Key Largo - A plan works out

The boat is anchored off Key Largo Channel while I do some work.  The rest of the crew took the dinghy up the channel to buy some snorkeling gear and a few other items.  Our plan back on Monday was to travel to Lake Worth Inlet on Monday night, then down to Miami Beach on Tuesday night, then work our way down Hawk Channel in the upper part of the Keys to Rodriguez Key near Key Largo on Wednesday night.  A crazy thing happened - that is exactly what we did!  No real surprises and the trip was about as easy as it gets.

We arrived in the anchorage in Lake Worth pretty late, after the sun had set, but we had plenty of light from Riviera Beach and the nearly full moon.  The anchor set really well, so we collapsed asleep without any worries.  The next morning we got a real treat - when I went to pull the anchor up, I could see the bottom clearly in 15ft of water!  Not only that, I could see the chain running off in the distance!  As we pulled the rode in, we could see the sandy/grassy bottom and then the anchor itself.  Awesome!  Definitely not in New England anymore!

The Miami Beach anchorage wasn't quite as clear, but still pretty nice.  The problem was that there was a ripping current going right through!  I tied a rope to myself and another one to Reece and we jumped in - very nice and warm, but it felt like water skiing!  If we let go of the ladder, we'd immediately start to get swept away.  There was no real danger, but keeping up with Reece was tough.  The spot itself was beautiful:

Miami skyline from behind Fisher Island

We had another early start yesterday morning as we finally "officially" reached the Florida Keys.  The pace slowed waaaay down - much fewer go-fast boats and a lot more cruising sailboats and trawlers now.  The autopilot was set and we just relaxed as we looked over the side and watched the bottom of the ocean roll by.  We thought about pulling over to one of the reefs on our port side, but decided to make directly for our anchorage at Rodriguez Key instead.  We arrived early enough that we all jumped in the water as soon as the anchor set - wonderful!  There were small schools of juvenile Yellowtail Snapper all around us - and we discovered they like bread (but not tortillas, lol, no Tex-Mex fish here).  I was able to dive down under the boat and inspect the rudder, prop, and keel for the first time - no damage, but you can tell we've drug our keel through some mud!  Fortunately, the bottom paint looks perfect, so no need to do anything.

The only disappointment is that my Super Snorkel machine just won't work!  There is always something wrong with it, even though I've never really used it in 10 years!  The device is basically a lawn mower engine connected to an air compressor sitting in the middle of a truck inner-tube.  Two 60ft air hoses with on-demand regulators lets you dive as long as you like (up to 60ft away).  In theory, awesome machine.  In practice, there is constantly something wrong with it!  The latest issue is that the screw binding the air compressor to the engine keeps vibrating loose, resulting in the air compressor shaking like crazy.  This morning, Ben and I got that fixed, so I tried again.  No luck - now the belt that drives the compressor is slipping so bad that the compressor won't run.  Good grief.  What a piece of junk.  I'm very disappointed in this product.  Fortunately, the company that makes it is up in the Tampa area, so I'm going to take it back to them and get them to fix all the problems with it.  Oh well...  At least we can still snorkel!

So after a big breakfast of French toast, bacon and eggs, I'm working until the crew to return from shopping in Key Largo, then we are headed out to one of the reefs around here to snorkel the rest of the afternoon.  We'll probably come back to this anchorage later tonight, then decide what to do for tomorrow.  We are thinking to making for Marathon, but not sure yet.  We'll see...