn't show the temporary outboard.

The view from our back porch.

Getting aboard at high tide gives us our stretching exercises for the day.

One of three pools in the resort complex, this pool and hot tub are right in front of our slip.

There seems to be a lot to see and do here, we have an extra stateroom if anyone wants to escape the frozen north for a few days.


Love to all,
John and Mary