Key Largo Vacation

[tmolik]

to anyone..
Has anyone ever trailered to, stayed at, sailed around, the Key Largo, Florida, area?  If so...what hotel/motel did you stay and cost, where did you stay, where did you launch, where did you stay, how did you like the total experience....etc...etc...etc..
regards from central florida.
tom

[kchunk]

Hi Tom. We've towed our CP23 from Daytona down to the Keys quite a few times. We've launched once in Marathon and twice at South Dade Marina. We liked South Dade so much we left the boat down there last summer. We brought the boat home back in October and to be honest with you, we've been thinking about taking her back down. For me personally, after doing a bit of sailing down there it's just not the same up here.

As for places to launch and tie up, like a hotel with a dock, they call them "resorts" or "resort marinas" down there. I assume living in Central FL you've been to the Keys by now and you probably understand that they use the term "resort" very loosely down there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, keep you expectations low and you'll have a great time. I know of quite a few resort marinas in Marathon, but have never searched for any in Largo

Another idea is to Launch from South Dade Marina. They're a great little marina just south of Florida City about half way between Florida City and Key Largo. However, they're completely primitive, no potable water (they have running water but it's treated brackish water). You can launch there, park your rig and head out into Barnes Sound and south to the ICW and Key Largo. Barnes Sound is a great bay for day sailing and plenty places for exploring and overnighting on the hook. If you just wanted to to get to Key Largo and the ICW, it's probably about an hour or hour and a half sail south. http://southdademarina.com/

When do you think you're planning on heading down. The past couple trips we've met up with Ron (Potcakeboy) and David Serrell (DSerrell).

Here are a couple pics from South Dade:

[tmolik]

to Kchunk..
thanks for the info...I don't think we would stay on the 17' suncat...we did that on lake erie/michigan for 20 years in a 35' Pearson sailboat and we are done with that ...Marathon would be a little far south....that's why I unknowingly chose Key Largo based on the Boat/US Trailer magazine and my own charts...we need a (reasonably priced) place to stay 7-10 days and use that as a sailing base, and night time bed...you've given me a lot to research...would go there approx. may-june-july time frame (I know that's not very really specific).
thanks again, I appreciate it.
how's the daytona/hallifax river marina to sail out of...or even sanford/lake monroe?
tom

[Potcake boy]

Greg,

Thanx for posting those pix - brings back nice memories.  Have been feelin' real close to another Keys trip - interested?

Ron

P.S. what's the trick for posting pix here?

[kchunk]

Tom, The sailing is OK up here. Personally, I don't really like sailing in the river. The ICW can be so shallow that tacking anywhere outside of the marked channel is asking to be grounded. There are a couple places it's plenty wide outside the channel, but like I said, it's just OK. Sailing out in the ocean is great! But getting through the inlet can be exciting at times. Somedays it's flat as a lake while others it can be a washing machine.

We've kept our boat on Lake Monroe for a year up till Last January (a year ago). Lake Monroe is nice. It's great for just some quiet singlehanding. But it's not a swimming lake. I see people swim in freshwater lakes in FL, but it's just not for me. It's not so much the gators and other critters as much as I don't like the potential bacteria and amebas and other warm water related microbes...

Ron, We're thinking about heading down either late February or March. I haven't called Bob down at S Dade yet to see if he has any room for us. If he's got a spot for us, I think I'd like to leave the boat on the trailer with the mast up. We had a slip last year but being 5 hours away from the boat with the boat in the water gave me just a bit of anxiety last year. We didn't get down there nearly as much as I wanted so I just worried about the boat most of the summer.

I'd really like to get to Cape Sable before we outgrow this boat. Cape Sable is the white ribbon beach you can see on Google Earth at the south west tip of the Fl mainland. I think getting there from S.Dade we'd have to head down the ICW to Long Key and take a right. There are a couple markers from there to Cape Sable.

I'm thinking a couple days there and a couple back...maybe 5 day trip. No real plans yet...just daydreaming. Whataya think? One thing's for sure, my wife wants to go. After she passed on last January's trip and having just a great time cruising and camping out over the summer, she's definitely into it all of a sudden...go figure. I tell you that not as a warning or anything, I just don't want you feeling unexpectedly like a 5th wheel or maybe your wife or daughter might want to go if another woman is going...if that's a good thing...I don't know. At any rate, my wife is my dedicated crew now.

--Greg

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.141555,-81.058159&spn=0.234029,0.348816&t=h&z=12

[Craig Weis]

kchunk; the boat on the left is much more handsome, don't you think?
Beats that McGreggor.
I wanna go there! I can feel the heat. The best part is dipping your feet in the water to rid them of sand before stepping on board, with the skipper's permission.
Arn't there a lot of 'skeeters' there?
skip.

[kchunk]

I've alway said that Com-Pac's "have a whole lot of style". That other boat looks like a spaceship. I guess that's cool if you're into spaceships.

--Greg

[tmolik]

to all..
for research try ActiveCaptian for map/charts/satilites and some comment re: locations, info., etc. and use X Beta option at top, it's really great.
www.activecaptain.com
 tom

[kchunk]

Love that site Tom. I've been using it for years!

[kchunk]

Sorry, Tom. But I think we hijacked your thread. Getting back to your original post, I searched the net a little and found a few resort marinas, but like I've already discovered just driving through Key Largo, most of the money that vacations in the Keys seems to go to Largo. Slip rates are pretty high. The few places that I know of in Marathon charge a little more than the room rate if you need a slip too. Largo seems to charge full service marina rates wether you're staying there or not.

In my opinion, if you're already 5 hours into driving to the Keys, another hour south will be worth it.

Now, on the other hand, if you didn't want to trailer your boat down (and this goes for you Northerners as well. Are you listening Bob23?), this place on Conch Key rents vacation homes and cottages and they come with a Com-Pac sailboat included! Depending on the the place you rent you get either a Com-Pac 16 or a 23! Pretty sweet deal considering towing down and back will easily cost more than $200 just in gas.

I have no affiliation with this place what so ever. In fact, I'm not even a customer. Never stayed there, nor have never seen it, but if your interested here's the link:

http://www.flakeyscottage.com

--Greg

[jimyoung]

Thanks for the heads-up on ActiveCaptian site, it looks to be a keeper. I am sure I will be visiting it often.
Jim