Anyone cruising the Keys in March?

Hello Nick,
Ya'll excuse the sneeze! Dissregard last transmition!
Nick, are you aware if the anchorages at Boot Key are all mooring balls? We here at the Manatee River, Tampa Bay are hearing rumblings the balls are the only way to anchor there...any word?
Thanks ahead of time and glad the wife made it down. Might leave here Wednesday, March 17th. Happy St. Patty's Day!
Mike & B aboard Gypsy
 
Hi Nick,

You are having way too much fun. Keep posting I enjoy living vicariously through your experiences. I am in the midst of doing some long needed home improvement projects. Drywall sucks anytime; especially when it it compared to thwarting off pirates and living the easy in Key West.

Have fun, see you this summer on Lake Erie.

Rollie/C-Batical
 
Rollie,

Thanks for the comments and I hope to be posting some fishing pics in the near future. Forecast is for some heavy thunderstorms for the next few days, so we may just hunker down for a while. Hope we meet up on Lake Erie this season.

Mike,

Boot Key Harbor has close to 300 mooring balls and I'm very familiar with it, having spent a winter there way back before they even had mooring balls available. HOWEVER, it is NOT CD 22 friendly. They recently passed a new reg banning all porta-potties that are not permanently fixed and with a deck pump-out. They will allow a week's stay if you sign an "intent to comply form" that states you will have one installed within a week. I had planned a month's stay there and had trailer parking planned and so on, until they started all of that BS. Get this: there is/ or was a dump station at the end of the dinghy dock. Also, the mooring field was at overflow capacity with a waiting list until a few days ago when the weather broke. There were a few non-compliant boats that had to doick here rather than Boot Key.

BKH is a great place and a dinghy will take you close to stores, post office, restaurants and chandleries. Oh yeah, they mandate a weekly pump-out and if don't have a deck fitting and they find a porta-pottie you win a big fine. This from a boat down the dock from me. I mentioned this to the Pennecamp SP dockmaster and noted that you can dump a pp at almost any marina toilet in the Keys without a problem, except BKH.

Regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Forecast is for some heavy thunderstorms for the next few days, so we may just hunker down for a while.

I must assume you have been to the airport in Miami and fetched your bride back to the floating condo. With the weather forcast you won't have any trouble justifing a few lazy days at dock.

Prepare your own meals and stay away from fast food outlets.
 
Hey Nick,
Thanks for the "heads" up on the situation at Boot Key Harbor. I wonder what they think of the PET (take a dump in a bag) system? The bags are biodegradable and are tossed into a trash can or dumpster. They CAN be buried and will decompose rather quickly with the powdered chemical that comes in the bag. We have several anchorages plotted around the area outside BKH so may not even use the harbor. Hope we get to hook up! We are planning to leave the Tampa Bay area Mar. 17 (Happy St. Patrick's Day!) and head south with stops at Venice and Ft. Myers.
Thanks again,
Mike & B aboard Gypsy
 
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