Anchoring at Jewfish Hole...

February 21, 2023

A beautiful loggerhead turtle comes up for air and disappears as we travel to Jewfish Key


We agreed to leave Marlin Bay a day earlier than planned due to the winds appearing to be a problem if we waited.  Our plan was to go part of the way to Key Largo but it would be an anchorage not a marina. 

Annmarie, a friend we met during our stay in Marlin Bay, took this picture as we left.

 Danny found several options and we would make the final decision based on where the winds were in the afternoon and later in the evening.  We had to go under the Old Seven Mile Bridge and new Seven Mile Bridge, both with a clearance of 19 feet for the boat.  So prior to leaving, we took down the radar tower and the 2 antennas.  This shows you how close we were to the bridge.

Very, very close and being there as we went through appeared even closer!

During our travel, we saw the Loggerhead turtle above.  I saw it on top of the water and we stayed around as it went down and ultimately came back up again.  There were amazing amounts of flying fish as well.  There was a group of 5 dolphins crossing our path and one earlier in the ride, just below the water, swimming with us by the side of the boat for a few minutes.  That was very cool to see but I had no picture.  With the low winds, we could see clearly to the bottom which was beautiful.  It looked like the bottom was right under us but was anywhere between 12-14 feet.

This was 12 feet deep.

The flying fish


The decision was made to anchor at Jewfish Hole which is just off Fiesta Key which I did not know even existed.  We took the dinghy, once we got anchored, to ride around and came to Fiesta Key.  It is a RV park and small boat marina on this Key.  We tied up and went to the restaurant there.  As soon as we got there, they lost their power.  So we had drinks and sat down to watch the sunset.   We met a quite lively group of 2 sisters from Iowa, one daughter and son in law from South Dakota, and a niece from Nebraska.  The son in law had driven a RV down for them to enjoy themselves in the Keys for 2 weeks.  We all had good laughs.  Lavonne(hope that spelling is right)  wanted to come with us to the  boat.  We told her she could stay the night and someone pick her up in Key Largo.  The family said that we could drop her off when we got close to Iowa... they were joking, of course!  

Lavonne, Mary Ann, and Jenny at Fiesta Key


They all walked down with us to our dinghy.  We gave her another chance to join us but she said she was okay with staying there as she did not know how to swim.  She very much reminded me of my Mom.  So with the sun having set, we returned to the boat.



Leaving early in the morning due to the tides, we would be traveling several hours to John Pennekamp State Park.  There are several shallower spots going into the Park as well as something called "Dangerous Bend".  The bend is essentially a blind hairpin turn.  You have to announce yourself on the radio, Channel 16, with Securite' 3 times and then your boat name 3 times as you approach to keep you and the vessel on the other end from hitting each other.  We made out fine and tied up without difficulty.  There were several other loopers here at the marina and on mooring balls.



TOTAL MILES TRAVELLED   1357.2 miles
TOTAL DAYS  102








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