MIDORI ADVENTURES

PHOTO OF MARKERS RED 2 AND GREEN 1 - GO BETWEEN OR GO AGROUND!

There are three routes that cruisers might choose to travel from the Florida Keys to the western coast of Florida. One is from Key West, one is via the Moser Channel (under the Seven Mile Bridge) at Marathon and the third option is from Islamorada across Florida Bay via the "Yacht Channel". This passage is apparently the best marked, will provide protection from eastern, northeastern and southeastern winds and it is the shortest. It is also the shallowest and certainly not recommended for deep draft boats (greater than 5 feet). (MIDORI's draft is 39 " or 3'3") Based on information gleaned from cruisersnet.net and discussion with other cruisers, we have been advised that if we run along inside the National Everglades Park boundary, we should be able to avoid all the crab traps. Other advice is to stay well clear of the markers, as the shoal areas have grown very substantially. As we would like to get to Fort Myers Beach before some northerly winds pass through on Good Friday, we have decided to try this new route.

We depart from our anchorage at Lower Matecumbe Key - around the corner from the Channel Five Bridge - at first light. At Statute Mile 1170, westbound, the ICW divides. The main ICW route proceeds west inside Florida Bay, and the other goes SW to the Hawk Channel via Channel Five. Starting at that divide, we departed the magenta line, diverted to the north, and ran along and inside the Everglades National Park boundary in 7 - 8 ft. of water. We stayed inside the park boundary at SM 1173 and made the turn NW into the charted "Yacht Channel". The first set of lateral navigation markers on the Yacht Channel are at Arsenic Bank at Green 1 and Red 2 and the "recommended sailing line" requires a slalom-like approach with the red markers to the inland side of the channel and green markers to the seaward side of the channel. As per the advice, we diverted widely around the areas of Sprigger Bank, Schooner Bank and Oxfoot Bank to clear the shoals. The shallowest water we saw was 5.3 ft. Disappointingly, there were several extensive fields of crab pots along the Yacht Channel. However, there were probably less than the usual thousands!

The Yacht Channel took us just off of East Cape Sable where we continued in a northerly direction inside the Everglades Park boundary, past the Middle and Northwest Capes. By staying inside the park boundary, we encountered very few crab pots. Next, we were in the Ten Thousand Islands area - primitive, remote and uninhabited, these islands form the coastline of the Everglades National Park. Our original destination was Little Shark River, about six miles above the Northwest Cape, but because we were making extremely good time, we decided to carry on and anchor behind Rabbit Key in order to get protection from some easterly predicted winds. We had the anchor set by 7:29 p.m.

What a day! We have covered 73.8 nautical miles in 12 hours with an average speed of 6.1 and a maximum speed of 8.7

Stay tuned, as tomorrow we are going to try another "first".

First Mate Lynn