Salty Podcast #54 | ⛵⚓All the Best Anchorages in the Florida Keys 🎙️ Local Knowledge!

Emerald waters, secluded beaches, and tropical breezes await in the Florida Keys—America's own Caribbean paradise. But how can you experience this boater's dream without draining your cruising kitty on expensive marinas? Our expert local guests John and Vanessa Lindsley, seasoned Key West sailors, reveal the secrets to finding gorgeous, protected anchorages throughout these island chains.

This knowledge-packed episode delivers essential wisdom for anyone planning to cruise Florida's stunning southern coastline. From the remote beauty of the Dry Tortugas to the practical amenities of Marathon, we map out the perfect spots to drop your hook while protecting both your budget and the fragile marine ecosystem.

"There are two kinds of sailors in the Florida Keys," our guests explain, "those who have run aground and those who lie about it." This candid assessment sets the tone for an honest conversation about navigating shallow waters where charts may be outdated and currents can be challenging. John and Vanessa share precise anchoring coordinates, navigation warnings, and insider tips you won't find in standard cruising guides.

Discover the hidden dangers of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary regulations, where running aground can cost you significantly more than just embarrassment. Learn about Bahia Honda State Park's incredible $2-per-foot dockage that includes ice and beverages. Find out which anchorages offer dinghy access to waterfront restaurants, which spots provide the best hurricane protection, and where to avoid the dreaded lobster pot fields during season.

For sailors planning a Bahamas crossing, we reveal the strategic Rodriguez Key anchorage that provides both protection and the perfect jumping-off point. And don't miss the legendary "30-Minute Highway" route to safely navigate to the Dry Tortugas while avoiding treacherous currents.

Whether you're planning your first Florida Keys cruise or returning for another season of warm-water sailing, this episode equips you with the local knowledge to explore these magical waters confidently and economically. Subscribe now, download this episode, and start planning your ultimate Florida Keys anchoring adventure!

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Transcript

Introduction to Florida Keys Anchoring

Capn Tinsley 0:01

Do you dream of sailing the American Caribbean , the Florida Keys , surrounded by beautiful emerald green waters ? Would you like to do this without sinking your budget in expensive marinas ? You're not alone . Stick around , because that's the topic for tonight's podcast . From the most peaceful , protected and cruiser-friendly anchorages to insider tips , only the locals will know . We got you covered . And to make sure you get the real scoop , I've got two local legends returning to the podcast key west john and vanessa lindsley . They know these waters like the back of their hands , and I'll be sharing a few of my own florida keys anchor and adventures too . So grab your popcorn , your rum or whatever floats your boat and get ready for some expert local knowledge . But first do us a favor hit that like button , subscribe , share and drop a comment in the live chat so we can respond in real time . I'm Captain Tim .

Key West John 0:59

That's some good information . Always love your information Over the years . It's always been good . I don't know enough to know when it's bull and when it's real .

Vanessa Linsley 1:11

Well , there's plenty . I don't have too much bull .

Key West John 1:14

I know . No , you're for real .

Capn Tinsley 1:16

That was a bummer . Did y'all hear me now ?

Key West John 1:19

Yeah , we've been having a good show . I'm glad you could join us .

Capn Tinsley 1:24

So did you hear my intro ?

Key West John 1:27

Yeah , well , part of it , and then we lost you .

Capn Tinsley 1:29

All right , let me go ahead and try it again . I'm Captain Tinsley of Salem Vessel , Salty Abandoned Island , Packet 320 , and this is the Salty Podcast , hopefully now episode 54 . So please help me . Welcome straight from conch republic , key west , john and vanessa lindsley , hello captain tisley and salty abandoned fans look who's here goose ? Goose is here video .

Key West John 1:59

Yeah all right , we did it . I'm looking the sun , so if I have a little trouble , you know reading the captions , please let me know , okay .

Capn Tinsley 2:10

Okay , all right , let me find our pictures I'll probably need to .

Key West John 2:15

I think you were starting with the overview there . You had it up earlier .

Capn Tinsley 2:20

Yeah , and that disappeared when I rebooted . So do you want to go ahead ? I think you've got this little agenda that you came up . I was so impressed with it .

Key West John 2:29

Oh my you guys . Well , I have ideas , but Vanessa .

Capn Tinsley 2:35

We only see half your face , by the way , she can really expand on everything tremendously . Can we see the other half of your face ? Which one ?

Key West John 2:47

that has okay . Like I said , we I took , we elected to turn around into the sun , so I'm kind of blanked out here until about 20 more minutes when the sun goes down .

Capn Tinsley 2:55

Well , we , we got you on there now .

Key West John 2:57

I think you were showing earlier when , uh , I think you had to reboot you were showing the overview of the Keys , which is a good first step to see , because the Keys stretch out . You know , the last , especially the last half , are really between two big bodies of water the Atlantic Ocean to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the north , to the north . And yeah , there you go . And that creates is where we get a lot of the situation , with currents and things that become a big factor here .

Capn Tinsley 3:33

Right . So we've got bones dropping off here . Now we got that dropping . So we got and I know you're not drinking , that's what's good , no I'm just drinking coffee , I mean , yeah , so we got key west here and we're going to talk about some different anchorages all the way up and about up to where . We're also going to talk about the marquesas um , a little bit about that and the dry tortugas , and we're going to go up as far as we're going to go up to Bahia , honda , is that right ?

Key West John 4:09

Yeah , and then we'll go up . Both Vanessa and I we had mutual friends in the Miami area , so especially Vanessa has a tremendous amount of knowledge of some great places to visit up there Key Biscayne and Boca , chita and some others that are really good to you know include the northern uh keys on on some of your trips hey , tinsley , yo , I need to remind you something .

Vanessa Linsley 4:33

Okay , I ran a bareboat charter company here in key west for 25 years . Yeah , my main office in miami beach . The other office was in Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas , and then there's what you're saying . You're an expert quantity routes that boats with more than three and a half foot draft actually can pay attention to and go , and yeah , you can talk about them even for hurricanes .

Capn Tinsley 5:02

All right , I'm going to turn you up a little bit here so we can really hear you . And one thing to remember .

Key West John 5:10

One thing to remember , john we see half your face again , which half ? I'm looking right . Okay , I'm looking right . Oh , there we go , okay , like I said . One thing I know we have to say right ahead , because the Keys have a lot of water , but a lot of it is very thin , so you know it's watching the depths . There are two kinds of sailors down here those that have run aground and those that lie about it . So you're going to hit bottom if you do a lot down here .

Capn Tinsley 5:44

There's so many great places to go , but you're going to hit bottom sometime .

Key West John 5:48

You haven't hit bottom , have you ?

Capn Tinsley 5:50

Yeah , several times .

Key West John 5:51

Of course .

Capn Tinsley 5:52

Vanessa , what did you want to say ?

Vanessa Linsley 5:57

You jump in any time . Well , there's a couple of other things that I think really need to be mentioned . You've got to remember that south of Miami , all the way out to the drives from Tuga there in 1997 , there was a national marine sanctuary . Now , the biggest factor in being a national marine sanctuary , and the big concentration about that , is that when you run aground in some of those areas , that means it costs you a lot more money .

Vanessa Linsley 6:21

It's not relative to your insurance , and it's also relative to what you're going to get charged by the government because you actually ran aground . The big thing is if you ever get caught and there are a lot of so paying attention to your anchorage is significant .

Capn Tinsley 6:40

Tell that story about when you saw that boat that ran in the middle of the Over the reef . Yeah , tell that story while I'm getting set up here .

Key West John 6:55

Oh yeah , that's a terrible one .

Vanessa Linsley 6:58

So just a couple of years ago I was out actually running a boat with some friends doing a charter and there were two other boats that were over near me with other friends on them and we were on the south side of the mooring balls , off of the front of the western sandboat . We were right off of the beautiful day . It was a clear day , it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon . I had folks off in my boat that were up in front in the area of where the reef is and that's only about three feet deep , and I look up at a catamaran that's a beautiful little cat that's relatively new .

Vanessa Linsley 7:35

I knew it belonged to another charter company and I see them come across the reef and I get on the radio and I'm trying to hail them and they're coming from right by the marina that we're looking at the mouth of the entrance at .

Vanessa Linsley 7:49

They've come three and a half , four miles offshore , directly at Western Sambo , and they are trying to cross the reef directly in front of us , where I have a couple of folks that are in the water with their heads in the water , snorkeling , folks that are in the water with their heads in the water snorkeling . They don't see this boat and I am on the radio and I'm jumping up and down and I'm screaming and yelling . I'm on the south side , right off of the edge of the reef , tied up on a mooring ball ,

Understanding the Keys Environment and Marine Sanctuary

Vanessa Linsley 8:13

and I watch this boat and it goes real hard aground and I see it bounce and then he turns around and I see him go the opposite direction , right there , but never once trying to turn around and go back to where he came from and I look up again and I see him continue to try to come out of that mooring over the reef .

Vanessa Linsley 8:34

Finally , one of my friends that was in the water sees the boat coming over and I get their attention and I'm still yelling at him on the radio and I'm still trying to , and a couple of the other boats are trying to get their attention as well . And I called one of the folks on one of the other boats and I said get a hold of fish and wildlife . And they couldn't get fish and wildlife to answer sunday afternoon . And then I said somebody needs to call the guard . And so I'm , I'm watching and they're digging and dragging over the reef and they just keep bouncing over it . Then I see somebody on the boat go forward with a boat hook and this book forward on boat hook and you can tell these are not extremely old people , but they're probably in their 20s , Maybe their 30s , and I see her extend the boat hook and then she reaches down and she tries to push the nose of the boat off of the reef . Insane I to push the nose of the boat off of the reef with the boat .

Vanessa Linsley 9:26

It's insane . I have photos of this whole thing going all the way out there that I kept taking pictures of . Every time they would jerk , run aground and then I would see the boat sitting hard up with the water down below it . And I'm looking at the bottom of the hull side and in the interim I tried to call the owner of the charter company and say , hey , you have a boat out here that's doing some serious damage . Meanwhile I have people that are standing there next to me in tears watching this boat running over the reef .

Vanessa Linsley 9:52

Yeah , that's horrible 14 times we stopped counting .

Capn Tinsley 9:59

And over those times , that was a charter captain , that was that was doing that .

Vanessa Linsley 10:07

Captain , it was doing that .

Key West John 10:08

He was a licensed captain . It was a bare boat charter , right , wasn't it a bare boat charter ?

Vanessa Linsley 10:11

It doesn't matter , he was a licensed captain .

Key West John 10:13

I know , but he should . Yeah , that was crazy . You told me that before .

Vanessa Linsley 10:20

Yeah , he came over the south side of the reef finally and I had already gotten a hold of Fish and Wildlife and I was departing , going back to keep my schedule because it was a birthday with my other two boats and my friends on the other two boats . So we started to head back in after we had notified the charter company . We actually notified Fish and Wildlife , I logged everything that was there , I had all the photos and I let them know that we were departing the area and they finally showed up over there . He said they boarded the boat . They boarded the boat and they actually looked at the GPS and the guy tried to erase the GPS and they caught it . He walked 4.9 nautical miles on that GPS from the first time that he'd gone aground to where he continued to zigzag and run over the reef at Western Stambo yeah , that's sad and he continued to zigzag and run over the reef at Western Sambo yeah .

Key West John 11:07

Yeah , that's sad . That's sad . Yeah , People have to realize . You know , down here , basically five miles offshore , all the way along the Keys , you've got a reef out there and it's very shallow in some spots .

Vanessa Linsley 11:18

And you've got to remember to have safety .

Capn Tinsley 11:21

And we'd like to keep it .

Key West John 11:23

Yeah , I know , I know yeah .

Capn Tinsley 11:26

We'd like to keep it intact , so I wanted to show these pictures . John is at no Name Harbor right now .

Key West John 11:33

No , no , I'm at Newfound . That's one of the ones we're going to talk about . I'm at Newfound Harbor . That's what I meant to say , sorry , yeah .

Capn Tinsley 11:40

And I asked him to take some pictures on the way up , and this is what he saw this Catalina here .

Key West John 11:48

Yeah , I passed this guy and he was in a Catalina 31 , and he said he wasn't pleased with the colors of that spinnaker but he got it for $5.50 . I know , and we had only six and a half knots of wind out of the east right at my face , which is normal . But he was headed to Key West so he was making three and a half knots with that spinnaker with only six and a half knots of wind , so he was doing pretty good .

Capn Tinsley 12:14

Wow , Okay , and there's the water . Well , let's talk about . Okay . First we're going to talk about the Marquesas , right , yeah , we're going to start out to the west .

Key West John 12:25

The Keys do not end at Key West . It's the last place you can get to a highway . But then there are three really nice places out to the west . I always like the Marquesas you and I have been there . Boca Grande you and I have been there . And then the Dry Tortugas . Those are three good spots to do it . I prefer anchoring on the west side of the Marquesas and Boca Grande . Boca Grande you get a very strong current , you know , four times a day . So just be .

Capn Tinsley 12:54

Now , which one was it we went to ? We anchored at man Woman Key and man Key , right yeah , well , yeah there's , yeah , there's .

Key West John 12:59

There's many , many . Vanessa probably knows the exact number , but there's probably 15 or 20 islands out that way , Let me just introduce this picture .

Capn Tinsley 13:10

So we were at one of these because this is on my boat . This picture is off my boat and that's John's boat over there .

Key West John 13:19

I think that's Boca Grande . I think that was Boca Grande , boca Grande , I think that was Boca Grande , but there's so many .

Vanessa Linsley 13:56

Best I could tell there's 27 between Key .

Key West John 13:59

West and the Marquesas . What about the Marquesas ?

Vanessa Linsley 14:02

27 keys between Key West and the Marquesas 27 .

Key West John 14:07

I knew you would know the exact number .

Vanessa Linsley 14:09

They're basically making violence . They're not inhabitable . They're not inhabitable . Some of them don't even have sand on them that you can walk around . It's a rooted system . But between Archer Key and backcountry , back there off of Cottrell and the Keys going back out there , you've got to be very , very careful back there . There's a lot of stuff over from World War II back there . There's a lot of channels that were dredged back there . Remember we have a submarine base that was made back there .

Vanessa Linsley 14:35

Oh yeah , we have one leg of a channel back there that goes from the Key West Shipping Channel , northwest Channel . Entrance , I should say back there to Boca Grande on the backside , and entrance , I should say back there to boca grande on the back side and that's part of the intercoastal . But the markers are backwards . Yeah , those colleges that they installed the markers backwards originally when they put them in in the I believe it was 1948 and they never changed them yeah and it is not part of the coastal waterway ?

Key West John 15:04

yeah , okay watching here , watch your chart plotter . Oh , and the thing about the Boca Grande and Marquesas , especially Boca Grande . Anchor close into the beach , especially Boca Grande , because that channel the fishing boats will cut from the . They'll come up , they'll be on the south side and everything , and then they'll want to come through what's that called the lakes that . They'll want to , and there's a little channel there and if you anchor too far out you're going to have these uh , uh center consoles coming by you at a pretty good speed .

Vanessa Linsley 15:33

but if you get , if you get closer into the beach , you'll , you'll be away from that channel and that channel back there off of bogrand actually has a , an old wreck that's been back there since 1942 . You can look at that old pt boat back there and use that as a reference point to go up an anchor off of Close to the north , that would be the northwest corner of Boca Grande .

Vanessa Linsley 15:52

Back there right yeah , and that's actually a relatively neutral current back there almost all the time , with about approximately eight feet of water . So you want to be in the tail itself . You want to be right off to that side , otherwise you'll end up on top of that PT . You want to be in the tail itself . You want to be right off to that side . Make sure you're not going to fall .

Key West John 16:11

Otherwise you'll end up on top of that PT boat . Yeah , it's out there . Like I said we were talking , there's a lot of current out of Boca Grande , but just be ready for it and you'll either hit Cuba or you'll go all the way to Texas . So one or the other if you break loose .

Capn Tinsley 16:29

Okay , so we don't have a map up or a chart up . One other thing about out there .

Key West John 16:34

You will probably don't be surprised if you see Chubbs , which are the Cuban refugee boats that they will bring them to . The last one I saw was in Bo boat ground and they , there may be a 15 foot boat . They come ashore . If the coast guard has checked it , they will have an okay on it , or something like that . And uh , just basic boats . And uh , you might see a file folder around up on the beach and , um , but they , you know , so it's , it's .

Key West John 17:03

Don't be surprised if you come across that at the Boca Grande or either the Marquesas . And this last one we saw was about a 15 or 20-foot boat , just a basic boat . It had a Volvo engine sitting in it , it had a straight drive shaft with a universal joint right to the prop shaft because they don't need a transmission , they're not stopping and then a little portable toilet and that's it , wow , anyway . So don't be surprised if you see one of those if you get out there . But anyway , those are the ones out to the west of Key West , but then up the Keys is where you get into some really nice anchorages .

Capn Tinsley 17:47

All right , All right . So let's tell you know , because I don't have a map up or a chart . So tell us where the Marquesas are .

Key West John 17:56

Oh , they're about Vanessa . I think they're about 30 miles to the west of Key West . Boca Grande is about 12 miles to the west and I don't know where Vanessa has gone . We've lost her .

Capn Tinsley 18:08

She just went somewhere . Maybe she's taking a bathroom break or something .

Key West John 18:14

The Marquesas are about 33 , 30 , 33 to the west of Key West . Is that right ?

Vanessa Linsley 18:19

32. , yep , 32. , Okay , yep , and then 28 inside and it actually is the crow flies . You go out to that southernmost tip that sticks out , that has that little shoal area and then you cut back .

Key West John 18:30

Yes , and that that's a very good point . A lot of these things have these little tips that come out . So don't think as soon as you're out in the Atlantic that you can start heading to where you want to go . Check your charts , make sure you go beyond these little tips that go out . You know , sometimes one mile or mile and a half before you make your turn .

Vanessa Linsley 18:57

You know , I'd like to remind everybody of something that's kind of a critical thing . Everybody's using electronic charts . Now here we go . I still use my waterproof MapTek charts because those are the most currently updated waterproof charts . Now the problem with electronic charts is that they are updated , and they are updated by people's actual information that is provided to those manufacturers and some of those chart writers . That does not necessarily mean that that's a sailboat that actually has a draft . It may be a powerboat that doesn't have much of a draft . So there is a significant difference between three feet and between six feet , and especially when you're a sailboat . Yeah , problems with these electronic charts is that the accuracy of the electronic charts is not nearly the same as it was from the original charts , that the datum was done by somebody going out there dragging a cable originally , that they've monitored the depth contours on since that time . Welcome to the world of nothing .

Key West John 19:54

Right .

Vanessa Linsley 19:55

Now you have to remember that the Keys we are considered a remote location . We're not like Miami Harbor . We're not like Fort Lauderdale and Port Everglades entrance where we have a cruise ship going in , even though we do have them coming in the Key West Harbor . We're not like Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay that has a heavy traffic channel for commerce going in and out Long .

Capn Tinsley 20:18

Island Sound or .

Vanessa Linsley 20:20

New York Harbor . We're not like the blast on the list down here in the Keys to have our datum mentors checked and double-checked on any of that charting datum that was actually done . So if you look in the middle of your compass rows on your charts you can see , if you look to coloring , the date of the last charting datum that was done on that chart . The date that came down here in the Keys was in 1983 . Do you know how many hurricanes we've had since that time ?

Key West John 20:48

One or two , I think . Well , that's important to get a lot of records of our life .

Vanessa Linsley 20:56

The problem with that and this is a problem that you must have . Pay attention to those depth contours . You need to remember that in the Keys we are not known for our beaches . All that fine sugar sand , that roseate quartz that gets washed out when we get a south wind , gets in , that west coast current over there kind of towards the dry tortugas , heads right back up there to Clearwater Beach where it's brought in from on the dump truck . Guess what ? We have big weather . What happens is that all that sand off of the beach gets moved and when it gets moved it goes out to those areas that are those areas on your charting down in 1983 and it either gets skinnier or it gets washed out more yeah you've got to keep that in mind .

Vanessa Linsley 21:40

but a lot of those out of them Still have some accuracy .

Capn Tinsley 21:46

The fact has changed , so what are you saying , vanessa ?

Key West John 21:52

You're going to run aground you look like a dart but you've got to keep your eyes open .

Capn Tinsley 21:57

You're kind of cutting out , Vanessa . Maybe you need to get closer to your microphone or something .

Key West John 22:03

Yes , you've got a little cut out there . That's a good thing .

Capn Tinsley 22:06

I want to hear some passwords coming out .

Key West John 22:10

Yeah maybe they're bleeping

Exploring West of Key West: Marquesas and Boca Grande

Key West John 22:12

her for the .

Capn Tinsley 22:13

Yeah , it's the social media that's cutting those words out .

Key West John 22:18

That's some . Good advice is that you don't know what you're going to get , so just be ready .

Capn Tinsley 22:23

So what do we say , john ? What do we say ? It's all part of the experience . No , no , no local knowledge . But yeah , oh yeah local knowledge .

Key West John 22:32

You got to have , you know local knowledge and , uh , you know , see what you've been through but anyway that's uh , as you then , as you work your way up , you know , you know to try , you know like to say , we're coming up the atlantic side . Uh , I think the first place we had on the picture of was the Geiger Cay , a nice little spot to pull in . You're going to have to anchor out in the Atlantic and , depending on your tolerance for waves at night , you might have some pretty good waves going on Is this it . No , that's Boca Grande . Okay Now .

Vanessa Linsley 23:07

I would like to add information about Guy G .

Capn Tinsley 23:10

Oh , oh , y'all , yeah , wait , let's , let's okay , this is Boca Grande . And then we have this is .

Key West John 23:16

That's the Marquesas . That's the Marquesas .

Capn Tinsley 23:20

Right .

Vanessa Linsley 23:21

And I circled that little area down there , the west , that's on the western side there's a good a beach you can go into yeah , right down there on the western side , just take note and the lower part of your circle , where it's actually drawn .

Vanessa Linsley 23:36

There is a leg that sticks out there and it goes all the way out to where the tip end of your arrow is now oh yeah , you got to go way south all the way around that and then come up to that edge of that beach area right there and then , relative to whether or not you have a north wind or relative to whether or not it's typical easterly , you can go up on that beach area a little bit and back down .

Capn Tinsley 23:56

So are you saying like this , like this ?

Key West John 24:00

You've got to go way south before you start coming up there to that west side .

Vanessa Linsley 24:04

If you're coming from the east , Keep going out Tinsley . Keep going to the west .

Key West John 24:10

You've got to go way . It's another one of those fingers that sticks down there with some shallow water .

Vanessa Linsley 24:15

There are also two coral heads in between there .

Key West John 24:19

Yeah , oh yeah , there's some . You're going to come around and come up to that beach area right there .

Vanessa Linsley 24:23

Yeah , oh yeah , it's all the way down to where the arrow is , tinsley , you're going to come around and come up to that beach area right there . Okay , and I will also tell you that personally , it's cutting out again . I will also tell you from personal experience that that area off of the Marquesas , do not be surprised to see cubans on the beach up there yeah , yeah that's what I'm saying .

Key West John 24:48

The children will be there and their boats and yeah , don't be surprised , say hola , hola , amigo they're glad to be here okay , all right .

Capn Tinsley 25:01

What is this ?

Key West John 25:01

oh , this is the dry tortugas yeah , that's an interesting spot that you know you need to get out . You know it's 70 miles out there , but it's , if you can make it , it's a good place to see okay , next time I'm going there it's not a good place to see .

Vanessa Linsley 25:15

You realize I've done two and a half circumnavigations . I've sailed around the world and one of my favorite places in the whole wide world is dry tort Tortugas .

Capn Tinsley 25:23

Oh , you heard it here , right here on the Salty Podcast it is .

Vanessa Linsley 25:29

That's the knowledge you're dropping . It's the largest masonry structure in North America , with the fort up there , and it's amazing what they've done . National Park and it is one of our treasures to behold , and Starlink works there .

Capn Tinsley 25:45

Not the $200 . I don't even know what the prices are now , but you can . There's some places in between , but once you get there your Starlink will work on that basic package . The basic mobile package or whatever . They keep changing the names and everything . But yeah , it works there . Now your cell phone's not going to work , but your Starlink will work and your cell phone will work on that .

Vanessa Linsley 26:08

And the park ranger there does have a phone for an emergency . The ferry that's run by Yankee Freedom , the Yankee fleet boat from Historic Tours of America , does go out there daily , weather permitting . You do have to have reservations and the seaplane service does go out there as well . Key west .

Capn Tinsley 26:27

Yeah , we see them flying over , don't we ?

Key West John 26:29

oh yeah you can get . You can get back and forth whatever way you need , yeah it's the quick way to go .

Capn Tinsley 26:34

Okay , here's geiger key . Yeah , we're up to geiger key .

Key West John 26:38

now you see the little circle out there that's about as close in as you're going to be able to anchor because it gets very shallow . Those are private markers for that little channel in there , for the residential area . And now the little sailboat thing about that's where the Geiger Key bar and restaurant is that you and I have been to . But see that if you take your dinghy and you've got to stick with that little line that I've drawn over there by those markers , because that's some very shallow water even for a dinghy , so you've got to stick with that little move over toward Saddle Hill Key and then cut up there .

Capn Tinsley 27:14

Okay , so you pretty much anchor right here and then you dinghy up over here to go to the restaurant .

Key West John 27:20

Okay , and what's the name of that restaurant ? Again , it's what .

Capn Tinsley 27:25

Geiger Key .

Key West John 27:25

Restaurant Marina .

Capn Tinsley 27:27

Yeah , we went there by car .

Key West John 27:29

Yes , okay .

Capn Tinsley 27:30

All right , so that area right around there .

Vanessa Linsley 27:35

you all need to be aware of this . Anytime you're going to be traversing the Keys , you need to get a hold of a National Marine Sanctuary brochure and look at those waters If you enter or you go aground in those seagrass beds where most of that blue water is , you're getting a hefty fine and no matter what , if you're going to reverse the keys , you need to become familiar with the National Marine Sanctuary regulations and rules . Oh yeah , she is spouting some rules today . Regulations and rules .

Key West John 28:03

Oh yeah .

Capn Tinsley 28:04

She is spouting some rules today . Yeah , I hear you , man , I hear you .

Vanessa Linsley 28:09

They can cost you a lot of money . I got to tell you we've spent more time , and I've spent more time in the last 30 years of my life pulling people off of stupid things that they said that were not my customers and I was convinced at how uneducated we don't have people coming down tearing things up .

Capn Tinsley 28:58

I hear you .

Vanessa Linsley 28:59

I was amazed at how uneducated people were . But how many people don't even know that that brochure that you can get online now from the National Marine Sanctuary exists and they're hard to get a hold of now . Get them offline all right .

Capn Tinsley 29:17

So um goose says uh , I think she's , I think he's talking to me , but ct surprised . You've never been there , so I'm the only one that hasn't been to the , so I guess I don't know who ct is .

Key West John 29:28

But oh well , you know you've . You've been down a couple of times and with the intentions of just getting out there , yeah , you've got to get a good weather window .

Capn Tinsley 29:38

It was too rough or something we had to get out . You've got to get a good weather window , you know to get out there , so weather contingent . Okay , so after how long does this take John to get there from Key West on a cell boat ? You can be there in two hours . That's good . That's a good little trip . You go over there and then we pop over to . I wish I had labeled these . I should have done that .

Key West John 30:03

This is Cudjoe Bay . I have friends that have a house up there . You can see where I've drawn four to five in a circle . Once you get into that little bay area it's got a nice channel that comes in . It's a very pleasant anchorage . There's , uh , no restaurants or anything to dingy to here .

Capn Tinsley 30:21

First of all , hold up . Where do we come in ?

Key West John 30:24

you come in from you know , from the , from the south down at the bottom , from the south up there you'll . You'll see the end of the channel right there , the greens and reds , but it's a greens and reds but it's a really good channel . You come up there and then , once you get in the bay area , it's about four to five feet of good water until you get really close to the shore and it's a very pleasant anchorage . I'll probably go there tomorrow . It's a good , easy place but there's nowhere to dingy to . Like I said , I have friends there . That makes it easy .

Capn Tinsley 30:55

Yeah , you're a social guy .

Key West John 30:59

Okay so .

Capn Tinsley 30:59

Goose says Channel 16 used to be full of people yelling for Tobo at USC .

Key West John 31:03

You will hear it quite often .

Capn Tinsley 31:10

I never can get him to respond on there , I just give him a call .

Key West John 31:13

Okay , so here's no Name Key , I just give him a call .

Capn Tinsley 31:14

Okay . So here's , uh , okay , no name key . This is over by big pine .

Key West John 31:18

Oh yeah , that would be right . That would be switching over to the uh , to the North side uh of the key .

Capn Tinsley 31:26

So this is down your way back , right ?

Key West John 31:28

Yeah , yeah , that's uh , that's uh , that's kind of like if you were on the way back and you just chose to come over after a marathon and uh , that , that little spanish channel , uh .

Key West John 31:38

But then the little anchor is right . There's that little circle area that you can . You can anchor in there and then you can dingy down here to . Not the actual no name bar is not on no name key , it's over on the other side , but it's right here . Yeah , just slip under there and there's not really much of a marina . You just kind of find some places you can tie your dinghy to and then walk and the good thing about this and you'll see a picture in a little while about the little key deer you walk down to the no-name bar and you'll see the little uh deer walking along with you . So it's a cool little place harbor as well .

Capn Tinsley 32:11

I'm sorry sorry about the visuals y'all , we don't have all this tied together . But uh , newfound harbor , okay . Um , so we got boca chita . Oh yeah , we're way up in miami now yo see these are out of order , man , that's okay , we can .

Key West John 32:30

We can handle it Like .

Capn Tinsley 32:32

I said these are the little key deer .

Key West John 32:37

This is over here on Big Pine . You can just sit there and feed the little key deer . You're not supposed to , john . You're not supposed to feed the deer . I don't know . Everybody does , everybody does . We can't feed the chickens , but we can feed the deer , I think .

Capn Tinsley 32:57

no , you're not supposed to yeah , everybody does , though . Yeah , um , but um okay , that was that's that's where I am that little red .

Key West John 33:08

So that's where I am right now . Okay , very smooth anchorage . Uh , vanessa and I were talking about this the other day . She likes to go up the northwest right down here to the lower left corner . She takes a northwest turn .

Capn Tinsley 33:20

This is right here , right , right , vanessa Right here is where you told me to go .

Key West John 33:24

Yeah , I like being on the east side of this channel because once you get over here I'm so far away from the fishing boats coming and going now . But if you get on the east side , over here , you're away from all that . And then that little arrow up there to the bridge show you ding in underneath the bridge . Right on the left there's a great little place called Kiki's .

Vanessa Linsley 33:46

They have live music every night and it's a good little bar and restaurant with live music , you know . That brings me to another thing that I want to mention . That's really really critical Mass , coming all the way down the Keys . Any of these anchorages or any of these places you feel like you're going to do and drop a book , you cannot anchor within 500 , where you are and it will say on your chart 800 feet of Highway 1 and bridge .

Capn Tinsley 34:15

There are overhead power cables all the way , that's why they say you're not supposed to go right there .

Key West John 34:22

Yeah , there's a mark there that says restricted area because of the power .

Vanessa Linsley 34:25

Yeah , if you act close to those power lines .

Capn Tinsley 34:29

John says damn the torpedoes full speed ahead .

Key West John 34:32

Yeah that's right .

Vanessa Linsley 34:34

You're going to take power for everyone in the lower keys .

Key West John 34:37

Oh yeah , that's a mess . When somebody hits the power line up the keys .

Capn Tinsley 34:42

Yeah .

Key West John 34:42

It's a mess . It shuts down everything .

Capn Tinsley 34:44

So here's where I went right here by picnic . This is Picnic Island , I believe .

Key West John 34:49

Yeah , I was about right here .

Capn Tinsley 34:50

There was a big party going on right here at this barge , but I think they made the guy leave . He was supposed to be , like , the mayor of Picnic Island . Yeah , but make note , Tinsley , the only way to approach that is not from the south and it's not from the west , it's right here , right through here , yep , right through there , come right on up here , and I was following directions because I was like I went up here , John said go up here , and I saw a bunch of signs and so it scared me .

Key West John 35:16

Oh yeah , you can't get close . You got to stay back , like she said , the footage . But this is where I am now . I'm way away from that limit .

Capn Tinsley 35:28

And I do have . Okay , this is . Is that Palm Island ?

Key West John 35:34

Little Palm Island . Yeah this is inbound to . When you come in the first off the atlantic , you come in here and uh , yeah , it's right that it's called . It's not called little palm island , it's called like munson , I think , munson big months big months and something like that .

Key West John 35:49

anyway , this if you really win the lottery or you have money crazy , crazy money and you want to do something , just blow it . I first went here 20-something years ago and back then it was $335 a night for a 30-foot boat . I went back . The next time I went back it was $600 .

Capn Tinsley 36:08

$335 a night . Let's just take that in .

Key West John 36:11

The next time I went back it was $600 . The next time I went back it was 600 . The next time I went back it was 850 . I called another day just out of curiosity to see what it is now . It's now 1,000 per night for a 30-foot boat . But this place is insane . The cottage is up there . You can't really see them that well . I think they have another picture that has the beach and all that . But anyway , see the little cottages and all that . They're $3,000 to $5,000 a night for those . But when you go in on a boat as the dockmaster told me years ago .

Key West John 36:49

You get the same privileges or use of all the Island , the same as the people . So you go in by boat and you and you use the same facility the pool , the restaurant and everything spa the same as the people , paying three and 5,000 a night . So if you want to do something crazy , I mean just blow some money every so often , if you know , if you just you know , win the lottery or something like that . Something really goes good for you . Okay , this is over there by Picnic Island .

Capn Tinsley 37:20

I just wanted to show . Once I got set up I was like in heaven . I mean , look at that .

Key West John 37:29

The water was so calm oh yes , yes , I mean , that's beautiful . Yeah , it is . It's a big channel . It widens out right here where I am and all in there .

Capn Tinsley 37:43

It's very , very nice water . And then Goose , good old Goose , he's really giving us some activity . I appreciate it . Are any of you using forward scans , phone or relying on charts ?

Key West John 37:54

I don't use forward scan , I just use charts and local knowledge .

Vanessa Linsley 38:02

I have used forward scanning . It was easier to actually use the charts and then point position to position because I have a course line that I draw out . I'd always be happy to share that with anybody if that course line is there , because I know the markers are there and I already know the route works .

Capn Tinsley 38:18

And that brings up another thing . John was gracious enough to say he'd share his cell phone and his email , and Vanessa's a broker , so she wants to sell you a boat , but I'm sure she'll give you some advice too .

Vanessa Linsley 38:32

My phone number .

Key West John 38:35

Phone number . Is that wrong ? My phone number is wrong . Give me a call , send me a message text or whatever what's ?

Vanessa Linsley 38:41

your number 9986 . You got 9986 .

Capn Tinsley 38:48

What was I doing ? 9986 .

Vanessa Linsley 38:54

Yeah , 305 . All right , let's see if I got it right now .

Capn Tinsley 38:57

Oh , 7-7-0 . That's me ? No , that's not . I don't have 7-7-0 .

Key West John 39:02

I'm 7-7-0 .

Capn Tinsley 39:03

3-0-5-6-8-0-9-9-2-6? .

Vanessa Linsley 39:06

Nope 9-9-8-6 .

Capn Tinsley 39:09

Dang , I'm just full of errors today . Dang , I'm just full of errors today .

Vanessa Linsley 39:13

It's one of those days man Gotta have a little days sometimes , especially if anybody's looking for a 2005 9.9 .

Key West John 39:22

Oh yeah , Island , Packet 485 that I've got listed right now . Hey , Becca , I think hold on .

Capn Tinsley 39:29

let me see it's reduced .

Key West John 39:31

You got my number wrong now .

Capn Tinsley 39:33

Oh man , yeah he got his .

Key West John 39:37

We're going to have to dock your pay .

Capn Tinsley 39:39

I know well , you get what you pay for here . Yeah , it's free wait wait , wait , john 402 770 , 401 8732 .

Key West John 39:53

Wow , yeah , 401 8732 .

Capn Tinsley 39:55

Wow .

Key West John 39:58

This caller Text me if you have any questions About coming down here . Hey you look good now . That's good .

Capn Tinsley 40:05

There's me swimming there .

Key West John 40:07

Add one more , 7 , on the email .

Capn Tinsley 40:13

Okay , 777 , I got 3 , 7's , 4 , 7's . Oh God , okay , seven , seven , seven .

Key West John 40:15

I got three sevens , no four sevens .

Capn Tinsley 40:18

Wow , all the errors are coming out right here live . Get it all done . We don't proclaim perfection here on the South .

Key West John 40:27

Give us a call .

Capn Tinsley 40:30

That's very generous of you .

Key West John 40:32

Leaving Newfound Harbor we'll be moving up to Bahia . Honda is a nice state park right up the road there and Vanessa will tell you the current let's get this view in .

Capn Tinsley 40:44

There's Picnic Island . I'm about to put it up there . I think it's there we go . Oh , little Palm Island has a restaurant , and then home of the mayor of . Picnic Island .

Key West John 40:57

Yeah .

Capn Tinsley 41:00

Okay , Now we saw that . We saw that .

Key West John 41:02

Now here we go Bahia Honda . Oh yeah , now this is in Bahia Honda you come in . It's a nice little harvest estate park . The charge is only $2 a foot per night , so it's really reasonable . Very well-run place . I've tied up this all-side tie Very costly , you can see the old railroad bridge behind there . They've cut out a section so that sailboats could get through . I think I have a couple of pictures of the sunset there .

Capn Tinsley 41:30

John insists on going through there at night .

Key West John 41:33

I didn't insist . I got trapped into doing it three times and it is not fun .

Capn Tinsley 41:38

And what we're talking about is going through that gap in the old railroad bridge .

Key West John 41:42

But this is nice .

Capn Tinsley 41:43

I've stayed here once or twice and it won't break the budget . So if you're looking to go out there and anchor and and look at a reasonable you know , efficient budget , this will not break the bank . Right here , staying at bahia honda and they lock up the gates at night so there's not a bunch of people walking through there , it's just park rangers right , oh , yeah , yeah .

Key West John 42:07

In addition to your dockage , you get a free bag of ice and a uh uh soft drink of your choice each day .

Capn Tinsley 42:14

Get out of town . I didn't get my soft drink , okay .

Key West John 42:17

Yeah , you got to get your soft drink and bag of ice and Vanessa will tell you if you go out here to try . I've anchored one time here In the middle of the night . I was headed toward the bridge . So if you anchor out , you're better to pay the money . Come into the harbor when do you anchor out ? You're better to pay the money .

Capn Tinsley 42:31

come into the harbor when do you anchor out Like right outside the harbor ?

Key West John 42:35

Yeah , right outside , if you don't get close to the shore , you're going to be in trouble . It's tough .

Vanessa Linsley 42:40

No , no , the tide is fierce . A lot of people think anchoring outside means outside of the bridge over in the front on the Atlantic side .

Vanessa Linsley 42:49

Outside the harbor . No , no , no . So when you come in that cut in the bridge , you're going to make a beeline towards the far side of the entrance that comes into that channel and you'll see it on the chart . You'll see where that channel comes in on the chart . You go to the far side of the edge of that channel and you're going to anchor in 18 feet or less of water off of that area there , not too close to the main bridge , but on that side of the channel over there . If you anchor in over 22 feet of water in there , you're going to end up on a drag about going towards where the hydroelectric studies are being done over to the west .

Vanessa Linsley 43:29

Don't do it . There's these big concrete slabs that are down there in about 35 , 40 feet of water and you'll only hang one direction and then , as soon as the current turns , you'll end up on a drag about going wherever you're going to go and end up on a beach or whatever . Don't do it I would always recommend in there that you're going to put two anchors down off of the bow , never a stern anchor .

Key West John 43:52

Yep , that is right . Off of the bow . Never a stern anchor , yep that is right .

Vanessa Linsley 43:56

The thing to do

Atlantic Side Anchorages: Geiger Key to Newfound Harbor

Vanessa Linsley 43:57

is go in there and you're going to face the breeze . Most of the time the breeze is going to be stronger than the current in there to begin with . So you get your main anchor set , and once you get your main anchor set , with at least an 8 to 1 scope not a 6 to 1 , but an 8 to 1 scope . So that means for every foot of water you got eight feet of road out . Okay , right . So you put that eight to one scope out and then , at the very end of that , you have your second anchor ready to go on the bow of your boat .

Vanessa Linsley 44:29

Give your boat a little tiny bump in reverse and when you do , the boat will come back off of the anchor road . It'll help dig your anchor , first of all . And then you take your wheel and you turn it hard over to port . You take your engine out of gear , you put it in very slowly in forward and you make like a big semi-circle with your anchor road up off on your right nose at this point in time , and then come up so that you're almost even in a line with that anchor , with your other anchor ready to go about your boat , you drop that other anchor , you take your engine out of gear and you let the breeze set you to come back , keep paying out your road and when it looks like the two of them are close to even at approximately 65 degrees apart , give the boat a little bump in reverse and make sure both of those anchors are dug .

Key West John 45:20

Is everybody ready for the test now ? You know what .

Capn Tinsley 45:27

That's some good technical knowledge here .

Vanessa Linsley 45:29

My charter boats never had a problem going around after everybody had to do this and it wasn't difficult .

Key West John 45:35

There you go .

Vanessa Linsley 45:37

Realistically it's about 60 to 65 degrees . It's not any of this 90-degree bonk . You give the boat a little bit of a dig with both of those coming in . You take the engine out of gear , you watch it for a little bit . The boat will only dance a certain point . At that point in time it won't come all the way around and spin 180 degrees yeah it won't , it won't lift that you won't end up dragging .

Vanessa Linsley 45:58

And then , when you get ready to pick them up , you go forward . You pick up your , your last one dropped first , and then you come forward and you pick up your main one . The very last one that you dropped is going to be easy to bring in at that point , the one that's going to be more difficult it's going to be the one you're going to need to motor all the way up to is going to be yours , your primary that you set first look at , goose has given us a compliment the three of you ought to put together an ebook with this information and let hayden market it on the ip .

Capn Tinsley 46:25

that's the island packet yacht owners association facebook group or the website thanks goose , or you could just go into the harbor and it's all side ties . And how much is it these days ?

Key West John 46:38

$2 a foot . Dang , that's a deal . A bag of ice and a Coke . But you do have to pay for controlling depth . Oh yeah , it's kind of . If you go in there I've been in there a couple times You've got to be right in the middle and you're still going to have , at low tide , you're going to have about four feet of water , so you've got to watch it coming in there .

Vanessa Linsley 47:03

John , you're getting a lot smaller boats than I'm used to running and I've got to tell you a lot of these places you're giving heads up on , by the way , are four feet or less drafts . You got five and six feet , like I'm used to . You can't go to a lot of these places .

Key West John 47:15

Oh yeah , yeah , You'd have to go into Bahia Honda at high tide if you're five and six and you should be okay .

Capn Tinsley 47:22

Yeah , I'm 425 , and it was good for me . I was kind of parked where that blue boat is . Let me pull that back up .

Key West John 47:29

Your slip one . Yeah , your slip slip one , yeah like I was right .

Capn Tinsley 47:33

I was right here yeah , somewhere yeah , and it was such a good view because you can't really see it here . But on the other side is there's a beach and then there's oh yeah , I've got a picture .

Key West John 47:43

There's a picture of the ? Uh sunset over the bridge , and then also , uh , bring up the one of the ? Uh . You know . So people know that they're crocodiles in florida , in the Keys . Right there I was sitting on the back of the boat and here goes a crocodile , probably a four , four and a half footer .

Capn Tinsley 48:02

Did you go swimming with it ?

Key West John 48:06

No , no , no . But yeah , I was just out there watching the sunset . There he goes . Look at that , there are crocodiles crossing the Florida .

Vanessa Linsley 48:14

Keys . The other thing for everybody to remember is that Bay of Honda is a state park . Yes , do pay attention to your park . Your park entry passes and you can utilize those there . Remember that they've got hours and remember they also take some of those holidays . Bay of Honda is a state park . You have to be able to pay attention to that .

Key West John 48:36

I'm going to pull up a little .

Capn Tinsley 48:37

Google Maps so we can , because we're out of pictures there , and so I'm going to pull up Google Maps , because now I believe you're going to take us up to Marathon .

Key West John 48:48

Yeah , we , just if you start , you know after this , you know you go along there several good marinas in Marathon , and then if you want to do Duck Key about 10 miles from Marathon , and then obviously you've been to Key Largo , a couple of marinas there , then you get up to where Vanessa and I were talking about Boca , chita and Key Biscayne .

Vanessa Linsley 49:12

Before that I want to mention someplace especially for all the island packing and stuff Instead of going into a marina . Past Duck Key you've got a couple of places you hear everybody always talking about Tavernier and places like that . You can't anchor over there off of Tavernier .

Key West John 49:28

Yeah .

Vanessa Linsley 49:29

It doesn't exist . That's a mangrove island and you can't come and you can't go in there , you can't do anything .

Key West John 49:35

Right .

Vanessa Linsley 49:36

So after Duck Key , the closest place that you've got is Indian Key Anchorage , and Indian Key Anchorage has some mooring balls that are in there .

Capn Tinsley 49:46

Let's just look at this real quick . This is cool . So here's what we're talking about going through the bridge the old railroad bridge and then coming around . You got to kind of , is this what you were talking about ? Kind of come around this way and then in there 18 feet plus the water . Yeah , and this is where my that's probably my boat right there , and this here's where the snack bar is . You got to get your Coke and your whatever ice .

Key West John 50:10

Your bag of ice , yeah .

Capn Tinsley 50:12

Yeah , and John , there's no lights here and I always think he's crazy to do it . Come in here at night . It seems like big right there , but at night and there's no lights , it gets really small it shrinks . So then you come back out of here and you come back around and I'm sorry , this is not a chart , and you can see one of those fingers how you've got to go way to the southwest before you turn east .

Capn Tinsley 50:38

Yeah , and then you come on up here and this is not a far ride here , it's nice , and where is Keep going ?

Vanessa Linsley 50:48

Keep going , come out , some , come out , some . There you go , come out . Okay , there's your Edge of edge , marathon there . Your cursor's almost on it . There it is , yeah , right there . So you see the beach where your cursor is right there . Your cursor is just to the west of that beach area , right there , right here , yeah , okay , right here . So go around this way and come on . You don't have to go If you want to anchor out one of the best Anchorages in all of the area over there , off a marathon , that side of the channel where you just had that cursor doing circles , brer oh beach , oh yeah .

Vanessa Linsley 51:26

That's over here . It's just a Brer . Oh , this is some Brer . Oh , beach Anchorage over here . No , that that's a whole nother area . Come back over Beach . Anchorage over here , Right there ? No , that's a whole other area . Come back over where you were Over here .

Capn Tinsley 51:37

Yep , come down yeah that's the free place right there .

Key West John 51:40

Come down , go south , a little bit South , a little bit there you go Right there .

Vanessa Linsley 51:45

You've got a bunch of red towers that are radio towers that are up here on land that you could use , but you don't want farther to the corner . Right there where you've got that cursor , you come back out into the water . You stay in between where that cursor is and the channel up there to go into marathon into boot key harbor and that area . Right there is the serrero beach anchorage . Out here on the outside you've got an average of 8 to 21 feet of water in there and there's a lot of room for a lot of anchor and in the wintertime you'll see everybody anchored in there .

Capn Tinsley 52:18

You're talking about right here . I got distracted , oh yeah .

Vanessa Linsley 52:21

Farther north , right there , oh here . Yeah right there , in that area , right there .

Capn Tinsley 52:27

Okay , then we come in here and upstate here . This is an awesome place .

Key West John 52:35

And at one time , yeah , that's uh , that's uh , uh , it's a safe harbor now , and I might mention it , you know marathon marina and boatyard . You can see their haul out right there up the right here , little cut there yeah and they will .

Key West John 52:45

Uh , and I just did this a few months ago you can do a one hour haul out . Uh , I needed to change a through haul valve and I've done about a half a dozen in the water and I'm just kind of getting tired of of having to do things quickly . So , uh , I did a one hour haul out there I think it was 178 , which sounds bad , but it's . It's so easy . If you gotta do something quick like a change out of valve and , uh , you want to , yeah , let's talk about this marina .

Capn Tinsley 53:12

There's a lot going on here . They got some floating docks down here . I think this is it right here they've got , they got a pool . They got a pool . They got lazy day seafood . They got a boat yard . They got a hall out .

Key West John 53:24

This is a great place and there's showers and laundry right here yeah , safe . Harbor finally put some money , put a lot of money into it and , like I said , the floating docks are that little small string that goes out to the fuel dock on the east side no , the east side .

Capn Tinsley 53:41

Oh , those are floating yeah that's the floating dock .

Key West John 53:43

It goes out to the fuel dock and they now have a floating . You can see the little trailer up there on the east side . That's a floating shower bathroom thing . So that's a really neat place . Yeah , right there .

Capn Tinsley 53:56

Right , yeah , I like to stay right here because it's a fantastic view the sunset .

Key West John 54:02

Yeah , they really finally put some money in there and got the place going good .

Capn Tinsley 54:09

August wants to know about that link for the Marine Sanctuary that Vanessa mentioned .

Vanessa Linsley 54:15

It's the National Marine Sanctuary .

Capn Tinsley 54:22

NationalMarineSanctuarycom .

Vanessa Linsley 54:23

Yeah , florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary . Okay , did you ?

Capn Tinsley 54:28

get that .

Vanessa Linsley 54:29

You pull that up , it'll get you directly to it and I believe it's a NOAA brochure and the brochure has . There are two different ones , ones for the north part of the keys and ones for the south part of the keys . The lower and middle keys is on one and then they have middle and upper keys on the other . They show you a small chartlet of designated mooring balls in each one of the areas along the Keys .

Key West John 54:55

And those are daytime use .

Vanessa Linsley 54:58

Those are not overnight mooring balls , but they also let you know the specifics behind where you can anchor and where you can't , as far as seagrass beds and all sorts of other things that you need to be educated on .

Capn Tinsley 55:10

I got the right one pulled up here .

Vanessa Linsley 55:11

That's part of it . I got the right one pulled up here . That's part of it . That's the main one . That's the main one . There's two separate brochures . Brochure you mean website . Yeah , the little brochures have chartlets on them . You can pull up one for the lower . I was trying to click here , but yeah , that's the big one there's a smaller one .

Capn Tinsley 55:35

Oh , here we go , here we go .

Vanessa Linsley 55:37

Yeah , there it is .

Key West John 55:39

Okay .

Capn Tinsley 55:41

That is nice . Okay , thanks for the question , Goose . We got to pull this up . Yeah , for folks .

Key West John 55:49

Great info .

Capn Tinsley 55:51

Yeah .

Key West John 55:52

All right , so then I wanted to also talk talk about like , let me just get this in .

Capn Tinsley 55:57

So here is some . I believe this is anchoring . This is you go through this old bridge . It's no , it's , it's a defunct bridge . You go through that . There's anchor in here , there's anchor in here . Then there's this huge mooring field . I mean , check that out . Yes , I like the dingy through there and look at all these boats , some of them kind of look kind of rough .

Vanessa Linsley 56:18

They have expanded the mooring field now and they have designated where you can anchor in there now , as of this past year .

Capn Tinsley 56:27

Over here . Yep , some people go down this little river and get in here . Look here you can see the boats . They're backed in , they tie up to the mangroves and this is Sister Creek and you can come out this way and go hang out . I don't know if you can anchor in there .

Vanessa Linsley 56:45

Can you get out here ? I think you can .

Key West John 56:47

Yeah , I wouldn't think so .

Vanessa Linsley 56:49

I wouldn't think so you can if you've got a flat boat or something like that .

Capn Tinsley 56:55

You can't really get out of it unless you've got more than less than three feet of water . And then here's the city dinghy dock . Where is it ?

Vanessa Linsley 57:03

Right here , oh over here .

Capn Tinsley 57:04

Yeah , it won't let me go any further there , but the mooring field is a city mooring field Facility . Yeah , so it's cool back here . What I did was I was over here at this marina and there's Burdine's . That's a good restaurant . There's a Yanmar place over here , somewhere where you can get Yanmar parts . There's West Marine right there . Yeah , there's West Marine . There's all kinds of stuff and you can dingy up . I I kayak that dingy and just explore up in here . We went up in here , we gave , we ran aground in the dinghy up here , but but it was we , we had to get out and pull the dinghy .

Capn Tinsley 57:48

But yeah , this is a great place you want to hang out . A lot of people come here for the winter , isn't that right ?

Vanessa Linsley 57:53

Oh yeah , oh yeah , Burdine's has transient dockage . So does Marathon Boatyard , and you're up there near Marathon Boatyard as well .

Capn Tinsley 58:03

Yeah , this is a red zone right here on the water .

Vanessa Linsley 58:07

So there's Marathon Boatyard and there's Marathon Boatyard and Marina . They're two different boat yards , right .

Capn Tinsley 58:12

Right , Okay . Yeah , there's all kinds you can explore up in here on your dinghy or whatever . Okay . So where are we going next ? We're going under the bridge .

Vanessa Linsley 58:22

Come back out front , you need to go to . Rodriguez , if you've got the island packets doing stuff and people going to the Bahamas , we really need to talk about Rodriguez Key and , right there , going up the cut towards Key Largo .

Capn Tinsley 58:36

So we go on the outside .

Vanessa Linsley 58:38

Yep , you're not going to Florida Bay , you're staying in Hawks Channel . And Hawks Channel is not the intercoastal waterway , it's Hawks Channel . It's a area of water between land and reef . And where are we going ? Keep going up towards Miami . Woohoo , we're going to Miami . We've got Fox K , that we're going to go past .

Capn Tinsley 59:04

Isla Morada . We're going a long ways .

Vanessa Linsley 59:07

Hang on , right there , come back Right there . You see that little key right there that your your pointers on Rodriguez key . Uh-huh , so come around the corner to the east into the north . Yeah , there you go . Now , when you come in your pointers , almost at it , don't go north . Come back over off of the Rodriguez key . You see that little bowl of darker shade Right there , right where your pointer is . Yeah , so that little area right there . Believe it or not , when you need to be protected from a north wind and a good heavy blow out of the east , there's a marker that's in there with a little wreck . Yeah , there you go . If you stay just to the north and slightly to the east of that wreck and you use that as your marker , you've got eight feet of water tucked in there and you can protect you from a north wind .

Capn Tinsley 1:00:01

John's making noise over there I'm gonna cut your mic .

Key West John 1:00:05

I was in the dark I had to get a light . It's gone , the sun's gone okay , y'all .

Capn Tinsley 1:00:10

He's at at anchor .

Vanessa Linsley 1:00:11

He's living the life , okay so if you expand that just a little bit , the keys are actually blocking the north wind from right there .

Capn Tinsley 1:00:20

All right , see that , see where you are , yeah , so what do you do with the island packet here ? What's going ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:00:25

on here . So the reason being right here is if you come back out towards the water , towards the Atlantic side , from there , there expand it just a little bit . No , not , not , don't make it there , you go . Okay , you can see , on the reef right here . You can come out towards the reef from right there . As you come out a little bit , you have a wide open crossing right there to be able to leave Rodriguez Key in the dark yeah , and this right in here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:00:53

Yeah , don't go south . Go directly out to your slightly east . There you go , keep coming . That's the way you would go Straight out offshore over the reef right there , which you have plenty of room to do , and you have a lighthouse right here , yep Wow .

Capn Tinsley 1:01:12

You heard it here on the salty podcast . That's where you get across the reef .

Vanessa Linsley 1:01:18

This is one of the only areas that you can easily traverse this area at night , so you can come up the hook in here , off of rodriguez , spend the night in there , get up in the wee hours of the morning and make it straight across to the Bahamas in a day , right there during the daylight hours .

Capn Tinsley 1:01:37

And this is it right . You can get over all this .

Vanessa Linsley 1:01:40

You can get right out off of the lighthouse , use that as a marker and you have deep water , deeper water , 12 to 18 feet from Rodriguez coming straight out across the reef and coming straight out and then going over to Bimini . Okay , and so here's the lighthouse . And right there is the jump off in the Keys for being able to do a day trip directly over to the Bahamas .

Capn Tinsley 1:02:06

Okay , and where are you going in the Bahamas South ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:02:10

Bimini is easy from right there , right this is it ?

Capn Tinsley 1:02:14

Yeah , okay , but you can go straight over to North Cat Key from there .

Vanessa Linsley 1:02:19

You can go to Cat Key , you can go to South Bimini , but the current usually when you jump in the current is going to actually get you to Bimini the quickest Because you've got a northward set right there from the edge of the straight to . South Bimini .

Capn Tinsley 1:02:32

Okay , there from the edge of the uh . Okay , well , if you're gonna do the loop is what john calls it we're gonna go back down here . Oh no , I think we're gonna go up to keep .

Key West John 1:02:40

We're gonna go up to keep we kind of touched on , uh , boca chita , and yeah , we need , we need to expand on that a little bit . Those are two great places boca chita and , uh , no name .

Capn Tinsley 1:02:49

Let's go up let's , we'll do , we'll go back to that . Um , let's , let's say , okay , they're We'll go back to that . Let's say , okay , they're going to go up to Key Biscayne . So you come in here . I've done it and I stated Dinner Key . But this right here is what Hayden and Radine talk about . Here it is .

Key West John 1:03:07

Is this no Name Harbor ? Right here , yeah , scrolling in the off .

Capn Tinsley 1:03:08

That's a cool little place .

Key West John 1:03:12

You can side-t tie . During the day they have a good restaurant , you can rent bikes , but at night you have to go out and anchor .

Capn Tinsley 1:03:21

Yeah , so you do a side tie here . I ate at this restaurant right here and then you can anchor right here for nighttime , correct , yeah ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:03:31

And you can also come right out the entrance of no Name there and just off to the left-hand side . There's a neighborhood there but there's a good anchoring area that's protected right there in that open water , just off of the entrance to the left .

Capn Tinsley 1:03:42

I just want to acknowledge this guy saying best boating podcast ever , not even kidding . Yes , thank you , hello sailor . Thank you for lowering Fyne . Sailor Thank you for lowering your standards , yeah .

Key West John 1:03:58

But Vanessa's right , when no Name Harbor , especially on the weekend , might get crowded , and out there along the shoreline , the southwest shoreline , you'll see a lot of people anchored along in there . You know , you don't got good water .

Capn Tinsley 1:04:10

Hayden and Ray Dean talked about that . You can anchor out here . Yeah , your holding down there is not as good as the holding is up there on the in there .

Vanessa Linsley 1:04:14

Hayden and Ray Dean talked about that . You can anchor out here . Your holding down there is not as good as the holding is up there on the north . Where am I going Up here ? Right up in that area . Right there it's pretty protected and it's good holding right in there , especially if you have a really heavy thundershower or a big blow coming in . The holding right there is good Down here by the beach you can go up . What about in ?

Capn Tinsley 1:04:32

here ? Can we go in here , or is that against the rules ?

Key West John 1:04:34

Or is it ?

Capn Tinsley 1:04:35

too shallow right there . It's too skinny . So just last month I flew down I talked about this in a clip . I was sad , you know , because sometimes the grief just overtakes me . So I just flew down to South Beach and a guy rented me a jet ski from right here and I just went down here , went down to no Name Key and I wanted to see it . I'm going to take my boat there , but that's the only way I've seen it now I just brought it right in here ate some food .

Capn Tinsley 1:05:09

Met another Island Packet owner . I interviewed him last Wednesday . That was cool . Hayden and Ray Dean talk about this is a great place to hang out when you're waiting for your weather window to go to the Bahamas , you can test all your systems by sailing around in Key Biscayne .

Capn Tinsley 1:05:26

It's great sailing , there's lots to do . You can anchor and get your groceries , get all your stuff ready because you want to buy stuff before you go to the Bahamas , because they don't have a lot of stuff there . If you want a certain kind of food , you want to get a certain kind of toothpaste . That's how I like to talk about the toothpaste you get in the Bahamas . They've got one or two choices of everything , right , and it's expensive because they're bringing it from the States . Am I right ? Am I right ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:05:50

Yeah , they're getting rid of the additional cars and taxis put on that are pretty big .

Capn Tinsley 1:05:54

Yeah , they got piled the taxis . And this right here , I believe , is Dinner Key . It's huge . I was parked here and I was like , oh my gosh , there is a lot of boat slips there , and then they got all the mooring fields and the anchorages . That looks like those boats are wrecked .

Key West John 1:06:13

Well , yeah , it's huge .

Capn Tinsley 1:06:17

This is the biggest marina I've ever seen . I've ever stayed at .

Vanessa Linsley 1:06:21

Yeah , it's huge , you'll ever stay there , yeah , and it's right there at Coconut Grove , so you've got Whole Foods . You've actually got a couple of grocery stores that are right by there . You've got two other marinas that are right there that aren't part of Dinner Key . You've also got the Coconut Grove Sailing Club . You've got Monty right there . There's two other new marinas that are going in just on the other side of that .

Capn Tinsley 1:06:42

Oh , here we're getting the good knowledge , all right . And you've got a good view of downtown Miami too , from this marina See here , it is right here , yeah , the city that that cocaine built , they did they'll tell you they did um .

Vanessa Linsley 1:07:01

So my , my old office was right there . Where money's is it ? That little bit of cocaine , build it yeah , no original office was at miami beach marina , but then they , they , they moved over there to where Monty's is .

Vanessa Linsley 1:07:15

And there's a little you can get some transient slips right there , right next door to Coconut Grove , or I mean right next to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club , and then you've also got Shake-A-Leg that's right over there , where they have a lot of the sailing programs and some of the regattas that are going off on the weekends Right now . They've got nationals and worlds that are in three different class designs that are being sailed out of there right now and um . So there's a lot of transient dockage that's available around there .

Capn Tinsley 1:07:41

It's a matter of getting a hold of it . So they're a jumping off point for the caribbean right for a lot of people , um kind of .

Vanessa Linsley 1:07:46

Actually you'd be surprised at how many people go and anchor up over off rodriguez key now I .

Capn Tinsley 1:07:50

This whole area is a good jumping off point . The intercoastal goes up here . Is that a bridge I can get under ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:03

Part of the intercoastal . You need to be aware of one of the bridges that is mismarked out of the three bridges on the eastern seaboard is the Julia Tuttle Bridge . That's right there by Miami Beach Marina . It is not 65 feet , it is 56 feet . Oops , yeah , there's a mass that gets taken out on the Julia Tuttle Bridge , so you do need to be aware of that , that , what it shows on charts and what it actually is , and there's a big warning about it . But it's one of the three

Marathon and Boot Key Harbor Strategies

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:30

bridges along the lower eastern seaboard that is not a 65 foot bridge on the intercoastal waterway .

Capn Tinsley 1:08:36

So how do you ? How do you get ? Do you , can you get under one of these bridges here ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:08:40

um , you got to go around and come south and then come back this way to the Bay Area over there as you come in this way . Yeah , you go around the . So that is where the cruise ships come and go up there through the cut .

Capn Tinsley 1:08:54

Oh , okay , yeah , there's massive cruise ships up in here . They're all like on these little , these little , there's an island . That's just like . Where is it ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:09:08

So you got to the highway .

Capn Tinsley 1:09:11

Is this it ? Yeah , here it is , yeah , there they are .

Key West John 1:09:13

Yeah , that's all the cruise ship and freighters .

Capn Tinsley 1:09:17

The Port of Miami Is this . They're all . You see all . I don't see very many here , but there was these massive cruise ships that were along here .

Key West John 1:09:23

The cruise ships are on the north side and the freighters are on the south side of it . So if you come , back .

Vanessa Linsley 1:09:28

If you come back by Bayshore Marina , by Bayside Mall , tinsley , if you come down that channel to your right , keep coming down to your right right there , that bridge up north of that , oh yeah , so you've got Bayside Mall and the bridge right there by Bayside Mall takes you out into the bay over there to get back over on the backside where Dinner Cue Marina is .

Capn Tinsley 1:10:01

Is this 65 feet right here , this bridge ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:06

I can't tell where you are , I can't see you yeah , that's the bridge coming .

Key West John 1:10:09

Hell of a sailor , that's how you say it . Now I got it Hell of a sailor .

Capn Tinsley 1:10:11

That's how you say it . Now I got it . Hell of a sailor . Where's that bridge ? Which bridge are you asking about ?

Key West John 1:10:18

That's the one that goes from Miami out to the South Beach .

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:24

So that one that should be the Julia Tuttle , that one should only be 56 .

Capn Tinsley 1:10:28

Okay , so how do you get up in there ? How ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:31

do you go up ?

Capn Tinsley 1:10:32

the ICW from here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:33

You got Okay . So how do you get up in there ? How do you go up the ICW from here ? So there's an area where it breaks off and you've got to come in by the bridge that's over by Bayside Mall . I don't know where Bayside Mall is though Bayside Mall is right by the river if you look at the entrance to where the river is .

Capn Tinsley 1:10:49

Miami River . Yeah , I went up there in the jet ski , that was pretty bad to the bone right up there . I went all the way up in here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:10:58

Yeah , you were talking about drug money .

Capn Tinsley 1:11:01

Yeah , yeah , all these buildings right here are all built by cocaine money . Okay , hell of a Sailor , says the Mistmark Bridge . Yes , oh , it's this one , the Mistmark Bridge is the Julia .

Vanessa Linsley 1:11:13

Oh , it's this one . The Mistmark Bridge is the Julia Tuttle . Okay , right there .

Capn Tinsley 1:11:18

It's 56 instead of 65 , I think you said yes , okay . All right . So if you're going up to ICW which I've never done this side over here , so I'm real interested you go up this way .

Vanessa Linsley 1:11:31

You come back the other way and you can get under the bridge . That's right . Come up the channel there , you go right there , you go under those two bridges and you come back around on the back side and then you can get in there Over here , that's over by the Miami Yacht Club , okay , and there's a little anchorage area out there in the Miami Yacht Club .

Capn Tinsley 1:11:55

And I stayed right over South Beach . Somewhere over here . There was a lot of boats here we go . There was a lot of . They look wrecked in this picture , but they weren't wrecked . There was a mooring field out here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:12:09

Is this it right here ? That's for the Miami Yacht Club .

Capn Tinsley 1:12:13

Okay , okay , I stayed in one of these buildings over here , all right , so we're not going to go up to ICW , that would be for another day , another podcast . So we're going up to . We went up to no name , if I can find it again , and now we're going to come back down .

Key West John 1:12:33

Oh , there's Boca Chita if I can find it again . And now we're going to come back down , and now we're going to Stop at .

Capn Tinsley 1:12:35

Boca Chita . Oh , there's Boca Chita , okay yeah .

Key West John 1:12:37

Yeah , that's a cool little place Vanessa and I were talking about the other day . Don't go in there in the summertime . The mosquitoes are the biggest you'll ever see .

Capn Tinsley 1:12:45

There you go .

Key West John 1:12:46

Local knowledge right there .

Key West John 1:12:48

I think it's still a state park . I think it's still a state park and let's see . But it's got . You know , it's a nice , it's like no Name Harvey . You go in and there's a circular side tie . Okay , yeah , there , you know , restroom still . But when you pull out the map there , you've got to follow the here again , follow those markers , because if you're coming down from north to south , looks like it's this right here . Yeah , you've got to pass and get on the . The picture I have shows the markers . If you have that map picture but it , you've got to follow those markers because otherwise you , it's one of those things . Again , it looks like you can go straight there , but no , you got to come in from west to east .

Capn Tinsley 1:13:29

You come around this way and then go .

Key West John 1:13:32

You'll be about middle . Yeah , You've got to come out . Yeah , do you have that map that I took a picture of ?

Capn Tinsley 1:13:39

Yeah , yeah , I can pull that up .

Key West John 1:13:42

Then I lose the map so . Okay .

Capn Tinsley 1:13:47

Hold on , I'll get there , we're going All right , we're looking close .

Key West John 1:14:05

It's just , you've got a typical thing like that Well .

Capn Tinsley 1:14:08

I already took it down .

Key West John 1:14:11

You've got to follow the charts to make sure that you don't run aground or hit . You know , I think that's a little reef area in there , isn't it , Vanessa ? I think Best I remember .

Capn Tinsley 1:14:21

So , in general , how do you get to this place ?

Key West John 1:14:30

Well , you're coming down Biscayne Bay and you're kind of like the middle of Biscayne Bay and then you pass a certain point where you can turn east into the Boca Chita . Okay , I mean , it's a good little place , you know . They've got grills , you can cook out , you know whatever you want to do . They've got restrooms , Okay . But it's a neat little place up there .

Capn Tinsley 1:14:49

All right , All right . So we're going back down to the bridge at Marathon and we're going to go to the backside .

Key West John 1:14:58

Yeah , on the backside there's just a lot . You know , you've been to several of them . You know if you cut through it's two different ways . You can do the little Spanish channel that cuts you through close to no-name key .

Capn Tinsley 1:15:10

And then , once you get up there , somewhere along here . Right , john , that channel's somewhere around here .

Key West John 1:15:16

I went down there and I guess you go up here .

Capn Tinsley 1:15:18

Yeah , and then you go up there .

Key West John 1:15:19

Yeah , and then once you get up there you've got the content keys Sawyer Snipes , marvin Mud Key . Those are neat little places , but pulling in on there you've got to be careful , because you're in 13 or 15 feet of water and all of a sudden , next thing you know , you've got two and three feet of water .

Capn Tinsley 1:15:40

Yeah , you can't get too close . Yeah , you can get as close as you can , and then you can ding .

Key West John 1:15:46

I'm sorry but , as Vanessa was saying earlier , I think Snipes has a fairly good beach and apart from that , there's not much . I think , marvin , you might have a little bit on the south side , but they're a good little place if you just want to explore and take a dinghy or kayak or paddleboard through some little cuts in the mangroves . Some of those islands offer some really interesting times , but it's uncivilized .

Vanessa Linsley 1:16:12

If you go a little bit farther up there , you can come , let me just look .

Capn Tinsley 1:16:16

Can I just comment on Snipes and Marvin . You and I , we buddy-boated out here . I think we went from Marvin to Snipes and they weren't far from each other Right , and then we went back Northwest Channel . But if there's wind or whatever coming from the north , it's a little maybe , yeah , you get it .

Vanessa Linsley 1:16:34

But what you can do , you can go a little bit farther north than that , you know . And even coming back from Miami , you got Long Key Bight , that big bridge , right . You know , long Key Bight is a really good little anchorage , but you do have to work your way around the lobster pots .

Vanessa Linsley 1:16:51

You can go under that Long , long key if you keep coming up . Okay , from the back side back there there's a tree of the fish base , fish basin . Do fish basin up there on the back side . If you keep coming up the long key , but keep coming on long key , it's gonna be a little bit farther . Long key is the 65 foot bridge .

Capn Tinsley 1:17:12

It's right around there , oh yeah this is the other place you can go under right .

Vanessa Linsley 1:17:18

Yes , I've not done that one .

Capn Tinsley 1:17:20

Okay , where is it ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:17:23

I'm trying to see if I . To your right , that looks like Pigeon Key . That's Marathon , isn't it ?

Capn Tinsley 1:17:29

No , we're north of that . This is Long , long Key Bight here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:17:34

Yeah , so , long Key Bight , when you come in over here off of Long Key Bight , there's a good little anchorage area that you can anchor in there . There's usually a lot of lobster pots and a lot of stone crab pots in there , but you can tuck in right over here off of the edge where that , if you bring your cursor up a little bit , that finger sticking out right there there , keep coming to the right Come . Is this where you can ? Okay , no , come back down a little bit , right , and now look over too far , right in that area , right over there , where that finger sticks out , right up , right in there , yeah , you've got , you've got eight , twelve feet of water up in , and that can actually be a really good little anchorage in there . Okay , where you can anchor , not on seagrass beds , so you can be there . And then if you go under the Long Key Bridge right there , the area on the back side , on the intercoastal waterway side , back there , hold up .

Capn Tinsley 1:18:29

Where do we go under Under the bridge ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:18:31

There's a 65-foot bridge here , the Long Key Bridge Right here . It's the road right there .

Key West John 1:18:37

I think it's to your right yeah it's over here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:18:42

Come up under that Right here . Yeah , up on the north side Right here . I can't read it .

Capn Tinsley 1:18:53

Channel number two bridge .

Vanessa Linsley 1:18:56

Okay , it's going to be down . It's not channel two . Yeah , that doesn't look like 65 feet , no huh , but the Long Key Bridge is 65 feet .

Key West John 1:19:04

Yeah .

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:05

I think that's it right there . Isn't it Right there ?

Key West John 1:19:07

I think that's it .

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:09

Yeah .

Key West John 1:19:10

Oh , that's not it Okay .

Upper Keys and Miami Approaches

Capn Tinsley 1:19:13

Well , there might be a cut in that .

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:16

It's called the Long Key Bridge . Yeah , it's the Long Key Bridge . So up on the other side is Jewfish Basin , and Jewfish Basin is good anchoring for a relatively deep draft boat . You can actually bring them in and you can come from all the way from Key West and go up there into Jewfish Basin in a good day and have a spot to actually anchor up in relatively safe conditions , no matter what's going on .

Capn Tinsley 1:19:41

Okay , Jewfish Bay . I've seen it before . Okay , here's Florida Bay , of course .

Vanessa Linsley 1:19:47

Is it somewhere up here ? Yeah , I think it's down farther to the south and to the west . I can't really see what you've got on there . Yeah , but it's Jewfish Basin . You can pull that up and know that on the back side if you draw more than five feet you do have someplace else you could anchor up there on the inside . Look at that , okay , jukefish Basin Does that look right , kind of Can't really , there it is yeah .

Key West John 1:20:28

Yeah , because it's down around mud . It's down around mud .

Vanessa Linsley 1:20:30

Keith , yeah , you've got cuts that you go in to get in there you can read the water , and that's the thing . All these places they're accessible in daytime , there's not a lot of markers and they are not accessible at night . And before you get any of these , you should look at your insurance policies , because your insurance policies in many places will state that you cannot .

Capn Tinsley 1:20:52

We've got it all here on the Salty Podcast . We're covering everything .

Vanessa Linsley 1:20:57

You cannot traverse the Florida Keys at night .

Key West John 1:21:01

Right Do not .

Vanessa Linsley 1:21:03

There are not enough markers , and some people's insurance policies don't allow it .

Capn Tinsley 1:21:09

Look , we're down here by . I don't know if we're at the right place here .

Key West John 1:21:13

We're near by the naval air station . Yeah , you're pretty close to jewfish basin there over to your left a little more oh , okay , all right , so I'm trying to go in some sort of order .

Capn Tinsley 1:21:24

Okay , we've shown them how to go . Spanish key , I know , on the north side , on the back country , is what we call it and then you come around and you go to Northwest Channel , which I believe . This is it right here ?

Key West John 1:21:38

Yeah , yeah .

Capn Tinsley 1:21:39

Okay . Or the other route , yeah , okay . So that is the route and then that is what John calls the southern loop . If you go up , go , yeah , hopscotch up to , up to marathon , and then go around and come back on the back country lower keys looper yeah , I'm a lower keys looper .

Key West John 1:22:03

Oh , one thing we need to touch on , uh I know we're getting kind of long on it .

Key West John 1:22:09

but uh , lobster pods , the markers you , you know , especially during the season you've got to watch for those things . You know Vanessa probably has some techniques . You know I watch to see which way they're laying in the water . So , as you know , as you come up on some you know which sides you need to kind of be on . If you do catch one , bam , you know I first go to neutral and then if it looks like it's caught , then hit reverse for a little bit and hope that takes care of it . But if you come up on one , you hear it bump but you see everything come out the back .

Capn Tinsley 1:22:42

We want to see your face , John .

Key West John 1:22:44

What ? Oh yeah , I'm in the dark . Bring it to you closer . The sun has gone down .

Capn Tinsley 1:22:52

Bring it on in .

Key West John 1:22:53

Bring it on in . And if you don't , if you hit a marker and you cut the line and you don't , you're not sure that all of the line is off of your shaft you better shut down and check it , because you do not want to be running the shaft with rope wrapped around it . It will mess it up .

Capn Tinsley 1:23:11

Yeah , yeah . And you got to get out and get underneath there and maybe have a knife or something . Yeah , yeah . Well , a lot of times you might not even need a knife .

Key West John 1:23:20

You might be able to just get in there with your hands and unwrap it , but it wouldn't hurt to have a knife ready . She fell . I went sideways , good Lord . But watch for the pods , Because during season they'll be everywhere , but if you know which way they're laying in the water and which way the tide's taking them , or the current .

Capn Tinsley 1:23:40

I should say let's talk about the time of year , Because going across Florida Bay and it's after the first of the year , Is it after New Year's or something ?

Key West John 1:23:49

It could be a nightmare . Lobster's August through middle March right , Is it middle ? March or end of March , Middle March right .

Capn Tinsley 1:23:56

I've come barreling across Florida Bay at night and it's just like , oh well , here we go . Luckily , I've never gotten caught Coming up from Key West today .

Key West John 1:24:04

I didn't see many at all . So we're right at the end of the season . You still have some sown crab traps out , but the lobster is pretty much uh ending .

Capn Tinsley 1:24:14

Yeah , I want to say I've got a lot of quite a bit of experience coming from Marco to marathon or even , um , you know , up there , um Captiva to Key West and uh , if you come during when those , those lobster pots or crab traps , whatever they are out there , you're not sitting back with your autopilot , You're pretty much steering , You're trying to miss them .

Key West John 1:24:41

The Gulf of Mexico has a lot of them too . The Keys have a lot , but the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America does too . The Mexico , the . Gulf of Mexico has got a lot , as well as the Keys on those lobster pods . They're everywhere during season and they run in strings .

Capn Tinsley 1:25:01

Yeah , they're kind of in lines . You can kind of space it if you're coming down the West Coast . But it's not very relaxing when you have to try to avoid those things because you've got to be on the wheel .

Key West John 1:25:17

Well , you can pretty much close your eyes and you're going to miss most of them . You can play the big sky theory , which is a fighter pilot kind of term . You play the big sky theory but , as you know , you've hit one pretty hard that vanessa had to do some extensive repairs on your boat yeah , off the coast of marco yeah , you , you pulled .

Capn Tinsley 1:25:39

I think you pulled the pond all the way up to your boat , or something like that I was going through that bay off in marco I was like why am I going so slow ? Oh , you're dragging , yeah . And I went into rose marina right at six . They were about to close because it was in the winter and I said wait a minute , let me fuel up and then I'll go over to my , where it doesn't slip . And I went in there but then when I hit reverse coming out , it just went everything stopped .

Capn Tinsley 1:26:09

Then I was drifting . I was like holy smokes and then I was drift . I was drifting to a wall and then it changed direction on me . I was about to throw the anchor out and then , um , I went to the end of a dock and the guys you know tied me up and it was dark by this time and I had to get seto the next day and I had to get a diver and it was like 18 feet around my prop .

Capn Tinsley 1:26:31

But everything was fine , yeah , but the engine was fine . But then it had this is what we all figured out later it had , I guess , slung . Those things have concrete on them , yeah , right .

Vanessa Linsley 1:26:45

Yeah , it slung up and hit .

Capn Tinsley 1:26:48

And so the diver when he came down , there were still crabs in the trap too . I said , set them free , they've come a long way . And so the diver used 5200 to kind of patch it up .

Key West John 1:27:01

And then when I got down , that's when I met Vanessa , because it was after Irma and she was doing some work on people's boats . Yeah , I remember you said I've got this problem and I said here's who you need to call .

Capn Tinsley 1:27:12

Yeah , and that was the introduction to Vanessa . She's kind of a jack of all trades y'all .

Key West John 1:27:18

No , she's a . Let me tell you Whoa , whoa , she is the master of all trades .

Capn Tinsley 1:27:22

Okay , all right , all right , she knows jack of all trades .

Key West John 1:27:25

She's the master . I have watched her for years .

Capn Tinsley 1:27:30

Yeah , you just years it's . Yeah , you just point at a . Any vehicle at all , it doesn't even have to be about . Tell me about that , she'll have it all . She's got all the facts but and she's she's a very detailed takes care of her clients . So if you want a boat , let's put that on info up again , just in case . Yeah , because we're here to promote each other , aren't we there we go , so , um , if you're looking , for local knowledge .

Key West John 1:27:55

I bought my boat from her . We I didn't even know she was the one that had it listed . I looked at the boat and then when I called up , I said , oh you know , because we had had , uh , mutual friends in that miami , our time in miami , you know , we brag a little bit on you , vanessa I was doing business with the same people she was in business with and , uh , so we had mutual friends there . And then all of a sudden we got it all going down here .

Capn Tinsley 1:28:18

She knew about . When I broke my ankle too . She told me everything that was going to happen . She helped Scott get through the process .

Vanessa Linsley 1:28:24

She helped me get to the college in order to sail , you know yeah .

Capn Tinsley 1:28:30

Well , I think you had the same break at one point in your , in your life .

Key West John 1:28:35

I know we've been very rattled with the jumping around , but if you're coming down here and we got questions we haven't answered , please , you know , text me , call me , email me and Key West Bike Marina .

Vanessa Linsley 1:28:46

Talk to you about deeper draft anchorages as well other places to actually get to where you can jump off . What your ETAs and your itineraries can be , except for I don't know just point to here and there and I'm going to tell you that the 30-minute highway is the way to get out to the dry Tortugas and how to get out there in a neutral current . I like it .

Key West John 1:29:12

I like that tortugas and how to get out there in a neutral current . I like it . I like that . What is this now ? Get her advice on getting to the dry tortugas , on a neutral , on a neutral current yeah when you pull out a little thing that we always do .

Vanessa Linsley 1:29:25

it's called the 30 minute highway and it's a little bit off , but it keeps you clear of what's going in . With three converging currents right there off of Half Moon Shoal and Rebecca Shoal , and that's most important We've got three of the biggest currents that come into the Gulf of Mexico right there in between Half Moon Shoal and the Rebecca Shoal area .

Capn Tinsley 1:29:43

Yeah , it's hellacious , good moving . Vanessa , you're making a seasick Hold it still Thanks again , Gus , Thanks Gus .

Vanessa Linsley 1:29:58

It's called the 30-Minute Highway . Okay , you go out off of the entrance to the Key West Harbor entrance . You go out to the sea buoy , you bang a right , you get on 30 minutes and you follow it directly out to the drive toward Tugas . It keeps you clear of Half Moon Shoal , clear of Rebecca Shoal , and you'll notice that the current in that area is relatively neutral . It's not going east , it's not going west .

Capn Tinsley 1:30:24

Okay .

Key West John 1:30:26

There'll be a test on this as well .

Capn Tinsley 1:30:29

So I got the route right here , right .

Vanessa Linsley 1:30:31

This is it From right . There . Go ahead and you make your heading off Park marker O or park marker P over there on the southeast corner of going into the park entrance to drive Tortugas .

Capn Tinsley 1:30:44

Southeast corner .

Vanessa Linsley 1:30:45

Yeah , either park marker O or park marker P . You follow that up in , you get to Hospital Key and you leave that off .

Capn Tinsley 1:30:53

I thought it was like up here , but it's this way , tell me .

Vanessa Linsley 1:30:58

What's this way ?

Capn Tinsley 1:31:00

This is the Dry Tortugas right here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:31:03

I can't see anything ?

Key West John 1:31:04

We just got three amigos up .

Capn Tinsley 1:31:06

Oh , oh yeah . Oh man , I'm sorry , this is the route here she's talking about . Come out of here's where .

Key West John 1:31:22

Here's where John is Right here .

Capn Tinsley 1:31:25

And we went up through here . Uh-uh , you want to ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:31:30

go down this way . Come down the harbor entrance , keep coming down Out-uh . Nope , you want to go down this way . Come down the harbor entrance , keep coming down Out the main ship channel this way . There you go too , about the sea buoy . Keep coming out .

Capn Tinsley 1:31:42

I don't have that sea buoy on here Straight south , go straight south .

Vanessa Linsley 1:31:46

Straight south . There you go Now . From there you're going to pick up 30 minutes and you're going to come right . Keep coming . You're going to be right off the edge of all that landmass . Keep coming , keep coming straight out , and you're going to get just off the southeast corner of the dry tortugas at 30 minutes . Keep coming , and you're going to come up and bend up towards park marker O or park marker P that are there on the lower right-hand corners .

Capn Tinsley 1:32:18

Am .

Vanessa Linsley 1:32:18

I in the right area . No , you're on the north side now .

Capn Tinsley 1:32:22

That's the north side .

Key West John 1:32:23

No , she's south , she's south . There you go . Yeah , she's south .

Vanessa Linsley 1:32:28

Okay , so you come up in here , Southeast corner . You're going to come in and come around in that really white sandy area to the left , Right here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:32:38

No come down , come down , come all the way down back over here on the right-hand corner , white white sandy area . Keep coming , keep coming to the right . There you go . So you're going to come up and around the corner in there . Keep coming to the right there you go , so you're going to come up and around the corner in there . Keep coming to the right . There you go , there you go that's what I thought .

Capn Tinsley 1:32:58

I thought we did that keep coming around .

Vanessa Linsley 1:33:00

Not that channel , that's the old channel . There you go , now you come in there , you go all the way up in here and you come up and you anchor in that area , right there where ? Yeah , okay , yes , that area right there where the marker is was a cut that used to be the old entrance coming in , no more right . Well , I gotta tell you we did have one hurricane recently that it did open it back up it did yep and it goes back up on the next one , okay .

Capn Tinsley 1:33:34

So yeah , this you can . This is the the shuttle um the shuttle . Then what's saying ? Uh , the the ferry , the ferry tracks right here right and it parks right there and this is it's pretty protected in here um that area right there has moderate protection and excellent holding .

Vanessa Linsley 1:33:56

Okay , I tuck up into the dark water all the way up there towards the edge of the beach and I anchor right up there , if there's not a fishing boat in there , because they know where to anchor . Yeah , double anchor off of the nose and there's room for the seaplane and the ferry backs behind me . Okay , dinghy back in over here . You cannot use the docks . You go up to the beach with your dinghy , right here .

Capn Tinsley 1:34:23

Yeah , now , if you go well back over by the docks .

Vanessa Linsley 1:34:26

it's a designated area over here somewhere . Yep , now the coal bin refueling station where you see all those little dock spaces right there , right here , no down , I'm down there .

Capn Tinsley 1:34:41

Some ruins here .

Vanessa Linsley 1:34:43

Yeah , that's the Colby refueling station and there's great snorkeling right around there .

Capn Tinsley 1:34:55

OK , it's right up just past that .

Vanessa Linsley 1:34:56

What is all this ? If you come around the corner from the coal bin refueling station right there there's another anchorage area and that anchorage area has excellent holding and moderate protection let's see if I can get back to it and there's a couple of deeper water channels right in there for deeper draft boats . You'll see some of the overnight dive boats

Navigating to the Dry Tortugas

Vanessa Linsley 1:35:16

stay up in there Running their generators all night .

Key West John 1:35:24

Disturbing the peacefulness .

Capn Tinsley 1:35:30

I saw a question today . Someone was asking about generator etiquette in a crowded Anchorage and someone said well , I hate it when people put it on their dinghy and then drag it way behind them . They send it out on their dinghy .

Key West John 1:35:49

Oh yeah .

Capn Tinsley 1:35:50

So they don't have to hear it , but everybody else gets to hear it . That's probably not the best , yeah , okay . So anything else about the Dry Tortugas I know you can tour this up here , that's good About the Tortugas .

Vanessa Linsley 1:36:06

You know the Yankee fleet that actually goes out there with the Yankee ferry . The Dry Tortugas ferry leaves in the morning at 7 o'clock and it arrives back in Key West usually around 5.15 , 5.30 . And even if they say that you can't get a reservation , you can pop over there sometimes at 6.30 in the morning just before they get ready to head out , and there's a lot of cancellations a lot of times that you don't know about until that day . So don't give up on it and throw your arms up in the air . But if you ever have emergencies you have parts that need to go out there or anything like that they're very accommodating and working in the crew there to try to help get parts out to people and get things taken care of okay , yeah , we gotta make it .

Key West John 1:36:48

We gotta make it this next time .

Capn Tinsley 1:36:50

Yeah , I want to get out there , and that's the one place that I would be scared to anchor by myself , just because it's out in the middle of nowhere and who knows , I'm going to come up there . You know , come sneak up on you . I mean , it's secluded and at night , unless there's a whole bunch of boats or something . But I would feel comfortable buddy boating out there .

Key West John 1:37:14

Yeah , buddy boat . What about you , vanessa ? I like the route that Vanessa came up with . I like that . I know exactly what you're talking about .

Vanessa Linsley 1:37:22

Well , you go back over on the north side and you try to come in on the back side of Key West . There is an area out there that , after a couple of the hurricanes , we ended up with an area that used to show that there was 14 feet on the water in your water depth right there , and we ended up with a two-foot sandbar that covered close to 20 miles .

Capn Tinsley 1:37:39

Are you talking about coming on the north side ? Yeah , over by the back side , coming down the northwest channel .

Vanessa Linsley 1:37:46

Yeah , over on the back side coming in by Boca Grande . I wouldn't do that if you had anything over four feet on your draft . Yep , Because there's just too much . That's changed back over there . That's not totally documented and you don't see it in a lot of the charts .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:00

Are you talking about this area right here ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:38:03

No , I'm talking about farther over to the west . Okay , back off of in between the Marquesas and Boca Grande .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:13

Okay , all right , so you recommend coming back this way on the south side .

Vanessa Linsley 1:38:19

Okay , yeah , always 24-30 , 30-minute highway .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:22

You heard it here . I like that .

Vanessa Linsley 1:38:24

That's the test . If it's that neutral current , you know most of the time everything is going to take them longer to get back from the Tortugas than it is going to be to get out there . It's relative to that current .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:37

So here's the Yankee Freedoms Dry Tortugas Ferry right here and John is like right , where are you ?

Key West John 1:38:46

John . Oh , let's see you were right there . Just about there . Right , a little more to the left .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:52

Right here .

Key West John 1:38:53

Right there , yeah .

Capn Tinsley 1:38:54

Yeah , so John's like right here , right by the brewery .

Key West John 1:38:59

Yeah , oh yeah , the brewery's not that far . Oh , it is . Somebody's got to lock the doors every night .

Vanessa Linsley 1:39:05

John , you know that your boat slip is where I used to keep my charter fleet right .

Key West John 1:39:10

I do , I remember that . Yes , I remember that yeah .

Vanessa Linsley 1:39:14

I used to have 10 . I remember that right there .

Key West John 1:39:17

Yeah , they're different boats than what that picture is showing , but yeah , that's right it .

Capn Tinsley 1:39:23

Let's see if I can get down there . Okay so , and then Vanessa's on Stock Island Coconut , something or other .

Vanessa Linsley 1:39:32

I'm at the .

Capn Tinsley 1:39:33

Perry Coconut Road .

Key West John 1:39:35

Yeah .

Capn Tinsley 1:39:36

Perry . Well we could be here all night . But I think we got some good highlights here , right .

Key West John 1:39:46

Yeah , what are y'all laughing at ? Sorry , we rambled so much , but , like I said , if we need to clarify something , please give us a call , text or email , whatever You're so helpful , thank you . I got nothing to do and all day to do it , so I need to do something .

Vanessa Linsley 1:40:03

We do have a United States Caribbean and we're in it , that's right .

Capn Tinsley 1:40:08

That's why .

Vanessa Linsley 1:40:09

I called it that , the only city in North America located in the Caribbean basin . We're on the very , very tip top here in Key West . Yeah , keep the breezes , keep the weather . We don't have the rainfall Miami has , and we are in the Caribbean right now .

Key West John 1:40:24

You've heard it from the Chamber of Commerce right there .

Capn Tinsley 1:40:27

And if you want to buy a boat , we want to cover that again .

Vanessa Linsley 1:40:31

Great , I get $4.85 on the market $2,000 .

Capn Tinsley 1:40:39

And you just dropped the price to $4.65 .

Vanessa Linsley 1:40:41

And she's starting to get ready to go ocean sailing . That's a nice boat . She doesn't have anything going on with her at all . You can get your food , get your clothes and you're ready to go . Where is it again ? Celia Potts will actually concur with that .

Capn Tinsley 1:40:59

Yes , and that is our preferred surveyor . By the way , she's wonderful Set Sail Surveys . Is that the name of her company ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:41:09

That boat is located in Jacksonville , florida , at Port 32 Marina .

Capn Tinsley 1:41:14

They can go to Edward Yacht Sales and look you up , you've got quite a bit of listings . Are those all your listings ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:41:21

No , I don't have much right now . I've got a couple of boats and I've got that sailboat .

Capn Tinsley 1:41:26

Stay still , man . Whoa , she's like nervous or something .

Key West John 1:41:32

We're all getting sick .

Capn Tinsley 1:41:34

Remember , I got to do clips from all this . You can't be moving so much . I'm going to make you famous . You're already famous .

Key West John 1:41:41

But thank you guys , this was awesome . I enjoyed the evening . It was great .

Capn Tinsley 1:41:45

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge . You're awesome . I've told you this before . This is helping me get through a tough time now and , um , we've been on here for an hour and 48 minutes . I do believe it's my longest podcast .

Vanessa Linsley 1:42:00

Don't forget y'all look at those Marine sanctuary brochures , because if we start everything we got around here , we don't have enough play in anymore , so we want to keep it .

Capn Tinsley 1:42:13

Amen , play in anymore , so we want to keep it exactly . Amen , christine , keep it put together . Yeah , I want to keep the place nice and uh , there's that you're kind of breaking up there , but the you're the new law , not a couple years old is you can't use um , just regular sunscreen on the reef anymore , isn't that right ?

Vanessa Linsley 1:42:29

there are addresses in that in the Marine Sanctuary brochure , and they do specify that in areas and once again , we're sailors and sailors are supposed to be stewards of the marine environment so that's the way we should be treating it , that's the way I've always tried to treat it , that's what I was taught and that's the way it should be , and , you know , with only the help of NOAA and the Marine Sanctuary . Everybody's trying to do that . But do remember that is a national marine sanctuary . It's not state-run , it's not state and local , but all it is is about conserving and protecting our natural coral reef and it's the only one in North America and that's right there .

Capn Tinsley 1:43:07

A good place to end . So thank you , and we'll go out like this Everybody together . Now , salty , abandon Out , we're out Out .