Sun, Jan 31, 2010 - Marathon, FL

Our plan for the day was to head to the town of Flamingo which was about 20 miles from Little Shark River and our last stop before jumping over to the Keys. We got a leisurely start and pulled anchor at 9 am motoring out of the anchorage during the low tide.




We were surprised to see just how low the water level was in the area at the mouth of the river where many boats tended to anchor when they arrived. The mud flats were exposed, some of the sailboats looked like they might be on the bottom, and there was a definite odor of sulphur mixed in with the other smells. We were glad we had chosen an anchoring spot further upstream and we imagined that the boats there that morning were envious of our ability to move through the shallow water since they weren’t going to be able to go very far until the tide came in.

And speaking of the tide, since there was a full moon, the low tides were lower and the high tides were higher than average. We read a caution in our guidebook that morning about visiting Flamingo during a full moon tide. It pretty much said, “avoid going” since the channel into Flamingo carries only 3.5 feet at mean low water. As we made our way through Everglades National Park, the water seemed extremely shallow and we started talking about leaving Flamingo for another visit and going straight to Marathon and Boot Key. The winds were out of the northwest around 10 knots and forecast to switch to the northeast before noon and increase to 15-20 knots. There was also talk of scattered thunderstorms for our area. At the point where we had to decide to turn left to Flamingo or right to Marathon, we chose to make the right turn to see if we could get enough speed up in that direction to get us safely to Boot Key before dark. It appeared that it would be close, but we were counting on some help from the increasing winds and passed Flamingo by as we continued on our way.

Fortunately for us, we were not bothered by thunderstorms. Unfortunately, the wind never really got up to more than 10 knots. We had to stay alert for the ubiquitous crab pots – just when you thought you were in the clear, there was another one to dodge! All things considered, it was a good crossing and we arrived at Boot Key with time to spare. At 4:40 pm we dropped anchor in the bay just west of Boot Key where several other boats were moored. We felt it would be best to rest there for the night before heading into the harbor.