Off Little Torch
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2007
1
14
35
Trip End
May 31, 2008
Little Torch Key,
Florida,
United States
Sunday, January 27, 2008
We are heading to a place called Little Torch Key where our real estate agent (Matt) had loaned us his vacation home for 5 nights. This was sounding really good as we had been going non-stop for weeks. We had been pressing to get south, then to get the boat ready and then to get out of the slip in North Palm. A bit of chilling out sounded really good. A bit of doing little or nothing and doing lots of that. As we rounded the resort on Little Palm, the water was powder blue and skies clear. Perhaps we would see the last of the cold fronts for a while.
This was a very good anchorage. We proceeded inside a cluster of islands which gave good protection from seas and some wind protection. It was open only to the SSE which seemed great compared to what we had last night. This would be important as we would be leaving the boat unattended overnight. This was something we had not tried before and I wanted to make sure the anchor was set well and we had a suitable location. A cruiser's great nightmare is to try to return to his boat and then learn it had drifted off. We didn't want to go there.
So my 2 pm we had the anchor down in white sand and I back down hard to make sure our 110# of anchor is well dug into the white sand. I set out perhaps 80 feet of chain which should be more than enough considering the 7' of water we lie in. It looks good. So we drop the dink and prepare to head into see what this place is like.
The area is what I would generally call Florida Keys rustic. Folks who live here pay more attention to the water and sunsets than their physical possession and you have to get used to that. Homes are close together on canals so we motor the dink up the canal past fishing boats on lifts, unkept 'tiki huts' and well kept homes.... a real mix....a real Keys kind of place. But, lots of palm trees and mangroves...kind of eclectic in an island sort of way.
So we stay here for 5 nights catching up on doing little to nothing. Because we still run the 'fridge and an anchor light we use about 5 watts of power per hour on average. We have about 400 watt/hours of battery capacy so we need to go out to run the generator every other day or so. One day we dink over to a local tiki hut bar 3-4 miles out on another key. Nice time.
The weather continues to stabilize and the days off cold fronts seem to be behind us for a while. The sun is hot and the winds abating. The best day was surely the last full day before we left. Strangely winds had died and the sun was sizzling. We decided to take the dink out to the boat and then on to see some of the near by waters. We had heard there was a snorkeling reef just outside Little Pine so with the waters so flat, we took the dink out to see if we could see the reef and the fish. Yes, we have snorkel gear, but the water is a cool 71 degrees and since we can see well just by looking we row the dink over the reef 3 feet below.
When were were in the area we saw consistent green water and limited visibility. Earlier this year when we passed through the keys in a friend's boat, we stopped at one of the 'best' dive spots and found most of the reef dead. We found this place too be disappointing. While we did see a few fish, the number of fish and the amount of coral suggested the waters are in decline. We also noted a good number of jelly fish which generally suggest poor water quality which does not promote good reef life. But while we didn't see lots of fish we saw quite a few tiger fish and one nice angel. Most of rock, however, was devoid of life. Still it was a nice time and it was good to do something low key...in the Keys.
Tomorrow on the Key West where we know there will be plenty of life.....of all kinds.
