Cruising the Everglades to Marathon Key

When you imagine the Everglades, what do you see? Miles of mangroves? Nature and wildlife everywhere? Complete quiet and isolation? Possibly alligator and crocodiles? Stars and sunsets to die for? Well….if that is your vision, you would be very close to correct. The Everglades are all that and more, and seeing it from the water is even better. I put together this post to give you all a taste of cruising the Everglades and catch you up on where we are in our Great Loop adventure.

Naples to Marco Island before cruising to the Everglades

Our last post ended in Naples after anchoring several nights and, of course, seeing all the dolphins. Knowing we had a short travel day, we took our time leaving the Naples City Dock, catching up on some projects, making sure we filled our water tank for the coming days and checking all our mechanics etc. We knew we were heading into the remote areas of the Everglades, so we wanted to be sure we, and the boat, were ready.

Anchoring at Marco Island

After leaving Naples, we traveled the short 16 mile, 2 hour journey to Marco Island and anchored in Factory Bay near Rose Marina. It’s a decent anchorage but can have some shallow areas during low tide, but we had no problem. We tried to get fuel before anchoring, but the wind pushed us around too much, so we decided to wait till morning. Turned out to be a wise decision. There were two sailboats already anchored in the bay (one with our same name…almost… ‘Sail La Vie’). Still, there was plenty of room for us to find a spot.

And it was an easy dinghy ride to shore for Moose and a little shopping. Bonus – we picked up 4 bottles of our favorite wine, La Villa Femme at ABC Liquors for only $5/bottle! What a deal! If you have not tried this French table wine, you definitely should. It’s really good, especially the provence Rose, and always consistent. The next morning we fueled up and glided out of Marco Island and began our cruise to the Everglades.

Leaving civilization and cruising to the Everglades

Our 48 mile cruise to the Everglades National Park from Marco was about 6 hours running an easy 8.5 mph. No reason to rush and waste a lot of fuel. It was a beautiful, calm day on the Gulf of Mexico and amazing to watch the end of land disappear as we travelled offshore past the western tip of Florida at Cape Romano Shoals. After going around the shoals, we headed more easterly into the Everglades.

Our first stop was New Turkey Key, a small anchorage sandwiched between the key and a little beach island. It was perfect! We were the only boat around and the beach was right there to take Moose and stroll on land. We kept an eye out for alligators and other critters… but we saw nothing but birds, shells and water.

Pythons???? Really?

We were also warned by the owners of Sail La Vie in Marco to watch out for pythons getting on the boat. Well, that kinda freaked me out. We, of course, knew to look out for gators and crocodiles, but pythons getting on your boat? Yikes! They recommended soaking a rag in ammonia and putting one on the anchor and one at the swim platform. You can bet I did just that! But no sign of pythons…or anything else. Still, when we went ashore, I made sure Eric brought his machete…just in case.

The beach at New Turkey Key

We chose this anchorage because it had easy access to shore and was recommended by fellow Loopers who also have dogs. It definitely makes choosing an anchorage more challenging when you have to have a place to go ashore. But having Moose with us is worth it. Besides, we were the only humans on this little slice of sand and it was just lovely. We also took a dinghy ride around the mangroves and did spot some people camping on another key, but they were the only other people we saw. Watching the sunset over the little island beach was a perfect way to end our first cruise into the Everglades.

Cruising to Cape Sable, our second anchorage

We left New Turkey Key by 8am to be sure the tide was favorable to get through the somewhat shallow entrance/exit. But again, it was fine and we slipped back out into the Gulf with the Everglades on our port side as we traveled south. Our next destination was Cape Sable, the quintessential isolated beach where you can walk and walk and never meet another human….just amazing. We did pass by another boat on our way to the anchorage, but they were very far away from us.

We dropped anchor aways out from the beach so the dinghy ride was much longer than the night before. But the beach…. wow! And again, Eric brought the machete, but we did not have any visitors on the beach…or the boat. 😉 Despite not seeing anything, we always kept Moose on a lease so he didn’t get curious and wander into the forest of mangroves. But it was truly a magical stop and our last one as we finished our cruise through the Everglades. We really wanted to spend more days on the hook in the Everglades, but a storm was coming and we needed to get to Marathon and the marina early, before the big 30+ mph winds came in.

Au Revoir Everglades….Bon jour Marathon…and crab pots!

The next morning, we took another dinghy ride to the beach and said goodbye to the Everglades as we made our final leg south to Marathon Key. We traveled 37 miles in under 5 hours…we only traveled 8 mph so we could enjoy the trip. At least we enjoyed it until we got to the Florida Bay before arriving in Marathon. At that point it became an obstacle course of dodging line after line of crab pots. They were everywhere criss-crossing each other! We both had to keep a very alert watch and constantly point out where the balls that are attached to the crab pot lines were to avoid catching the line in our props. Thankfully, we made it out of the crab pot minefield unscathed, but it sure keeps you awake.

It was exciting to see and cross under the famous Seven Mile Bridge that connects the Keys to each other. We finally made it to the Keys, arriving in our slip at Safe Harbor Marathon Marina around 3pm. Tied up, checked in, took Moose on a walk and settled in to enjoy our first of many sunsets from our boat.

Staying put for awhile…

Cruising through the Everglades was such an amazing, memorable experience and we are so thankful to have had the chance and taken the time to discover this national treasure…especially by water. But now we will be enjoying another treasure…the Keys! We will be at the Marathon Marina for a whole month to explore, relax, work and check off some boat projects on the list. It’s been such an incredible trip so far and I know there will be more and more experiences, adventures and people to meet as we continue our Great Loop.

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