Egmont Key, just outside Tampa Bay, is a great place for a day visit and an overnight as well if you can tolerate some roll. The key is a state park with excellent beaches, clear water, and extensive walking trails. The wildlife is impressive.

The southern end of Egmont Key is a wildlife refuge with limited ability to go ashore. If you look closely at the map above, however, you will note that there is a small strip along the shoreline of the northeast refuge area where it is OK to visit the beach. The main anchorage is also off that beach. We anchored there in a south wind. There was some protection afforded by the southern extent of the island as it curves eastward, but it was not enough to eliminate all swells.

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The beaches are glorious all around the island, and the trails thick with native palms make for a pleasant walk. We found the fishing good as well.

Shark River is one of only a few places along the western coast of the Everglades where there is sufficient depth for a boat like Zeitgeist to find an anchorage. Accounts in the cruising guides and postings indicate that mosquitoes and no-see-ums can be a problem, but we had no such problems during our visit in November. The temperatures were comfortable with a cooling north wind. We found good shelter and holding near the mouth of the river, where we were visited by a manatee and dolphins. When exploring among the many smaller tributaries by dinghy, we were amazed at the numbers of herons and other wading birds that we encountered every few feet.

The fishing was excellent. The seclusion and wildlife make this one of our favorite destinations.

The Dry Tortugas are well worth a visit, but beware that the passage can be rough. The islands are 65 nautical miles west of Key West–a bit closer if you can stop over at Boca Grande Key or the Marquesas, but still a full day’s sail from either of those places or an overnight from anywhere else on Florida’s west coast. Our advice is to examine the weather predictions carefully before venturing out. In our experience, even though the forecast seemed benign (15 kts from the north with scattered showers), we encountered some really nasty weather and seas in mid-November on our passage from Boca Grande Key. The seas are very much affected by the currents that run north and south between the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas, so check the currents as well as the winds to try and avoid steep waves and crossing seas. Our visit was limited to just one day because of the imminent arrival of another norther with winds that blew at 25 knots for three days.

Once you are there, the Dry Tortugas are a delight. The main anchorage by the national park headquarters is fairly well-protected, the water is clear, and Fort Jefferson is fascinating. Visiting boaters are invited to tag along on the tours given by the excursion boat from Key West. Don’t miss it. It’s the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas with an amazing history. Though there are no facilities and no water or food available at the national park, visiting boaters may use the rest rooms and get food and drink from the visiting ferry from Key West.

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When we were there, the waters were roiled up from the previous day’s storm, but we till spotted a massive grouper and a nurse shark parked under our boat in the anchorage. Dinghy fishing was excellent. The beaches were a delight to stroll on, and the wildlife there was abundant and relatively unafraid of humans.

Boca Grande Key is located within the Key West National Wildlife Refuge archipelago about 15 nautical miles west of Key West. A good stop to break up the passage from Key West to Dry Tortugas if the weather is right.

As we approached Boca Grande Key from the south, here is what we encountered.

We arrived in the mid afternoon, and there were a few motorboats pulled up on the beach and a catamaran anchored off the beach. We anchored without problems in the channel on the northwest side of the key. From the charts we expected mudflats or land outside the channel, but in fact we were surrounded by very shallow, open water on three sides. So the anchorage is wide open to winds from all directions except the southeast, but it is protected from swell from most directions. We had been warned that there is a significant amount of current here, but it was not an issue for us.

We explored with the dinghy after getting settled. All the other boats had left by then. We first visited the beach, but we were immediately swarmed by no-see-ums. Perhaps that is why the other boats had left. We retreated and then dinghied a few hundred yards further northeast in the channel, where we spied the skeleton of a shipwreck protruding above the water. It was completely calm, and we had a perfect view of vast numbers of reef fish at the wreck site. It was a good opportunity to see whether any of our new fishing lures were effective. The answer was generally no, but we did catch a few small barracuda. If you visit Boca Grande Key, be sure to check out the wreck.

We were treated to a glorious sunset.

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We rose at dawn and witnessed a sunrise in the eastern sky at the same time as a moon set in the west on a glassy sea.

Boca Grande Key is definitely a destination to put on your cruising list if the weather is right and if nature and isolation appeal to you.