Upper Keys North
CHART 13 S
Upper Keys South
CHART 14 N
Middle Keys North
CHART 14 S
Middle Keys South
CHART 15 W
Lower Keys West
CHART 15 E
Lower Keys East
Cruising the FLORIDA KEYS
On our charts the Keys are roughly divided into the Upper Keys (Card Sound to Plantation Key); Middle Keys (Islamorada through Marathon) and Lower Keys (Bahia Honda through Key West).
We're still in beautiful Biscayne Bay where the Keys begin. We'll take the inside route down the curving chain of islands to Key West and leave the outside route, Hawk Channel, for another time. But before we start - a point to be aware of: Water in the Florida Keys can be very shallow! Eyeball piloting and paying attention to markers is very important!
At Jewfish Creek (St. Mile 1134) a bridge connects Key Largo with the mainland. Key Largo is the largest of the Keys and besides the great fishing and swimming and anchoring and cruising and marinas and restaurants and resorts which all of the Keys (in fact, all of Florida) are known for, Key Largo is especially noted for its wonderful diving sites and, of course, the attendant dive shops and dive boats which abound there.
Key West, our southernmost city, is at about St. Mile 1240. Describing all of the Keys in the 100-odd miles from Key Largo in this teaser would take a lot of space and computer loading time. The Keys are well covered in our print version, so here we'll just touch on a few of the many places you'll want to stop and suggest you take a look at the charts for what we omit here.
Islamorada, on upper Matecumbe Key is well known for its fishing which some say is the best and most varied in the U.S. Key Colony Beach is another fishing hotspot, just before the city of Marathon, the second largest settlement in the Keys and the hub of the Middle Keys. A good airport is among its many attractions for boat people.
Just below Marathon we enter what we call the Lower Keys. It's about 50 miles as the crow flies to Key West where there is refreshment for the boat and the body and entertainment includes a gathering each day to cheer the sunset at Mallory Square. It's quite a place to visit!
Let's leave the Keys now and jump across Florida Bay to the tiny village of Goodland where we'll start heading north along the Sun Coast.