Our next adventure has already begun with a voyage down to the Florida Keys. My older girls and I departed on a late afternoon run from Miami to Key Largo via the Intercoastal Highway (don't try driving this with your car). We put in at Matheson Hammock and cruised due south through Biscayne Bay with flat calm seas, overcast sky's and very little wind. We cut through the Featherbed Bank west of Boca Chita Key and proceeded 187 degrees toward the Cutter Bank Channel between Long Arsenicker Island and Totten Key. If you miss this channel you'd better have a flats boat or a TowBoat US membership. The water on either side get's pretty skinny and can end a trip as soon as it started. From the end of the Channel we entered Card Sound and could make out the Card Sound Bridge southwest of us.
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We cruised southwest along 228 degrees and proceeded through the Card Bank Cut into Little Card Sound. Across the Sound and were cruising under the Bridge. My girls kept asking me if Mommy was driving over the bridge. Our timing has never been that good. Under the Bridge and we were now cruising south 191 degrees through Barnes Sound towards Jewfish Creek. From the top of Barnes Sound you could now see the newly constructed teal colored U.S. 1 bridge.
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The degree headings I've just mentioned were critical to locating the entrance to the Creek. The entrance to the Creek is nearly invisible until you see the channel marker (#29) and that's usually only about 1/2 mile out. Anything beyond that and the entire coast line looks like one solid wall of mangroves (as it should). Along the bank's of the Creek were a variety of bird life including snowy egret's, magnificent frigatebird's, doublebrested cormorants and brown pelicans. In 1832 John Audubon landed in what is now Key Biscayne and travelled through the Florida Keys eventually reaching the Dry Tortugas. He documented the bird life in his classic fashion. Imagine that in 1832 Miami did not exist, the local seat of government was Indian Key (10 acre island oceanside between Upper and Lower Matecumbe Key and now uninhabited) and Key West had been claimed by Commodore Perry for the U.S. only ten years earlier. Travelling these areas in 1832 must have been one of the wildest places in America.
We cruised southwest along 228 degrees and proceeded through the Card Bank Cut into Little Card Sound. Across the Sound and were cruising under the Bridge. My girls kept asking me if Mommy was driving over the bridge. Our timing has never been that good. Under the Bridge and we were now cruising south 191 degrees through Barnes Sound towards Jewfish Creek. From the top of Barnes Sound you could now see the newly constructed teal colored U.S. 1 bridge.
The degree headings I've just mentioned were critical to locating the entrance to the Creek. The entrance to the Creek is nearly invisible until you see the channel marker (#29) and that's usually only about 1/2 mile out. Anything beyond that and the entire coast line looks like one solid wall of mangroves (as it should). Along the bank's of the Creek were a variety of bird life including snowy egret's, magnificent frigatebird's, doublebrested cormorants and brown pelicans. In 1832 John Audubon landed in what is now Key Biscayne and travelled through the Florida Keys eventually reaching the Dry Tortugas. He documented the bird life in his classic fashion. Imagine that in 1832 Miami did not exist, the local seat of government was Indian Key (10 acre island oceanside between Upper and Lower Matecumbe Key and now uninhabited) and Key West had been claimed by Commodore Perry for the U.S. only ten years earlier. Travelling these areas in 1832 must have been one of the wildest places in America.
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