Hi Donnie,
We just got back from the Keys. Planned to go to the Bahamas, but couldn't get a weather window. We ended up spending about 5 weeks down there, from Key Largo to Key West.
We found great anchorages all over the place and a few good marina's (we prefer anchoring out). What is nice about Keys is that if you don't mind taking it slowly you can go all over through the islands of the everglades (the "out back" ). The trick is to always find your anchorages on a lea side of the island.
Some highlights for us:
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Here you can take a slip at the state park marina ($26 per night, including pump out, water and electric). We spent a few nights here. Can walk to West Marine and two different used marine gear stores. We bought and extra Force 10 anchor ($60). You can scoot out for the state park and go to the reef. It's just a few miles off shore. There are two protected snorkeling/diving reefs right next to each other. You can pull into the protected area and grab a fee mooring while you snorkel.
There is a ton of great fishing around any of the bridges and in the mangroves. We caught mangrove and red snapper, hogfish and event a 24 inch Florida pompano. Delicious!
We made our way south to Marathon, which was mostly good to get to our favorite cuban coffee place.
Better was going to Bahia honda (state park marina - $60, water, pump and electric included). You can walk the beach, go for a jog, catch the sunset, etc... You even get a free bag of ice and any beverage for each night you stay. No place to go to but the park.
We went to key west, which we love. It was disappointing to see so many people not complying with the local code to wear masks, which made us uncomfortable, so we really didn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked. We did rent bikes and biked the island, which is something we do everytime we are there.
Let me know if you want any more details. Feel free to PM me if you want to exchange phone numbers. We are going back down in a couple months to do more of the same. Planning a Bahamas run in late spring.
Best,
Bobb
