Flamingo, Florida Bay, Islamorada, and back to Marathon

Our departure from East Cape Canal was a bit hairy! The canal is deep enough, 10'+, but there is a bar across the exit into the sea and the water is very brown. The depth went from 10' to 2' in a short distance, I saw 1.1' flash on the depth sounder and the rudders kicked up but we did not touch the bottom even though it was quite choppy. Once across the bar it was plain sailing once more. The wind was a good 15kts from the north and we quickly picked up speeds exceeding 10kts. This made for a short trip and we were soon tied up at one of Flamingo's docks. They do not charge if you are only staying for a few hours so we had showers, filled up with water and headed out again. An interesting rowboat followed us in; they had just come from Fort Myers FL and were doing some sort of trials in preparation for a circumnavigation.

Ocean going rowboat

Huge flocks of shore birds and white pelicans were feeding on the sandbanks outside the Flamingo Marina as we navigated the channel out. There can be strong cross currents here and one needs to pay careful attention as there is very shallow water on both sides of the channel. From here we made our way south through some quite narrow passes near Murray Key and on to Man-o war Key where we anchored for the night. The water was really clear over sea grass but there didn't seem to be any fish around at all, even the ever present dolphins were nowhere to be seen. Lots of birds though, the island was full of cormorants.

Not the best photo but this is one of many flocks of cormorants leaving Man-o-war Key in the morning.

 Next we sailed on to Rabbit Keys for a night, still clear water and still no fish. I was expecting to see quite a lot of sea life here so this seemed a little strange. Sharon baked a delicious loaf of corn bread in the solar oven while we were sailing today.

Corn bread baked in our solar oven

 

The next morning we sailed to Islamorada to get online again and start processing some of the photos. We anchored off the Lorelei Bar and Restaurant which gets quite lively at night, a big change from the quiet in the Everglades..... good music though.

At 4 am one morning while at anchor during a rain storm, I was just thinking how dry and cosy our little Seawind 24 was when a big squall hit us followed by much wailing of the anchor drag alarm. We scrambled onto the deck in blinding rain and major lightning. By the time we got the engine started and the anchor up we had dragged 1/3 mile between some other boats (also dragging). We headed for the shallow water near some mangroves for some protection and managed to anchor again. We kept the engine in gear to help keep pressure off the anchor as the wind was still blowing in excess of 50kts and the holding here was less than perfect.

I still had a lot of photo editing to do and we had come up with some mods we wanted to do on the boat so we decided to sail back to Marathon City Marina to spend a month on a mooring ball before heading back to the Everglades. A nice downwind sail from Islamorada to the Seven Mile Bridge, managed 8.5kts with the genoa alone. This boat sails so nice!

Next: Trip 2 to the Everglades, White Water Bay.....

On To The Everglades

We began the first leg of our Florida Everglades photography adventure by defying superstition on a Friday morning with loads of bananas! A Seawind 24 does not carry much weight so 3 weeks worth of food and 1 week of water plus all our belongings had her right down on the her waterline. She felt a bit sluggish, which we expected, as we headed out of Boot Key Harbor. We were escorted out by a fairly large pod of dolphins followed by a couple of manatees who disappeared into the slightly murky water as we approached. Turning north in a 10 to 15 kt SE wind we were soon sailing along at 6 to 8 kts even with our big load. Our first destination was Sandy and Carl Ross Keys, a nesting area for roseate spoonbills. We arrived at about 2 pm and anchored in 2’ (we just love this shallow draft) of beautiful clear water.  The wind was light and the islands just beautiful, not another person/boat in sight, just peace and quiet, and lots of birds; spoonbills, pelicans, cormorants and white herons.

Sunrise over Carl Ross Key, Florida Everglades

Day 2 was supposed to be a short leg up to the west entrance to Lake Ingraham but did not work out quite as expected. When we arrived at the entrance the tide was going out and the current was really strong. We had planned to enter and anchor near the north west end of the lake but with the strong current and deep (10 to 15’) water we decided to head further into the lake. The channel became narrow with extremely shallow water on either side and with strong wind the only option was to carry on through the lake to East Cape Canal. We found a nice place to tie up near the canal dam. We saw a lot of dolphins along the way and in Lake Ingraham. Once we were tied up we sat on the trampoline enjoying the great peace in the Everglades while we had a wonderful meal which included fresh bread baked in the solar oven while we were sailing.

Our dingy with "Homerun" in the background at East Cape Canal

Owls and crickets are about the only sounds heard during the night in the Everglades. We saw the occasional firefly but not much else. Having coffee and breakfast in on the tramp in the morning was pretty special in such beautiful surroundings. We saw an American crocodiles near our boat which was quite exciting as this was one of the animals I had come to photograph. He drifted over to have a look at us and then went back to where we first saw him. The day was hot and humid which we expected ahead of the approaching cold front. Later the bugs came out; no-see-ums in a cloud that has to be seen to be believed. They kept us pinned down in the boat all night and most of the next morning until the wind came up. We did manage during the night (with lots of bites) to run out and take a quick shower in the rain and collect a fair amount of drinking water in our water collection system.

This american crocodile was about 30' from our boat at East Cape Canal

The next day we rowed our dinghy up the East Cape Canal to the north of the dam. We saw lots of crocodiles, 50+, they were on every sand bank and they had spots along the canal bank where they were basking. One came up right next to us, gave himself (and us) a big fright! They have the most beautiful yellow eyes, kind of like a cat’s eye just much bigger. We also saw lots of birds, including spoonbills, pelicans, Caspian terns, cormorants, herons, and a kingfisher being chased by a merlin. I got shot of photographs which will be posted on my website at; http://www.alanbosse.com/Photography.html We repeated this dinghy trip the following day and saw mostly the same crocs and birds.

Next: Flamingo FL for showers and water…….