Guided Discovery: Fun in the sun - Day 126 - Marathon to Islamorada, FL

Time to move on. Our goal today was Islamorada some 43 mile east of Marathon. This move puts us within 60 miles of Miami Beach. We have reservations at the Miami Beach Marina for the Miami Boat Show.

Again we awoke to PERFECT weather. Clear skies, unlimited visibility, 77 degree and winds out of the southeast at 10 to 15. Preparation today included moving Guided Discovery to a face dock in order to retrieve the dingy, which we could not keep on the swim platform due to the proximity of the boat to our starboard.

Speaking of tight. You may recall that getting the boat into the slip last Monday was challenging. Well getting it out was even more so. Here's why. When I backed in on Monday, the slip immediately across and to my right (starboard) was empty as was the adjacent slip. Hence, I was able to stick my nose (bow) into the vacant slip and then slowly back up and pivot. Today, both slips were occupied and to make it worse by big boats (50 footers). The combination of large boats surrounding us made it impossible to pull out into the fairway and pivot. This required us to pull out and put the bow between the two boats across from us and while their owners were holding us off their bows I went onto the swim platform and physically swung the boat's stern slowly to starboard by holding onto the dingy of the boat behind us, Fortunately, there was no little wind in the fairway.

View of Burdines very tight fairway

Darryl and Sue arrived by water just as I finished loading the dingy onto the swim platform, They wanted to say goodbye and take photos of our departure from the water. Darryl helped with final preparations while Diana and Sue chatted. At 9:13 AM, we departed Burdines while Sue took photos.

Darryl and Sue follow us as we depart

We headed west and then south around Boot Key and connected with the Hawk Channel and turned east. We chose to use Hawk Channel, which runs south along the Keys, rather that the intracoastal (ICW), which runs north, for its deeper waters. Hawk Channel has average depths of 20 feet as compared to the ICW's depths that range from 5 to 8 feet. We draw four feet so the Hawk Channel is the better choice.

Hawk Channel is formed by a reef that runs parallel to the Keys. The screen to the left above shows the Keys (the dark magenta line running from top to bottom - west to east), Hawk Channel is to the right in light blue of the Keys and the North Atlantic is shown in white. The depths in the Atlantic (white) immediately beyond the reef is over 100 feet.

Approximately two and a half hours later we arrived at the entrance to the Whale Harbor Channel then turned to starboard as we came abreast of the Holiday Isle Resort Marina and proceeded down their channel into the marina where we sterned into our slip.

Holiday Isle Resort as viewed from Whale Harbor Channel

Arriving in the marina. Note the dockhand standing by our slip

Guided Discovery secured in slip 913

The timing of are arrival, 11:53 AM, suggested it was time for lunch, which we had at the resort's outdoor Raw Bar.

Restaurant with view of the Atlantic

Following lunch we explored the local waters with the dingy. Our journey took us under the bridge and then north and east around Windley Key to Plantation Key where we explored the residential canals. Exploring the shallow waters of Florida Bay was made easier using the new Garmin GPS that we bought in Dog River. The GPS is mounted to the dingy.

Kodi enjoying the beautiful day

Marina across from Holiday Isle

Unique home on Plantation Key

Isolated shower to the west

Then we took a walk and discovered Hog Heaven where we had dinner. What made this unique is that we sat at a table right on the water. The temperature was in the mid 70s even after the sun went down.