Adios to Dinner Key

1/27/15
Rodriguez Key/Key Largo FL
Position: 25 02.549N, 080 27.142W
Posted by Bill

At 7 AM, we made the break from Dinner Key. The forecast was not optimal, but it was the best we had for who knows how long. It is frustrating. You see a weather window a few days out, so you wait instead of leaving, and in a day the window gets slammed shut. Or, you don’t go because it looks like a bad passage, and the weather turns out to be just fine. So, we decided to go.

We cruised across Biscayne Bay and headed for the Biscayne Channel that leads to the ocean. The waves and wind were noticeable, but not too bad. The channel is just south of Key Biscayne and cuts through an area known as Stiltsville. As early as the 1930’s and for decades leading up to the 60’s, houses were built on stilts on the water in the area south of Key Biscayne. As the story goes, there was much gambling and debauchery, as the owners lived by their own laws. Hurricane Betsy took it’s toll on the area in 1965, and the building laws didn’t allow rebuilding of the houses. There are several still standing that are now part of the Biscayne National Park. Here are some pictures leading up to the channel:
Key Biscayne:
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Stiltsville:
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Looking back at the tip of Key Biscayne:
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As we exited the channel, we went out into the Atlantic. Here you can see Key Biscayne and Miami in the background:
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We also started to encounter 3-4 foot waves and winds to 25 knots:
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Fortunately, it was behind us, and we averaged over 7 knots for the entire trip to Key Largo. After we got to Elliott Key, we were in the lee of land again, and the waves subsided to around a foot. There wasn’t much boat traffic, but we did see a couple of big boats like this one:
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Around 2:30 in the afternoon, we made it to Key Largo:
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And then anchored off Rodriguez Key:
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It is still very windy and the boat is rolling through the waves, but it isn’t any worse than what we were having at Dinner Key. Tomorrow we get up early and head to Marathon.

Today’s sunset:
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