Shell Key

Day 183, February 9th, 2010

Time to move on. We thought we would get down to Lignumvitae Key and anchor on the east side. Weather forecast predicted a blow overnight from the North West.

There were some very shallow areas, especially before Steamboat Channel. Pea Soup did go aground once but was able to power off without trouble. There were long lengths where our depth sounder reckoned we had only 0.1ft beneath us, but we didn't touch bottom.

We arrived at Lignumvitae around 1:00 but didn't like the look of it at all. We would be totally exposed there and the chart showed a rocky bottom, not good holding. So we motored around to the other side where there were meant to be some mooring buoys maintained by Lignumvitae State Park. There were only 2 and a houseboat had already picked up one. After some discussion and checking the charts again we decided to retrace our steps, back through Steamboat Channel to Windley Key where there looked to be a little mangrove creek that might work. However, Sharon read Skipper Bob again and found there were meant to be more mooring buoys on the north side of Shell Key. As it was on our way we decided to have a look there. We found two mooring buoys, widely spaced apart and both looked in good condition.
Knowing that we would be exposed to the NW blow, we decided that this would be a pretty safe spot and each took a ball.

It turned out to be a very bumpy night. I can best describe it by saying it felt like lying flat on a bucking bronco, in the middle of a washing machine. However, the mooring held firm and all was well.