Boot Key Harbor to Lignumvitae Key

Day 23: March 22, 2013

Sunrise in the neighborhood in Boot Key Harbor

We had a wonderful day of sailing today.  We are continuing our march toward the mainland of Florida.  We are starting to run out of various supplies one of which is breakfast meats so this morn we had eggs, a fourth of a pork chop each and blueberry blob muffin.  We fried the chop and found it to be a great starter for the day.  I had gotten up early and did our typical presailiing cleanup and set up so that we were able to drop our mooring ball and head out by about 8:00.  The water, throughout the night had been glassy but by the time we were ready to leave, a southerly wind began to blow lightly over Boot Key Harbor.

Cormorant airing out at the abandoned marina

We motored out and planned to travel around the south side of the keys to a place called Long Key Bight, but when we got out in the big waters, we realized that the waves coming in from the south were already building and the ride was destined to be a bumpy one.  So, we swung back west, headed for the Moser Channel cut in the Seven Mile Bridge.  It was a nice breeze so we raised the sails and motor sailed for a couple of miles so that we could charge the batteries.  Since the wind was from the south, I opted to sail through the narrow opening under the bridge and as expected, it was no big deal.

Sailing for the cut in Moser Channel

Leaving Moser Channel, we turned east and headed for somewhere in the east end of Long Key where we could drop anchor or pull into a marina.  Our objective was to find a place where we can get ashore fairly easily.  We had gotten a call for our son, Scott, asking if we could meet his family sometime on Saturday.  It turns out that marinas are in short supply in the area about 25 miles east of Marathon.  We knew that we could stop at the Sea Bird Marina on Long Key but had hoped we could get a bit further east before we stopped for the night. 

We located a marina, Robbie’s Marina, at the south end of Lignumvitae Channel on Lower Matecumbe Key.  The tour book said that there were power lines at the approach to their marina that made it impossible for a sailboat to approach, so I called them and they offered that we could anchor in the main channel just outside of their marina and use the dinghy to travel to their dock.  So that became our plan.

The area around Lignumvitae Key is a significant state sanctuary of very shallow water and narrow passages so as we moved toward the channel, we dropped our sails and slowly motored in.  The channel in was, for the most part, fairly deep, up to 12 feet, and about 100 yards wide.  However, at one point in the middle of the channel, I glanced down at the depth sounder and it said we were in 4 feet of water.  I held my breath and instantly we were back in 12 foot waters. 

At the end of Lignmvitae Channel, we found the marina and a great place to drop our anchor and paused to contemplate our situation.  This great anchorage was right next to US Highway 1 and was REALLY noisy and also, it was right next to a side channel that ran under the low bridge.  In the first 10 minutes we were there, no less than 7 fishing and pleasure boats flew by us shaking our back molars.  We decided that this was not to be our resting place for the night.

As we were traveling north, I had the boat steered with the tiller pilot in a wide straight part of the channel while I went down to get our “Sun Shower” to be filled for an evening cleansing.  Just as I started pumping water into the bag, we hit the bottom hard.  The centerboard came up and back down with a crash.  That is a really denerving sound.  I checked things out and there appeared to be no damage.  It was in the area where I has seen the 4 feet depth on our way in.

We pulled around to the north side of Lignumvitae Key.  There were already 4 boats anchored in this wide open area but it was not at all crowded and the waves were minimal as we dropped anchor about 100 yards from the island.  The anchorage is very well protected from south winds and the forecasts indicated that we were in for south winds for the night.

Once we were settled in and anchored, I decided to put on my mask and fins and check out the condition of our centerboard.  The water temperature was pleasant but the water was milky and it was amazingly hard to see more that about 4 feet in front of you.  The centerboard was undamaged.

Janine dissecting a NY strip steak with Dink looking on.

Back on board, I rinsed off with the “Sun Shower” and set off to create another NY strip steak and pasta dinner.  We started with cheese and crackers accompanied with a glass of Columbia Winery Riesling.  Dinner on the deck as the sun dropped below the horizon was delightful.



Sunset off of Lignumvitae Key



I took another star sighting with the sextant but the horizon to the south was impeded by the island and I could not get a good sighting so my calculations were way off. I will continue to work on this.

It was a warm night and we encountered our first mosquitoes.  Bed at 9:00.