Florida Keys

Bum · Dec 3, 2012

Hello David, Frank Pappy's is a must.My first trip to the Keys was towing my 20' O'Day to Bahia Honda from NJ with a buddy.We spent ten days there,when the Ocean was too rough,I lowered the mast and went under the 20' high bridge to the Bay side. www.bootkeyharbor.com is a great site with a lot of info.Several years later,my wife and I towed our Catalina 270 down and spent two months in the Keys using Burdines in Marathon as our base.There was a charge for leaving our pickup and trailer there,when we were not at the marina.We have sailed to the Keys and Bahamas twice from NJ since in our Beneteau 331.We do love the Keys.The past few years,we have been down there with our pickup camper,towing a 17' powerboat.There are a lot of pics of the Keys on my wifes blog, www.bumsrest331.blogspot.com camping and farther back in the blog,sailing.Good Luck, the Bum

kito · Dec 10, 2012

FYI, for those interested in buying 'Cruising Guide to the Florida Keys', I found mine at yachtsmen guide .com. The latest version (12th edition) for $22.95 (new) shipped. Beats anything I found on Amazon. Not trying to spam for them but was the cheapest I found for a new copy and just wanted to pass on the info.

MrBill_FLL · Dec 11, 2012

just reading this. I think the next marina south had a travel lift. the are more common than steep ramps. there is one in marathon for sure. someone posted about bahia honda in this thread. you have to rent a slip, or a camp site to keep your trailer there. THIS is the biggest problem -where to keep your trailer and tow rig. personally, I love the 10,000 islands area. you can get there from the middle keys, or head over and launch at flamingo. but its buggy. or when I go to the 10k, I use goodland's calusa cove marina. its very very isolated. but can be buggy. they spray in the keys, not in the 10k. note: this time of year, we get fairly strong fronts. (only lasting a few days). winds start moving to the west, then north, the lessen as they move to the East. its nice to be able to move from bayside to ocean side to avoid the strong winds. our winds are normally E to SE and the west winds cause some problems on the bayside... -check your marina for protection from the west. one other place to try is sea bird marina in long key. they have parking and a good ramp. -but poor protection from the west winds. note the upper keys are closer to miami, and are more heavily used on the weekends and holidays. middle and lower keys are less busy, more laid back. how many aboard, ages, and what do you want to do? shoot me a pm if anything specific. I spent a lot of time there as a kid..

MrBill_FLL · Dec 11, 2012

Slade said:
I did that trip from Indianapolis a half dozen times or so with a Starwind 19 and a Ranger pickup. Would leave at 0530h and get to the Florida state line around 1900h. Smokies (mountains, not Troopers) were no problem at all. Would leave early the next morning and I was usually in the water off Key Largo by dinner time that day. I haven't been there lately but Pennekamp State Park had a great ramp and secure parking.
Stayed on the ocean side with a day or two exception. Got all the way to Key West and then headed back into some pretty fun conditions. Covered alot of water but didn't make much headway. Pulled into Hawk Key (then it was Duck Key), stayed a day or two to wait out the wind. (On the nose at 15+kts) Grabbed a bus on 1 and rode back up to Largo. Picked up the truck and trailer and motored down to Hawk. Loaded up the boat that afternoon and headed back North.
Best advice...don't arrive on a weekend and don't head North on a Sunday.
Great sailing in Hawks Channel with fabulous diving along the way.
Definitely do it. First time sliding off the trailer and looking into that crystal water (saw a small shark swim under the boat first time) you'll never regret having your own vessel there.

hens and chickens , just outside of snake creek /p

(one of the few crosssing points in upper keys). is a good dive site (15-20') just outside of hawks channel. /p

yeah, power boat traffic is brutal in the ICW on weekends.

Slade · Dec 19, 2012

djplatt said:
Thanks to everyone for your responses. Lots of good information here. I have ordered 'Cruising Guide to the Florida Keys by Frank Papy' from Amazon. I will definitely check out South Dade Marina. Does it have a travel lift? I might need one to get out. I am thinking about using one to launch as well. The trailer is fairly new and and I would like to keep it out of salt water. chp makes a good point about I75/I95. I will be towing 4500 lbs with an F150 and would like to avoid as many hills as possible.

Photographs and an account of the trip will definitely be published. details on that later.

Umm Slade - how big a shark??

Thanks again everyone

I'm sure it was alot smaller than what I thought I saw....looking back, I'd say realistically it was a 4 footer. My brother was standing on the trailer tongue and was only about 10 feet or so away. He was a Marine Biologist and said it was a nurse shark. Felt like I was sailing in an aquarium.

Florida Keys

Bum

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djplatt

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kito

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MrBill_FLL

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MrBill_FLL

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Slade

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djplatt

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