Boot Key Warnings Or Dangers Tips by grandmaR

Not My Pet Iguana!!!

I heard a cruiser on the VHF radio asking if anyone had lost a pet iguana. NOT!!! That was a wild iguana that climbed on his boat.

These are not tame animals, and they can bite. They also like to lie out on the road in the sun and they can obviously swim. This one is a noted inhabitant of Boot Key.

Dinghy Cops

Since there are often a hundred or more boats moored or anchored in Boot Key Harbor, and some who don't like the crowds in there and are anchored off the other side of Boot Key or Knights Key, there is often a lot of dinghy traffic. If you are anchored and not in a marina, your dinghy is your car to get to market and get supplies. So you'd best have a good reliable one.

However, the Florida Marina Patrol or the Coast Guard will want you to have appropriate equipment in your dinghy with you. PFDs, lights for night operation and such things. Sometimes they will want you to have flares.

They will also want you to observe the no wake zone even in a dinghy and to operate the dinghy in a safe manner - no drunken dinghying and no speeding.

Overhead Power Line or Shallow Channel

To get into Boot Key Harbor, you have two choices. Boot Key Channel and through Boot Key Bridge, or Sister's Creek. Sister's Creek is only 4 feet deep in places, although I have heard that there is a boat in the harbor that draws 6.5 feet that has used that channel (I guess at high tide).

The other option is the going through the Boot Key bascule bridge. Unfortunatly there is a power line just past the bridge that is only 65 feet or 66 feet. So if your mast is higher than that you can't use that entrance.

Tide and Current

Boot Key Harbor has two entrances. One at the east side of Boot Key called Sister's Creek. The other is through the Boot Key entrance channel and through the bridge. Because the tide comes in at slightly different times, that means that there is a current through Boot Key Harbor that may make anchoring difficult. The tide is about two feet, but may be more when there is a full moon.

Some folks anchor with one anchor, and some anchor with two. If you are anchoring next to someone with two anchors, you should also use two anchors. Otherwise you will swing differently and may swing into them.