Skinny Water...
26 April 2007 | Florida Bay - ICW
Jeff
With east winds continuing to discourage travel in the Hawk Channel. Anne and I parted ways with Iva W. and resumed the windward crawl up the ICW towards Miami. The section from Upper Matecumbe Key past Key Largo was SHALLOW. The often under 5 foot deep channel kept us on edge. We motor sailed with two reefs. The main added some forward speed and gave us options if we were to have any motor troubles in the shallow, narrow channel. We observed a few larger motor and sailing vessels that trailed a cloud of brown in their wake. We never bumped and only hear the depth alarm, set to 4 feet, once when I wandered out of the channel attempting to eat some lunch... ahh multi-tasking not a good idea. Despite the shallows and wind on our bow we covered a surprising 70 NM and anchored in a small creek off of Angelfish Cut just north of the Ocean Reef Club. The anchorage was sheltered and provided good snorkeling, but also was home to some voracious mosquitoes.