Plowing a channel through the Keys

We left Miami Beach around noon on Thursday and sailed 31 nm in the Atlantic to an anchorage south of Key Largo. Friday brought us 74 nm closer to home with another day of idyllic sailing south of the Keys. 

We aborted an intended layover in Key West for Saturday when I called the local marinas for reservations and learned they were all full due to a big power boat race this weekend. We were sure glad to know about that in advance so we could steer clear of it. Instead, we went to Plan B: rather than continuing on the outside south of the Keys and around the west side of Key West (35 nm farther, but a safer passage due to deeper water), we passed north through Moser Channel and under Seven Mile Bridge to Big Spanish Channel, and found an anchorage near Little Pine Key.

How does a boat with a 5' draft not run aground in water that is 3½-4' deep? That is the question I kept asking myself Saturday morning as I stood on the bowsprit in a futile attempt to guide Wayne through the "deeper" water, which in reality was "very shallow" and "shallower still." I'm 5'2 ½" and the water could not have been more than waist deep in places. A couple weeks ago, Wayne measured around the boat with a portable depth sounder to determine how much our depth instrument varied from the actual depth of the water. He found that the instruments give a reading one foot less than the actual depth - a good thing. Taking that into consideration, we were still in 3½-4' deep water, literally plowing our way through the sand. Or whatever it was on the bottom. It obviously wasn't coral, I did not see weeds, and Wayne swears it couldn't have been sand because we would have been stuck in it. But what else could it be? Divine intervention? Very strange.

Always one to make lemonade when handed lemons, I'm looking at the bottom, seeing (or imagining I see) conch and crabs galore and thinking "dinner!" - almost hoping we'll get stuck until the tide comes in so we can get out the snorkel gear. "Hmmm, our mesh laundry hamper with handles on each side would work great as a net for catching fish...Dang, did we bring our Florida fishing licenses or did we leave them at the house? Oh, and that island with the great sand bar over there? I'll bet there's great shelling, and I wouldn't even need to take the dinghy..." That's how my mind works.