Days 296

Plantation Harbor Marina - John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo

• Start 9:10 AM
• End 11:55 AM
• Underway 3:00 Hours
• Distance 21 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 4674
• Av Speed 7.5 knots
• Weather Sunny , 80 Degrees, Wind 10 Knots SE

Our run from Islamorada to Pennekamp was fairly short so we took our time leaving and timed it so we arrived at Pennekamp at high tide. The channel into Pennekamp is narrow and shallow, and every bit of water helps. In addition to being narrow and shallow the channel winds two and a half miles through the mangroves, it was a pretty spectacular ride. I did not get any pictures I was too busy navigating, and I still missed a turn and ended up turning around in the very narrow channel. As we approached the marina, I also had to play dodge the kayaks and paddle boards. The park rents them so people can tour the mangroves, and most of the renters have no idea how hard it is to maneuver a fifty foot boat down a narrow channel, while trying not to run them over.

Getting into our slips was one of the trickier slips we had to pull into. I had to back in and around a set of docks in front of our slip and half of the boat was on a fixed dock, and half of it was on a floating dock. Thankfully there was not much wind. The marina only has about 18 slips and only two of them were large enough for our boat and Cheri Baby II. Cheri Baby's slip was easier to get into but, the only way for them to get off their boat was off the swim platform, which was four feet below the dock.

Our plans were to stay at Pennekamp Saturday and Sunday, and possible Monday, before heading to Miami. We really did not to go through Miami on the weekend. While we were asking if the slips were available for a third night, they told us that the forecast was for heavy winds Monday through Friday. We decided that it would be better to leave on Sunday than to be stuck there for 5 days.

John Pennekamp State Park is 70 square miles, and extends 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and has some of the best snorkeling in the Keys. We had hoped to go on a tour boat to snorkel on the reef, but with the incoming weather that did not work out. We did snorkel off the beach and were lucky enough to have two manatees join us. They spent about 10 minutes swimming with us before they headed for deeper water.

Sunday morning, Ray headed to the Grayhound bus stop to head to Miami by bus and we headed there by boat. Ray took the bus, because we were going to anchor out, and did not know if we would be able to get Ray to somewhere he could get to the airport.