What, you ask? Well,
get a cruising sailboat with a five foot draft into Boca Chita Harbor. It’s a small place with an outside anchorage
(exposed from all sides – Biscayne Bay to the South, West and North; the
Atlantic Ocean to the East), showing 7 and 8 feet of depth on the chart. There is also a narrow looking channel that
NOAA shows as 5.9 feet at mean low water.
The channel though stops at land and the harbor itself is not even seen
on the chart. But it’s there. About an acre and a half of calm water
surrounded all around with a wooden and concrete bulkhead and plenty of cleats
to tie the boat.
We came in on Tuesday about an hour before low tide (in New
England, moving at low tide lets you see where the rocks are). The channel was mostly 7 feet, sometimes just
over six. The last turn though showed
5.6 but once into the harbor it was 8 to 10 feet throughout. We tied up on the East side in front of the
trawler “Liberty” just in from the West Coast of Florida (but originating out
of Quebec). The Ocean Reef Yacht Club
(la-di-da) was having a picnic at the pavilion on the West side of the harbor
with about 10 or 12 small boats in attendance (no doubt tenders to some monster
motor yachts of the rich and famous).
A pretty little place.
The entire Key is only 32 acres.
Once owned by Mark Honeywell of Honeywell fame, he built a sixty foot
lighthouse (which the Coast Guard never let him light – damn the permitting
process). Honeywell built an estate
here, dug the harbor to park his 110 foot motor launch and entertained the
Committee of 100 (I think they were the precursors to the Tri-Lateral
Commission – definitely, the 1930s version of the Military Industrial
Complex). Unfortunately, Mrs. Honeywell
was fatally injured on the property and the Honeywells never came back. Most everything is gone now, except the
refurbished, still unlit, lighthouse, thanks to Hurricane Andrew.
The reef on the Atlantic side is full of fish and the tiny
key to the North (part of the Ragged Keys) is a Bird Sanctuary. It’s all part of Biscayne National Park. No electricity. No water.
No services. But, for a $20 per
night docking fee, we also get a “campsite”, with grill and picnic table. A great day spot for a family reunion or
other festivities.
Though we only planned an overnight or two, a big Cold Front
came through on Wednesday night as predicted.
That morning we moved the boat from the East bulkhead to the West
bulkhead since we expected the storm to be its heaviest out of the
Southwest. By moving to the other side
we were more likely to be pushed off the dock by the wind, rather than into
it. Good thinking! Good move.
Though Wednesday was a quite pleasant and calm day (nicely
cool due to developing clouds – replaced a missing shaft zinc when the sun
broke through – and Tess spent the entire day scraping varnish off the toe rail),
the rain started slowly about 4:00 PM as we headed over to the sailing
catamaran “Dues Paid” for sundowners. At
about 10:00 that night, the front arrived.
Blasting at a consistent 42 to 43 knots, we saw gusts up to 52.5! After about 45 minutes the wind abated into
the high 30s and it kept up all night.
Not only were we pushed off the dock, but we were heeled about 20
degrees during the worst of it.
The sun is up this morning and it is pleasantly warm, but it’s
still blowing 20 to 25 and gusting to 30 plus.
It’s a giant step from the boat onto the land. Big, big chop and whitecaps in Biscayne
Bay. And we are thus very glad to have
tucked into this great, well protected harbor.
Friends at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne were up all night fending off
swinging and dragging boats at anchor.
Maybe we are learning the best spots in the Florida Keys, after all
(though technically, we are still in Biscayne Bay and not yet in the Upper Keys). Well, maybe on Friday.
At least its not snowing here….
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