Day Five - Boca Raton to Islamorada in the Keys. Manatees, Scorpions and boating mistakes, Oh My!

A trip like ours is most often about the trip itself, not the destination. Today was different. Our arrival in Islamorada and location made the whole trip, every last gallon of it (no, I am not over that part!) worth it...Big Time. The pictures and video below tell most amazing part of the story which included Dusty being stung by a black scorpion and Candy and Corinne swiming with Manatees. But first, our departure from Boca Raton.

The day started well with coffee on the bridge, until a very suspicious security guard came slowly sauntering by. This was a tall, thin African American version of Paul Blart, Mall Cop (if you saw the movie you know what I mean. If not, the name pretty much says it all!) Anyway, he comes s-l-o-w-l-y walking by and dips his head to his left shoulder. You know the move, you've watched the TV show "Bad Boy, Bad Boy, Whatca Gonna Do When They Come For You, Bad Boy". It's that patented Cop move where they speak into their shoulder, or more specifically the microphone clipped to their shoulder and talk with someone in dispatch. Well, he did it about me! Listen fella, I'm no Bernie Madhoff here! Humble as BossSea may be, I bought her with my own money! Who you talkin' about there Smokey wanna be?! I promptly got off the boat and went up to him waving my resort card with BossSea's name on it next to the word YACHT. So there! He was nice, acting non-chalant and all like he was just talkin' trash to the front desk clerk. But I know better...or maybe I was a bit overractive since he had just come on his shift at 7am and we had arrived after he left the day before. Must have been that inadequacy thing going for me at that moment.

Anyway, we got ready quickly and left the slip at 7:20am knowing we needed to clear the El Camino Real bridge which was next to the resort. Of course, they didn't have a sign posted for opening times so we figured they all open either on the hour, half hour or quarter hour so 7:30 would be perfect. NOT! That dad burn bridge was the only one we ever came across that opens every 20 minutes, at 00, 20 and 40 minutes past the hour. And we missed it! We pulled out of the slip at exactly 7:20 called the bridge on the radio and she said we missed our chance. Another 20 minutes of going in circles, this time in front of the Boca Raton Resort with Paul Blart over there thinking he missed his one big chance at Resort fame by nabbing squatters. Ha! Take THAT!



Through the bridge we motored past more rediculously beautiful houses through an exceptionally long no wake zone and came upon a bridge opening to the Atlantic. One quick decision later we were following a million dollar private fishing boat out through a trecherous channel past a sunken boat that a crane was attenpting to raise and out into the Atlantic, again. We could not take another several hours of bridge opening and waiting, we'd rather take our chances with the sea. And THAT was our best decision of the trip so far!

Sea conditions were near perfect and we found that ideal combination of speed and trim that allowed BossSea to ride comfortably past Port Everglads at Ft. Lauderdale, where the big cruise ship port is located and on down to Miami where we stopped for fuel to make our run to Islamorada. There wasn't much to see or take pictures of other than previously over-priced oceanfront condominiums that all look alike from the water most anyplace in the world.



We made great time to the Miami Beach Marina at South Beach where we fueled up, looked around for the CSI folks (I figured Paul Blart had called ahead) then departed Government Cut, the main shipping channel for Miami, and out to sea for a 4 hour run to Islamorada. There was even less to see on that part of the trip since we stayed in Hawks Channel, an ocean highway between Miami and Key West, which runs far enough off shore to avoid reefs on both the Port and Starboard sides of the boat. It is a very wide and safe passage and once again BossSea performed flawlessly. The real treat and experiences came as we started our arrival into Islamorada.

We had called ahead and arranged to stay at La Siesta Marina on the bay side. Ray, the dockmaster gave me very specific directions. Follow the private channel along A1A to Joe's Fish Shack and their channel would be the first channel past Joe's which wound through Mangroves into their very private marina. We navigated through some very skinny water; being as clear as glass it was looking far more shallow than the 2.8 feet on the depth meter - we draw 2.9 feet but kicked up no mud. There was Joe's , a 1950's place that is closed and looks like it hasn't been touched since the 50's and there was the channel right into the mangroves like Ray said so past Joe's we go.

And YIKES! this is a blind channel that dead ends with Mangrove nearly brushing both sides of the boat and no way out but back. Backing this boat up isn't that big a deal unless you PANIC then all bets are off. I had Dusty shouting "look out for the stumps", Candy and Corinne freaking out about the old broken down boat I am about to back into and I am pulling off this deft 180 degree turn with the stern inches from the wreck behind us and bow pulpit inches from the mangrove. Nothing to it. Thanks Captain Wes for the training! Out we go, follow Ray's directions to the letter and in we go to most beautiful secluded marina I have ever seen.

We had a nice dinner at the Islamorada Fish House where they feed fish regularly and draw in the most amazing array of fish from tarpon to shark. It is a real sight to see. We finished there with a picture of the tired and stuffed travelers. (Looks like we all had the leanies from being on the boat so long. We thought we were standing up straight!)

On the way back from dinner, walking down a dark gravel road to the marina it happened. Dusty yowled and almost went down to his knees immediately. Being born and raised in Florida and through all of his years in the islands, including years now with IsleGo, http://www.islego.com/ , he had never been stung by a Scorpion. Another first for this trip! I gallantly mushed it and Dusty went back the next morning to cronicle its resting place with his cell phone camera. The ants were already having a field day. Sweet revenge.

The treat on arrival earlier in the evening was the highlight of the trip so far. A Manatee and her new born calf came up to us after we tied off. They were beautiful...so serene!