January 21 - 27, 2024
At the moment, Utopia is sitting in the cool little Boca Chita Harbor, located at the northern tip of the Florida Keys, in the southern part of Biscayne Bay. Our cellar service here is pretty darned weak, so I am quickly typing up a summary on my phone.
Sunday- Steamboat Creek anchorage in Barnes Sound. Took a trip up Steamboat Creek. Concerns over how loud our water pump is getting. Met some southbound cruisers.
Saturday & Sunday (01-20 & 01-21): Anchorage near Steamboat Creek in Barnes Sound.
Monday- Very windy day, did not leave boat. Installed new water pump, however, issues priming pump so Jimmy removed accumulator but that did improve anything. Our water flows at a trickle.
Tuesday- We took a long dinghy ride to Alabama Jacks for lunch and ate awesome conch fritters!!! (7 nm round trip in breezy conditions) Met solo sailor Chris after Jimmy helped catch his lines. Once back at Utopia, we weighed anchor and headed north to Pumpkin Key for a single night.
Wednesday- Departed anchorage before 9 am and reached Elliott Key (part of Biscayne Bay National Park) by 11:30 am. Stayed at this nice, quiet, remote anchorage for two nights, probably our last remote anchorage for a long time.
Thursday - Enjoyed a 7-mile hike on the north side of Elliott Key, feeding a few mosquitoes along the way.
Friday- We pulled up the anchor early in the morning to time an arrival at Boca Chita with the high tide. Charts show less than 5' but we researched it, and talked to others and decided to give it a try. It went well, and the lowest we saw was 1.1’ under our keel. Since we arrived before 10 am, we were able to tie up to our choice location in the tiny harbor. Here, we met two cruising boats awaiting weather to cross over to the Bahamas. One of them had a super friendly, calm dog and Baxter got to bop noses with him. Later in the day some of the cruising boat kids came over to give Baxter a gift. It was so cute, both the kids and Baxter really enjoyed the visit. Nighttime at this spot brought another vibe. We knew this was a weekend party spot and were prepared to see what it was like. It turned out to be quite a fun vibe with Hispanic & Latin families partying, playing loud music until the wee hours. Since we slept bad the night before arriving, Jimmy and I went to bed early Friday night, sleeping through most of the rotating stereo show. (It was pretty cool to listen to the stereos shifting from boat to boat. One boat will play one song, fairly loud, and when that song is over, they turn down their stereo for another boat to jump in and loudly play their for a short bit, and so on through out the harbor. It is a very friendly version of stereo wars, more like a community, or a medley created by the group as they all take turns showing off their sound systems.)
Saturday- Helped cruisers heading to the Bahamas off the dock since the harbor was very crowded with multiple boats rafted up together. Spent the day troubleshooting the water system with some success, cleaning Utopia, walking the short island perimeter trail multiple times, enjoying the families all around us having a good time, listening to some awesome latino music, which says is categorized as Reggaeton.
It turned out that Saturday night was not as crazy as Friday night, or perhaps we simply got used to it and really don’t mind it all. I will say, I really wish my Spanish was back at my college days level. Everyone spoke English to us, but I think we could have gotten even more out of the experience if we understood more.
Jimmy and I love the back and forth between the extremes of very remote anchorages, and the party atmosphere of Boca Chita Harbor. Both extremes are part of the experience that comes with cruising
Although we are surrounded by people, we are at remote National Park with very limited cellular service. And are unable to upload photos from this amazing week. We will be able to do so once we move further north closer to Miami. While in Miami, I will leave Jimmy and Baxter on Utopia as I fly up to the Orlando area on the 3rd for an FWEA event. I’ll be back on the 6th, and after that, we will begin to look for a weather window to make an overnight passage north towards Lake Worth Inlet.
Here is a link to photos-
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