Southeast Florida - Miami to Key West - March 2007
Leaving Miami and the excitement of the Miami River, we headed down to
Boca Chita Key in southern Biscayne Bay for a few days. This has always been one
of our favorite spots in Biscayne Bay. We used to come here in our sailboat when
we were looking for somewhere nice to get away from town for a few days.
The island has a wonderful naturally protected basin. It is believed that the first person to build a bulkhead for the basin was F. A. Sieberling who, together with some other businessmen, owned the island from 1916 to 1926. He used wood to form the bulkhead, but it was destroyed in the 1926 hurricane. The basin was dredged and a steel bulkhead was installed around 1934 by M. W. Harrison who owned the island from 1926 to 1937.
One of the most famous owners of the island, and the person who is responsible for many of the beautiful structures still standing on the island, is Mark Honeywell, founder of Honeywell Industries. Honeywell purchased the island in 1937 from Harrison and intended to develop it as a family retreat. Boca Chita was rather bare when Mark Honeywell bought it, with the exception of a structure called the "Main House”, a wood frame house which was unfortunately destroyed by fire in the mid 1960’s.
The most impressive of all of the island's structures
built during Honeywell's time is the beautiful
65-foot lighthouse. Honeywell hired the architectural firm of August
Geiger to design the lighthouse (the same firm Honeywell used to design his
house on Miami Beach). The original lighthouse design was drafted by Jim
Church, who was a junior draftsman with the firm back then. Leon Camp
drew up the detailed designs and Jack Hunt was the contractor who built it. The lighthouse has an inner
wall built of concrete block with a veneer of native Miami oolite (commonly
known as limestone) on the outside. The inside is straight from bottom to top,
but the outside veneer, starting thick at the base and narrowing at the top,
gives the lighthouse a tapered appearance. The Miami oolite was quarried in
Miami. It was shaped as it was cut from the ground and then transported to Boca
Chita by barge.
The lighthouse was intended to be a functioning aid to navigation, as there was no marked channel into the island. No one thought to notify the Lighthouse Service about the project, so the first time the lamp was lit the Coast Guard immediately ordered it extinguished since it was not a charted aid to navigation, and was therefore deemed it a hazard. It has functioned purely as a decorative lighthouse ever since.
Honeywell had other buildings constructed on the property around the same time, including a large picnic pavilion, a chapel and a large workshop/garage. All were constructed using the same method of concrete block covered with oolite, and all are still standing today. A true testament to how well they were built considering that they have survived many devastating hurricanes, including hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The lighthouse is only open intermittently whenever park
staff or volunteers are on the island. We were lucky enough to be there when a
park ranger came in and opened it up. The observation deck at the top of the lighthouse provides a beautiful
panoramic
view of the island as well as the bay and ocean. You can see the picnic pavilion (in the foreground), as well as
the workshop/garage (in the back on the farther side of the basin) that Honeywell had built
on the island.
Honeywell lost interest in the island after his wife, Olive, sustained a fatal injury there in 1939. He sold the island in 1945 and it passed through several hands before being sold to Dan Rivers, owner of a South Florida radio station, in 1958. Rivers retained ownership of the island until 1985 when it was transferred to the National Park Service. On March 1, 1985 Boca Chita island became part of Biscayne National Park.
It was during Dan Rivers tenure that the wooden "Main House" was destroyed by fire. He had hired a caretaker to look after the place, and the house burnt down while the caretaker was living in it. Rivers fired the caretaker as a result of the fire.
After the caretaker was let go, Dinner Key Cruising Club member Burt Probinsky, a friend of Rivers, approached him and proposed that the Dinner Key Cruising Club take over the maintenance of the island in return for the use of it. Rivers agreed to this arrangement and the Dinner Key Cruising Club worked to maintain and beautify Boca Chita even after ownership had passed on to the National Park Service. The club members were designated as Volunteers to Biscayne National Park and continued to work on the island until hurricane Andrew struck in August, 1992.
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Leaving Boca Chita and heading south, we spotted this very interesting boat coming up behind us one afternoon. It's the first time either of us have seen a yacht with an outrigger pontoon attached to one side.
We spent the night anchored in a bay off of Key Largo near the old Gilbert's resort. I used to come here with my grandfather when I was a kid, so it was fun to come back and see it again. After we got the hook down, Jeremy and I took the dink over to the Tiki bar at Gilberts. We had a wonderful lunch of grilled shrimp sitting outside under the shade of a thatched roof and palm trees - the soft warm breeze gently caressing my bare arms and legs and the sound of a guy (quite good, actually) singing ballads of the keys - Jimmy Buffet, the Beach Boys, and some old Beatles standards to the tune of his guitar. It finally felt like we were down in the islands. Ahhh... life is pretty good, I must say....
Leaving Key Largo, we headed southwest along the chain of the keys to
Marathon. Marathon sits almost exactly half way between Key Largo (which
is really the start of the keys) and Key West. 
The city of Marathon is in the process of installing a huge mooring field for boats in Boot Key harbor, the large naturally occurring basin in Marathon. This has always been a popular anchorage, and that has sometimes been a problem in that some people have come in and never left. That, together with the problem of boats dragging in a crowded anchorage, has motivated the city to come up with a quite sensible solution of clearing out the harbor and installing mooring buoys. The moorings are much more secure than anchors and can be placed at regular intervals in order to ensure that boats swinging on them will not drag or hit one another. The regular spacing also allows room for more boats.
They have currently installed 125 moorings, and plan to put in 100 more by the end of April. To support the large number of boats, the city has built an enormous dingy dock (complete with areas for hard versus soft dingys - so the soft dinks aren't damaged by the hard ones). They also have a huge boaters lounge (the building in the background of the picture of the dingy dock) with one of the nicest book exchanges we've seen in quite a while. The lounge also has a large laundry facility for cruising boaters. In addition, there's a grocery store, a West Marine, a K-Mart, and a library with free internet - all within about a mile. Plus there's a bus that will get you down to Key West for just two dollars. What more could a cruising boater ask for?
Oh, and they also have a huge bike rack, for all the cruising boater's bikes so we can more easily get around town. NOW, what more can you ask for???
We were surprised - and happy - to see the Heritage of Miami II docked outside the marina one afternoon. We were married (17 years ago!!) on the original Heritage of Miami. This one looks identical to the original, only is a lot newer. Still, it brought back lots of happy memories.
Marathon is the home of the keys Turtle Hospital - complete with a Turtle Ambulance. It's right across the street from the Fisherman's People Hospital.
I spotted this pelican roosting on the back of a kayak tied up behind a boat near us in the anchorage.
Yet another sunset picture - this one in Marathon. I wish you could hear it here at sunset. Somewhere off in the distance you can hear someone playing taps. Then, just as the sun dips below the horizon, many of the boaters bring out their conch shell horns and blow them as a tribute to the sun. It's supposed to thank it for the day, wish it well on it's journey and ask it to return again tomorrow. Always seems to be a beautiful end to another day in paradise, and it always seems to work.
We took the bus down to Key West from Marathon one day, then we ended up taking our boat down for a few days as well. We were hoping to get out to the Dry Tortugas in our boat - but the weather has definitely not been cooperating. This has been one of the windiest Marches I can remember in South Florida. Normally, the wind will blow strong out of the north for a day or so behind a cold front, but this has been blowing now for pretty much 3 weeks solid. It let up one day when we were in Marathon, so we took advantage and headed to Key West. We were there for 4 days before the wind let up enough for one day - long enough for us to get back to Marathon.
Key West has, of course, gotten a LOT more commercialized than we remember. I should not be surprised - but I still found it a bit sad. Having said that, I'm glad we got the chance to go down and see it again. There were some interesting new additions to town, including this really neat sculpture garden. The garden includes one huge sculpture called 'The Wreckers' which commemorates those that worked in the salvage business when Key West was just and outpost town. There are many coral reefs down here, and in those days they did not have the lighthouses and navigational markers that we have today. As a result, there were many ships that were lost off the coast of these islands. The wreckers provided a valuable service in that they would go out in often hazardous conditions to salvage goods from a wrecked ship. Of course, they then turned around and sold the merchandise back to the ship owners, but without them it would have all been lost at sea. So the ship's owners were never in much of a position to complain too much.
The garden also contained sculpture figures of many prominent figures in Key West history - including Captain Porter who worked to bring an end to pirating in this part of the world.
Key West has always been known for it's cats - especially the 'Hemingway Cats.' Poppa Hemingway loved cats and had many roaming around his house, many of which were polydactyl - meaning they have extra toes. Most times, this occurs with the cat's front paws, but some have the extra toes on their back feet as well. The better to scratch you with, HA Ha... (Meow... Didn't really mean that. .... Puuurrrrrr)..
In addition to all of the cats around town, Key West is aflutter with chickens. These guys are everywhere. Funny, but we never saw a cat chase a chicken.
Mallory Square is still a gathering place in Key West. It's certainly where folks come every evening to watch the sunset. The city has also added several cruise ship docks on the end of the square, and it seemed like there was always one or two docked there during the day. They always seemed to be heading off just before the sunset. Nothing is allowed to block a Key West sunset!
Duval street is the party and bar center of Key West. And Sloppy Joes is perhaps the best known bar on Duval Street. This is where, so legend has it, Poppa Hemingway used to hang out. That may be, but it certainly is where many of the kids down here for spring break were 'hanging out' while we were here.
A bit farther down Duval is the old Strand Theater. The building is still there, but now it houses a Walgreens. As I said, times, they have changed...
Two shots in taken in front of the Museum of Art. In the first, our renaissance dancers are enjoying a nice waltz on the front steps. He's whispering something sweet into her ear to make her blush. In the second, there's a tiny Jeremy who appears to be pulling something out of the guy's pocket. She's wondering what's going on and he's about ready to turn around and swat the poor unsuspecting Jeremy.
Many buildings in the keys are painted with underwater scenes (ala the famous Wyland 'Whaling Walls'). This one is a local grocery store down by the old wharf.
We managed to get off of Duval and out into the old neighborhoods of Key West. I do love the architecture of the old key west houses and buildings - especially some of the intricate soffits, domes and interesting roof lines of many of the buildings.
Many of the older houses had old-fashioned gas lights out front - but I especially liked this pineapple shaped one that I saw in front of one house.
The end of the road - Mile Marker 0 on U.S Highway 1. This is, according to some who should know, the most replaced road sign in the Keys. Apparently, someone comes along at least once a week and pinches it. A few blocks down is the real end of the road - supposedly the southernmost point of the continental United States. I'll take their word for it. What's funny (and new) is that they now provide you a family - for those coming alone or who may want to trade out their real family for a new one. Jeremy is giving his new 'sister' horns. What a guy! Of course, she doesn't seem to mind.
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We wandered back down to Mallory Square for the sunset. There were a couple of beautiful old schooners out for a late afternoon sale when we got there.
Another Key West chicken. This one sitting up high so he could have a good view of the festivities.
There are lots of street performers who come out to Mallory square each night - but to be honest, the best show if the sunset. Everyone stops for that, even the performers.
As I said before, NOTHING gets in the way of the sunset, not even the big cruise ships that have been parked there all day - this one is quite literally heading off into the sunset.
More street performers. The first shot is of a brother and sister acrobatic team from somewhere in England. The next two are of Dominique and his amazing cats. This guy has been showing off his cats since I can remember. How he gets a housecat to do tricks like getting them to jump through flaming hoops is way beyond me. He must somehow convince them that that's what THEY want to do. No self-respecting cat will do a trick just to amuse a human.
This one's a bit blurry, but I caught it just as the cat was jumping through the hoop. Pretty cool, huh??
Of course, this is what everyone has really come to see. When the sun finally does dip below the horizon, everyone breaks into a spontaneous applause.
I found this giant conch perched outside of a gas station in town. The brand?? Why, Shell, of course!!
The couple sitting at the table by this restaurant near our marina never seemed to leave. She seems to be looking for the waiter. Wait! They seem to have waited so long they've turned to stone. I know the feeling. Many restaurants in Key West have adopted the policy of adding in an 18% tip automatically onto the bill. It doesn't matter how bad the service is, they figure they'll always end up with a pretty good tip. We exercised out right on more than one occasion to 'adjust' the tip based on the service.
We were back in Marathon again for St. Patrick's Day. They had a mini boat parade to celebrate including those shown below.
Updated March 27, 2007