Boca Chita Key (MM 1106) with a stop at Carysfort…

February 27, 2023


Danny and I left at civil twilight from John Pennekamp State Park. While I am not a morning person, I do find leaving early in the morning makes for peaceful surroundings, great pictures of the sun rising, birds, and LESS boat traffic!  There was little wind so the water was very clear. 




We headed out to the Carysfort Lighthouse that the charter captain took us out to a couple days previously. We had a couple hours to kill to make sure the water levels were high enough to get into Boca Chita Key. When we arrived, there was 1 scuba boat out and a private snorkel charter. I thought about asking them if I could join them but didn’t. You could see the fish swimming in the water and the reef appeared pristine. We also saw 8 turtles total. It appeared there were 6 loggerheads and 2 green turtles. Some were quite young. Even had one come right up next to the side of the boat. I will definitely come back here and have a private charter take me and whoever is with me.









The name of Careyfort light comes from a British frigate that ran aground in 1770.  Between 1833-1841, 63 ships were lost over this reef.  It took many years to build a lighthouse because of issues with the building process and financing.  The last light keeper was in 1962.  The US Coast Guard put it up to bid in 2022 and $415,000 was the high bid.


After a few hours, we left for Boca Chita Key. I had heard about this area at a talk by another Looper. I had seen the picture of the lighthouse before and thought it would be a great place to go. Only access is by boat, it is part of the Park service. You can tie up along a concrete wall and pay on line for anchoring for the night. There are 2 bathrooms and no other services there. Needless to say no light except the night sky and it was beautiful except for one issue which we were warned…Mosquitos and Gnats! OMG!  We originally had planned to stay 2 nights but between the bugs and calling for the winds to be 20MPH the following day, it was an easy decision to leave after one night. We walked up the lighthouse, did the nature trail, and went to the beach so we had accomplished everything by dark the first night.  We are at the top of the Lighthouse and the boat down below between us!



The history of Boca Chita is quite interesting. It was purchased by Mark Honeywell and his wife in 1932. He built a house for his family on the island as well as a 65 foot lighthouse. The problem was he never got an okay by the Coast Guard for the Lighthouse, so it was only lit once and no more. The Coast Guard considered it a hazard to navigation. Honeywell’s plan was to greet his guest on their arrival by shooting off his cannon and he could show his light to his friends in Miami. While serving as President of the Committee of One Hundred which were for the industrialists in the US, he held many receptions, parties, and conferences from 1936-1951. Mrs Honeywell unfortunately had a fall at the home and died. Following her death, he never developed the area, never returned, remarried and sold the island. About 40 years later, it became part of Biscayne National Park. There is a group who bring tourists over in the mid morning and early afternoon by boat from Homestead and Miami for about an hour. But after 4pm, it’s the boats tied up and what few campers there are. When we were there, we had 4 boats and no campers but many BUGS!




We left on another early morning departure to beat the wind. I started calling marinas at 8am thinking between Miami, Key Biscayne, and Fort Lauderdale certainly we could find a place. Fifteen marinas later, we found one in Fort Lauderdale. We felt protected in the ICW
with high winds predicted as we had heard Biscayne Bay could be a very bad place to be with bad weather. We made out alright!  You can see the skyline in the distance of Miami!



             Sorry for the delay, a scratched computer screen made it difficult to look at pictures!



TOTAL MILES TRAVELLED   1429 miles
TOTAL DAYS  108

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