Day 211 – Plantation Yacht Harbor to Marina Del Mar, Key Largo, FL - February 2, 2012

We got an early start this morning for two reasons – we wanted to get back into Hawk Channel while we were on a higher tide and we wanted to get to Key Largo early in case the wind picked up in the afternoon.  We used Snake Creek to cut through from Florida Bay out to the Hawk Channel.  Snake Creek itself had good depth, but from the end of the creek out to deeper water was interesting.  The channel is extremely well marked and they have even added additional floating marks to help keep you in the channel, it is just VERY shallow outside the channel.

The wind had diminished overnight so the waves out in Hawk Channel were better than yesterday, but they were still in the two foot range.  The waves were also not directly on the bow, but more to the side giving us a bit more of the rolling motion we don’t like.  The interesting thing was that although conditions weren’t terrific, they were so much better than the previous day that they didn’t seem all that bad.  To combat some of the rolling, we pushed up the speed and rode “on top” for about twenty minutes.  Fully loaded like we are (with fuel, water and gear) our “on top” speed is just under 20 miles per hour.  It was a good ride and we were tied up in our slip at Marina Del Mar just after 10:00am.

We will be staying here at Marina Del Mar for the next month.  We heard about this marina from our friends Jack and Sheila on Windy Affair IV who did the Loop a couple of years ago.  They stayed here for the winter and very much enjoyed all the snorkeling they did on the reef at the edge of Hawk Channel.  Key Largo is THE place for scuba diving and snorkeling here in the Keys, so we are hoping to get out and do some snorkeling while we are here.

             Miles: 17.1      Bridges: 1        Locks: 0

looking down Snake Creek as we travel toward Hawk Channel