Boca Grande, Florida

Boca Grande is a small, uninhibited island off of Key West. It is popular with locals and transients alike, since it is located only 15 miles from Key West, has pristine beaches, good fishing, and two shipwrecks for snorkeling and diving. We had heard of Boca Grande from folks at the marina. They mentioned it was fabulous for anchoring and spending a few days away from it all. Ben and I decided it was a perfect spot for our first anchorage.

15 nautical miles doesn’t sound like much, if you’re in a powerboat, which could get there in under an hour from Key West. However when you’re in a sailboat with a max speed of about 7 knots, 15 miles can be a really long journey. The voyage would take several hours, so we planned to stay a couple days in Boca Grande. We began to plan our first overnights away from the safety of the marina.

This journey required that we put a few new skills into practice. We had to provision for a few days away from civilization, and we had to remove our dinghy motor and tow the dinghy behind the sailboat. But most daunting of all, we would have to anchor for the first time overnight. We had anchored before in the lakes in Missouri, but ocean anchoring for an overnight stay is different. We needed to assure we could sleep through the night without the anchor dragging. If we did have dragging, we could be left grounded in 2 feet of water, becoming shipwreck #3 for Boca Grande’s snorkelers to enjoy!

After letting our marina’s dock master and some friends know our whereabouts and return date, we set out for Boca Grande at noon on a Sunday. 7 knots would best be achieved in perfect conditions with our vessel, and although our travel day was a good weather day, our winds were calm. Therefore we were chugging along at 4 knots instead of our speediest 7. Our 15 mile journey ended up being a 3-4 hour sail. But, that was just fine by us.

We arrived in Boca Grande around 4 PM, and chose a spot in the channel, which was the only place deep enough for our 5 foot draft. Then, it was time to anchor!! The good news is that our boat has a super nifty windlass system, which pulls the anchor up and down with a motor inside the bow. My job was to use the windlass foot petals to lower the anchor at a 7:1 scope. That means, if we were anchored in 10 feet of water, we should let out 70 feet of anchor chain. Ben’s job was to be at the helm and tell me when to drop the anchor according to the GPS and other “captainly” knowledge. And, SUCCESS! Our first attempt went smooth as silk, and held steady for our two day adventure. We still have a bit to learn about setting the anchor alarm, and practicing our hand signals, but basically, we KILLED IT at anchoring!

We spent our days snorkeling at the shipwrecks, playing at the beach with Ruca in the sunshine, and unsuccessfully, but happily, lobster diving and fishing.

There at anchor, we spent two wonderful nights in total quiet on our boat, with calm seas, and without another light in sight. During sunset, the calm water and the sky formed the same color and we couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. After dark, we had never seen stars so bright, and the Milky Way was unreal. We saw shooting star after shooting star, and then slept down below in the calmest silence we had ever experienced.

We loved the days in Boca Grande, and loved the nights even more. We would have lengthened our stay, had we not warned our friends and dock master that we’d be back on Tuesday. We didn’t want the Coast Guard to come searching for us, so we packed up, and set sail for our dock slip, feeling relaxed and renewed.

It was time to move on to the next great adventure, anyway.

Thanks for Reading,

Quinn, Ben and Ruca

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#destinations #Florida