Keys after first of year

Have considered that area but for me.... with marginal "expected" holding...not the greatest anchorage.


If I am going to anchor in possibly greater than 20 knot winds...I want better protection and holding....which this area has but limited if other boats beat you there...with not much else around t fall back to. Many Dec-Mar cold fronts can easily give you 20+ not winds so I was skeptical of this anchorage unless I had all day to investigate and backtrack if needed.

psneeld said:

Have considered that area but for me.... with marginal "expected" holding...not the greatest anchorage.


If I am going to anchor in possibly greater than 20 knot winds...I want better protection and holding....which this area has but limited if other boats beat you there...with not much else around t fall back to. Many Dec-Mar cold fronts can easily give you 20+ not winds so I was skeptical of this anchorage unless I had all day to investigate and backtrack if needed.

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All, I can say is, that we found the holding good, and it worked great for us. But, we did have a 55 lb Rocna and an all chain rode. YMMV.

Like the Bahamas, I trust few anchorages in the keys as the holding 10 feet right or left can be completely different no matter what size/type anchor.


Just too many reports through the last 40 years since I frequented the keys to trust cold front wind predictions and open anchorages. Last time I was anchored down there.... 10-15 knot differences were noted so options were a safe backup.



I would try that area if I could get into a few spots that looked promising...but like I said...you have to be an early bird and backtracking to better anchorages is only a bet...not a sure thing if the crowd is in town.

psneeld said:

About the Naval Air marina...what does "a ways off" mean?

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Boca Chica Marina is at Mile Marker 8 on the Overseas Highway and transient slips with electric included are available for $1.00 a day per foot. The only catch is that you must have a Military ID card, either active, reserve or retired.

No problem being qualified...like many places in the Keys.... I hear they are full many months in advance.

Capitaine R said:

I have a friend who lives on his 37 Morgan on a mooring ball in the boot key field. He tells me there are spaces left, but they are first come first served. You can not reserve ahead of time.

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I was going to use the boot key field and called ahead of time.
There was no way they'd let me leave the boat unattended for 2 weeks while I went to work :-/

Nop

Check out the area, how would they know? Many boats are left there for weeks or months at a time. I had a friend who left his boat there all winter.

psneeld said:

No problem being qualified...like many places in the Keys.... I hear they are full many months in advance.

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That is not the case at all. I have a permanent slip and we have been here for the past year. The marina makes every effort to accommodate transients and we had a 56' Carver parked next to us last season for three months. Hurricane Irma shuffled the deck and a lot of long tern slip holders lost their boats or just decided that it was time to move on. Many of them were in their seventies. There is also a mooring field available if all the slips are filled. We are just starting into our high season and maybe 70% of the slips are filled.

Anyone interested in more information can send me a PM.

Bigsfish said:

Nop

Check out the area, how would they know? Many boats are left there for weeks or months at a time. I had a friend who left his boat there all winter.

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Yeah I didn't even imagine there would be a rule against it or I wouldn't have told them what my plans were.
I surely could have gotten away with it for 2 weeks.

Nopistn said:

Yeah I didn't even imagine there would be a rule against it or I wouldn't have told them what my plans were.
I surely could have gotten away with it for 2 weeks.

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They don't call it "The Sailor Park" for nothing. Nobody follows the rules!