New Adventures in the Florida Keys: Grounding a Boat, Eating a Snail, and Sleeping at Anchor
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
As a celebration of my graduation from Dental School Jessica and I left the kids with my parents at our new place in Georgia (State Motto: A nice place to sweat), and set-off for an adventure in the Florida Keys.
We chartered a 27 foot Catalina sailboat out of Marathon in the middle Keys. The guy that we chartered the boat from had told me over the phone that it was an older boat, but that he had completely restored it 3 years ago. Upon inspecting the boat I realized that by 'restored' he probably meant 'hosed-off,' as that seemed like the only maintenance the boat had experienced in the recent past. The table in the salon was inoperable, and the sink required manual pumping to produce water full of brown debris. The diesel engine was old enough to produce enough diesel odor to quickly fill the cabin, and the idle on the engine was set so low that it would die in neutral. It was not an ideal craft for our adventure, but I guess that is not surprising as it was the cheapest charter anywhere in the Keys.
Although not ideal, the boat was alot of fun. On our first afternoon we motored out to a marine sanctuary diving area several miles off of the coast to snorkel. We discovered on our way out that the water in the keys can be very shallow. Thanks to a mismarked channel, and our lack of vigilance watching the depth finder, we ran the boat aground about 10 minutes after leaving its mooring. Although it was looking pretty bad for a few minutes, as the tide going out created a current that pushed us further aground, we managed to wiggle the boat off of the sandbar, and we had survived our first grounding.
The water was crystal clear, beautiful blue, and shallow enough to see to the bottom in most places. It was our first attempt at snorkeling, but I thought I understood the basic principle (float face down in the water while breathing through a tube). Snorkeling was amazing, and the only way to get relief from the 90 degree heat, so we swam for several hours.
That evening we moored at Marathon and went ashore to sample the local cuisine. We ate at a crab shack type eatery called Herbie's along the overseas highway. I ate normal food, while Jessica ate a local specialty called fried conch. When she asked the waitress what conch was, she said that it was the creature that they pulled out of the giant spiral shells (conch shells). After the meal I set to work learning more about what Jessica had just eaten. According to wikipedia conch is a giant sea snail, and the picture makes the little guy look like a delectable treat. Conch's taste is not really like chicken, it is more like giant sea snail; but fried and covered with tartar sauce, it is not a bad meal.
That evening we slept on the boat. Unfortunately a torrential rainstorm drove us below deck, which was a little warm, but we were both so tired that we slept.
The next morning we set out for the west side of Boot Key, where we would spend the night anchored. On the way over we sailed some and I taught Jessica everything I know about sailing (that's about a 14 minute course) 
We stopped at a mooring that the guy that chartered us the boat had recommended. This was by far the best location for snorkeling, it was legal to fish, and we were the only boat for miles. We saw hundreds of fish here including several terrifying looking barracudas and a huge ray. It was amazing. We had fishing poles and licenses, so we fished from the boat. With the pole on the boat I would hook a chunk of squid on, snorkel to above the fish, and lower the baited hook to them. The main problem I had was trying to keep the swarm of small fish (8-10 inches) from taking the bait before I could get it to some of the large fish I could see. We caught several small yellowtail snapper, and fished until our bait was gone.
That night was the first time either of us had slept at anchor. We layed in the shade in the cockpit of the boat and watched the sunset and then watched several lighting storms pass by at a distance. It was either very relaxing or we were both exhausted. We slept outside in the cockpit on cushions; the ocean breeze made it the perfect temperature.
In the morning we picked-up anchor and headed back to our favorite snorkeling spot. After swimming and fishing until the afternoon we came to the conclusion that we were both too exhausted, sun-burned and hot to spend another night at the mooring in Marathon, so we decided to return the boat that evening instead of the next morning. We called the Holiday Inn Resort in Key largo, and spent the next 2 days basking in its ice cold air conditioning with a better understanding of why June is the off-season in the Keys.
Our last adventure was night fishing from a party boat. Jessica thought it was important for me to point-out that she caught nine fish and an eel while I caught zero fish and some sea weed. I thought it was important to point-out that at least I didn't eat a giant sea snail.
