Islamorada Florida Keys Late Nov 13m and Cruiser Pro
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:27 pmWent to Islamorada - about mile marker 88 in the Keys. Stopped in at Seven Sports. Great people, nice shop. Wind was blowing from the north, which does not allow for a launch at Whale Harbor which is around mile marker 85? next to a marina. There are not many beaches at the keys, and the shop will have boats that take people to offshore sand bars from time to time. I lucked out because a group that had just rented a boat for themselves invited me along. Sweet.
So we went about a mile offshore to a sandbar and dropped anchor. Water was nice and about 1 foot deep for several hundered square yards, and then it got deeper. The sandbar was beige and pretty mucky. OK, so picture 6 people rigging kites from the bow of the boat in light chop - we actually did quite well. 8 chambers and 5 lines later I was up. The sandbar area was heated up enough that it blocked the wind, and I was better off in the channels where the colder water let the air flow better. Weird. Even more strange is that in the Keys the wind is often better early in the morning. Yeah that's right, from 6 am to 10 am WTF??? So I stayed out for about 2 hours really just busting tail to stay upwind. Everyone on the boat commented on my "massive" board, and I just chuckled. A few people had to trudge through the muck to get back to the boat, and kites were dropping all around the sandbar, so when I saw people on my boat packing it in, I took off about a mile from the sandbar. Working my way back to the sandbar was an EFFORT. The wind was really shutting down. Once everyone was back on the boat they started my way to see what was up. Being the glutton that I am, I got to downwind behind the boat and surf the wake all the way back to the dock.
The people that I was with were from the Gorge and Tampa and invited us back to their rental house where they had just caught 4 lobsters - talk about fresh! My wife and I went out to dinner with the crew, partied like we were in college again, and crashed on the island instead of going back to Miami.
I jumped on a boat the next day and there was no wind when we got to the sand bar. Didn't even rig. Oh well.
So we went about a mile offshore to a sandbar and dropped anchor. Water was nice and about 1 foot deep for several hundered square yards, and then it got deeper. The sandbar was beige and pretty mucky. OK, so picture 6 people rigging kites from the bow of the boat in light chop - we actually did quite well. 8 chambers and 5 lines later I was up. The sandbar area was heated up enough that it blocked the wind, and I was better off in the channels where the colder water let the air flow better. Weird. Even more strange is that in the Keys the wind is often better early in the morning. Yeah that's right, from 6 am to 10 am WTF??? So I stayed out for about 2 hours really just busting tail to stay upwind. Everyone on the boat commented on my "massive" board, and I just chuckled. A few people had to trudge through the muck to get back to the boat, and kites were dropping all around the sandbar, so when I saw people on my boat packing it in, I took off about a mile from the sandbar. Working my way back to the sandbar was an EFFORT. The wind was really shutting down. Once everyone was back on the boat they started my way to see what was up. Being the glutton that I am, I got to downwind behind the boat and surf the wake all the way back to the dock.
The people that I was with were from the Gorge and Tampa and invited us back to their rental house where they had just caught 4 lobsters - talk about fresh! My wife and I went out to dinner with the crew, partied like we were in college again, and crashed on the island instead of going back to Miami.
I jumped on a boat the next day and there was no wind when we got to the sand bar. Didn't even rig. Oh well.