Key Largo - at the Pilot House Marina

A boat "floating in air", the water is so clear here you think there's nothing supporting the boat

We left Ft Lauderdale around 8:30 and headed south. Our original goal was Caesar's Creek where we've anchored many times before but the tide was such that we couldn't get across the bar until 5:00 at the earliest. As is the usual case, we had favorable current going south (the reverse current in-shore relative to the Gulf Stream) and so we averaged 8.0 kts most of the day. That put us by Caesar's Creek, 50 nautical miles south, by 2:45, too early to stop so we soldiered on to Key Largo and a marina I saw on Active Captain, the Pilot House Marina.

This is reputed to be a good Keys type restaurant - but we were too late to see

The trip down was motor sailing all the way since we had to reach the marina  before dark. The entrance is a bit tricky. They advertise a 4.5 ft depth at the entrance at low tide. From past experience I've noted that most marinas tend to exaggerate their approach depths so I was somewhat apprehensive when coming in. I did wait for a 0.5 ft tide above low hoping that was enough leeway. I was pleasantly surprised to find 5.1 MLW at the  bar across the entrance. Now there was an east wind today and perhaps that helped with the depth but today at least we had no problem getting in with our 4 ft 9 in keel.

Since we came in after hours, we just tied up to the gas dock for the night. It's a convenient place to take on fuel in the mornng and get ice. On Tuesday we'll head out early for Marathon or perhaps even Newfound Harbor, depending upon the weather. At least now we're down in the warmth of the Keys!