On to the Keys

We left Fort Myers Beach about noon on Monday planning to sail to the Marthon area.  The trip was a motorboat ride the first 12 hours but the wind finally picked up around midnight and we were able to set all the sails and have a more quiet ride to the keys.  We had already called the yacht club, all the commercial marinas and the city mooring field with long wait lists everywhere.  We knew it was a long shot this time of year since many folks come to the area for the winter, arriving around Christmas.  We've always found a slip or mooring but we came either before or after "the season".  Thank goodness we know how to anchor and have good ground tackle.

The entrance to Boot Key harbor.  This is a wonderfully protected natural harbor between Vaca Key and Boot key.
The all around protection makes it a super popular spot to go in the keys.  There is convenient bus service up and down the chain of islands and all the services a cruiser needs.

I have never seen this marina in working order.  I'm surprised that such valuable real estate has go unused.

Our Welcome committee

The official welcome from the city.

One of the completely full marinas.

The completely full mooring field.  Between the city and the state there are over 200 mooring balls.