Small Keys To Paradise
On any given weekend as you approach Islamorada, Fla., by car on the Overseas Highway—also known as U.S. Route 1—you can spy the famed Islamorada Sandbar. As you get closer to the popular raft-up spot, the specks dotting the soft-sand shallows become a mix of powerboats and sunburned bio-mass.
It’s a coveted raft-up spot for at least two reasons. First, it’s undeniably scenic. The turquoise-to-emerald-green water-colors are so vibrant they look fake.
Second, it’s not deep in the Florida Keys. Getting there by boat from the Coconut Grove area takes 60 to 90 minutes depending on your boat and water/weather conditions, at least if you don’t stop for lunch on the way.
Beautiful and convenient it is. Uncrowded and sometimes unruly on weekends it is not, according to Stu Jones, the head of the Florida Powerboat Club.
Jones isn’t a fan.
“There is too much current there, and on the weekends it’s overcrowded with inexperienced boaters and a lot of people drinking,” he explained. “It was fun the first couple of years, but I lost interest after witnessing so many bad incidents there, mostly people not knowing how to anchor and not knowing how to deal with the current when it starts running hard.”
The good news? You have lots of nearby sandbar alternatives. Some may legally allow you on their shore, but many forbid it. That’s something to check. If you’re at all unsure, stay off the beach and moor offshore.
A visit from a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer will not improve your day. And it could be very expensive.
“Some of the best sandbars remain nameless and are located primarily along small islands in the Upper Keys, mostly on the Florida Bay side,” Jones continued. “My preference for any sandbar is to stay out of the ocean and away from inlets where there’s a lot of moving water.”
The founder of the Keys Island Runners group, Daniel Garcia, III, of Key West organizes a couple of annual events with the Islamorada Sandbar as a destination. It’s a well-known spot to many Keys Island Runner event-participants, most of whom live up and down the Keys themselves.
But when it comes to heading out on the water with a small group—or solo with a few friends in his 24-foot Progression V-bottom, Garcia heads to raft-up spot a lot closer to home.
“My favorite sandbar is Marvin Key in Key West,” he said. “It can be difficult to get to if you don’t know the way. But if you do, it’s a little piece of paradise. You can hang out on the beach or hang out behind the boats in the water. You always have the best of both worlds.”
For the record, there is nothing inherently “wrong” with the Islamorada Sandbar. It’s big and beautiful, and on weekdays you may only have to share it with a handful of other boats.
But for something more relaxing and intimate, smaller sandbars are the keys to success.—Matt Trulio
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Source: https://www.powerboatnation.com/small-keys-to-paradise/
