Keys cruising

[Northcott]

Thinking about spending the fall on the Keys but my kids can't handle rough seas. If I cruise south from Miami, are the waters fairly protected from
Rough weather on most days?

If not, we may just cruise the west coast

 

[keyzcaptain]

Hawks Channel which is the channel just inside the coral reef that knocks down most of the rough sea conditions and runs the entire island chain from miami to Key West, depending on your draft there are frequent place to duck in to avoid bad weather or rough seas. Islamorada( the fishing key) Marathon(the family and normal key), Littel Palm Island (pricey but worth it) and finally key west which has all good water and services all around the island. i live on summerland Key just south of little palm.

Bill & Janet

 

[TopHattandTails]

I just cruised Hawk Channel from gov't cut to Key Largo past week, fished it for 4 days. 1 day was nice the other 3 days were 30 knots out if the east. The channel was 2' or less while out side the reef was solid 4-6 (almost unfishable). Dramatic difference inside versus outside. This was in a 45' express cruiser.

 

[GJH]

You can take the ICW in that boat, at least as far as Channel Five west of Isla Morada. Play the tide a little and you can go to Marathon but parts can get right to 5 ft inside the channel.. I sanded the lower 3 inches of my keel on that stretch from Channel Five. It's a nice cruise from Miami, with lots of anchorages along the way with things to see and do.

I'm not sure what months exactly you planning "in the fall" but the winds typically don't start picking up and persisting on a consistent basis until after Christmas... save for the occasional tropical storm or hurricane. We enjoyed cruising and hanging out in the Keys; not for everyone, but we kind of fit in. Never spent much time in Key West, other than a weekend over night anchored out otherwise day trips by car from Marathon.

 

[Dan Mapes]

I have to laugh. We went down around Florida and up the West coast a few years ago. However, we chose to take the route inside the keys down to Marathon before we turned North.
Given the shallow depth, it's not for the faint of heart. If you draw more than 3.5 or 4 feet I would strongly recommend you stay outside the keys.

 

[GJH]

Granted, it's been five years, but I draw five Dan and had no issues until Channel Five. Never did go aground even after there, just plowed through 3-6" of very soft sand (thank you Jack Hargrave for putting that deep keel on there, no effect on the running gear at all), but would not do that stretch again. The bigger irritation was all the crab pots in the middle of the channel from there down. It was like you could see where the ICW was from an aircraft because it was paved with the things. Ironically, the only place I ever grabbed one in the gear was in Hawk Channel on our trip to Key West.
Admittedly all our subsequent trips to and fro have been outside, exiting/entering via Anglefish Creek or Cape Florida (Key Biscayne), mostly because we'd dawdled at one end of the trip , had good weather and just went for it.

 

[Pascal]

With a 53 you cam easily run inside, it s plenty deep, I ve done it many time. 5' is more or less as big a draft you want to take inside down to marathon. Just avoid negative tides or times with northerly winds.

Hawks channel is kind of I95, the bay side is the Scenic A1A....

Weather isn't the best in the fall with tropical waves roll thru bringing rain. On the plus side, if something more serious brews you can pick east or west coast to get out of the way depending on track.

Personally if I had a few weeks to spend cruising I d go to the Bahamas instead of the keys, it's the same distance and much better cruising. The keys are great for flat fishing and diving, but other are no beaches...

 

[Dan Mapes]

I yield to the big guns!

Just keep in on the rhumb line so the channel gets swept ok?

 

[saltshaker]

I'm of the mindset that big boats belong in big water. Like TopHattandTails pointed out, your pretty well protected by the reef. The run isn't very far and if you have a decent weather window, go for it. If you want to run at hull speed you can but if you decide to make some time, you'll have plenty of room to run.

 

[Angela]

I was just down there a few weeks ago. I could not get any farther than Key Largo on the inside. We got into Blackwater Sound (that’s where Gilbert’s, Carribean Club, Big Chill, Marriott, etc. are). When you leave Blackwater Sound and enter that next “river” which takes you to Tarpon Basin, there is a shallow hump there that I can’t get over. Last Fall, I went down through there, all the way to Tavernier, in a 46' power cat with a draft of about 2.5 feet. Even with that boat, we went over that hump in neutral. I watched it on the depth sounder. I cannot remember the exact number, but it was something like almost 4 feet. I do remember that I marked my chart as that point being the end of the line for Sanctuary which has a 5' draft. Question - do the later model 53's have the same 4' draft as the older ones, like Pascal’s? For some reason, I seem to think that the newer boats’ drafts got deeper, or maybe I’m just comparing the 53MY to the 58YF which is slightly deeper than the 53MY.

Once you pass Gilbert’s, go slow - you’ll see the “chocolate milk” behind you, but that will clear as you get further into the sound. It’s all soft in there. You can anchor nicely in front of the Carribean Club. We spent almost a week there and had a blast with our little Hober, exploring all those places the big boat can’t get into. You can get to the outside from there in a little boat, which we did several times. I can’t wait go back and do all that, and more, again. Blackwater Sound has become one of my favorite places. There were places we didn’t get to explore because we ran out of days.

 

[Pascal]

Big boats in big water? Maybe but there is nothing to see or do on the ocean side... That's the problem with the keys, once you get to 5' draft there isn't much to do as the anchorages are limited

What I like about the bay side are the remote anchorages like butternut, shell, pigeon, etc.

On the ocean side, you re limited to Rodriguez, Indian key and marathon. Not much more and neither are that nice. Hawks resort is out over 5',, so marathon is more or less your only option.

Yes, there is a hump at the entrance to the entrance of Dusenberry creek but I ve been over it many time with my 53 (although a few years back) and I ve never seen less than 5' mlw. I don't think it's changed much since and I haven heard or read any evidence to the contrary. Almost 4' without knowing the exact tide and most importantly the sounder calibration is not very useful. Was the sounder even set up with an offset or just read from the Xducer? Makes a big difference

But again, from Miami it's about 40nm to KL... For another 10 gallons of fuel, I d rather go to Bimini, weather permitting obviously.

 

[TopHattandTails]

1980 53MY is the first year for series 2. I draw 4.0' with running gear at 3.5'.