We’re in the Keys!!
We made it to Marathon Key, which is about half way down the Keys towards Key West from Miami. We actually made it before noon today because we left early this morning from Little Shark River on Florida’s west coast and traveled 50 miles across open Gulf waters directly to Marathon Key. This is pretty much the standard way to get to the Keys from Florida’s west coast because it’s much easier and faster than going around the bottom of Florida to the top of the Keys (near Miami) and then down the Keys. It also lets us start our Keys cruising in the “middle keys”.
It was VERY enlightening to cross under the bridge near Marathin and go from the gulf side and almost no waves, to the Atlantic side and 4 footers. The Keys enclose the gulf waters between the keys and the bottom of Florida so there is only 10 to 50 miles of open water for waves to build, but on the other side of the keys, there’s 2,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean, so the same wind conditions carry much bigger waves. For the hundredth time, I was glad I bought the stabilizers system for our boat. They are large hydraulically operated fins under the boat that keep it from rolling when it gets hit by waves, and it REALLY WORKS GREAT! It keeps the waves from rearranging the furniture in the boat and keeps the crew MUCH happier….but Hey!....We made it to the Atlantic Ocean!!
We’re now at the Marathon Marina and Boat Yards, right on the end of the docks where we look out into the harbor entrance straight west over the Atlantic Ocean and sunsets. Our first Keys sunset was a ho-hum sunset, but we’ll have a month in the keys and we plan to watch them all.
We made it to Marathon Key, which is about half way down the Keys towards Key West from Miami. We actually made it before noon today because we left early this morning from Little Shark River on Florida’s west coast and traveled 50 miles across open Gulf waters directly to Marathon Key. This is pretty much the standard way to get to the Keys from Florida’s west coast because it’s much easier and faster than going around the bottom of Florida to the top of the Keys (near Miami) and then down the Keys. It also lets us start our Keys cruising in the “middle keys”.
It was VERY enlightening to cross under the bridge near Marathin and go from the gulf side and almost no waves, to the Atlantic side and 4 footers. The Keys enclose the gulf waters between the keys and the bottom of Florida so there is only 10 to 50 miles of open water for waves to build, but on the other side of the keys, there’s 2,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean, so the same wind conditions carry much bigger waves. For the hundredth time, I was glad I bought the stabilizers system for our boat. They are large hydraulically operated fins under the boat that keep it from rolling when it gets hit by waves, and it REALLY WORKS GREAT! It keeps the waves from rearranging the furniture in the boat and keeps the crew MUCH happier….but Hey!....We made it to the Atlantic Ocean!!
We’re now at the Marathon Marina and Boat Yards, right on the end of the docks where we look out into the harbor entrance straight west over the Atlantic Ocean and sunsets. Our first Keys sunset was a ho-hum sunset, but we’ll have a month in the keys and we plan to watch them all.
The red line of our progress on the Great Loop Route map is really growing! We’ll be in Marathon (actually Vaca Key, town of Marathon) for about a week. Our daughter, Ann is joining us on 1/11 and we’ll probably go out in Nonchalance to some of the cool snorkeling and dive sites in the nearby keys and return here.
No comments:
Post a Comment