Checking in is an interesting experience. In theory you phone 800 432 2216 - and I ask to use the marina landline. You get an automated voice and select the appropriate option, then silence. After 5 minutes it resets and you get the automated voice again, after 4 cycles of this the marina staff suggest it is broken and I should just visit the Customs and Border Protection office (CBP). A cruising couple from Mexico are having the same problems and the three of us head off a few blocks to try and find the CBP. They are relocated in the courthouse since hurricane Irma. Getting into a federal building is tricky, you are not allowed to bring any electronic devices in with you and they photograph and fingerprint you (electronically). The Mexican skipper and I leave our phones with the skippers wife and meet with CBP. They are most courteous (but check my story by phoning the 800 number themselves) 25 dollars later and I have a 12 month cruising permit. Well, the boat has a 12 month cruising permit, I already have a 6 month multi-entry visa so in 6 months time I must leave the states for 15 days before re-entering. Hello Nova Scotia!
I move the boat around to a mooring field. The mooring bouys cost $20 but that includes use of a secure dock for the dinghy and showers. Dinghy docking is a big problem here and in a lot of florida. So much of available land is private and every private house has its own private dock that often getting to land is hard. The mooring field dinghy dock is over a mile from my buoy. Nonetheless I stay a week as I am to pick up John Henshaw on the 10th and I will do this near the top of the keys, which are 150 miles long.
KeyWest is the end of the mainland for the states and has a particular tourist feel. The temperature requires everyone to move slowly and be laid back. We were here 20 years ago with the McMillans and kids and had enjoyed that stay - wandering about the town, eating key lime pie and taking a touristy catamaran called "El Gato" to go snorkelling on the reefs. I still have the T-shirt! This time I found it very, very busy with tourists and everywhere was eating places and tourist shops. There was a few things to see like Hemingway's house and garden and a Rum Distillery.
And then the Cats - there are four of these and 4 or 5 classic schooners also offering rides on the sea. Big business.
In other parts of the town of key west I do find supermarkets - I have to ride my bike to the outskirts. I also find a West Marine store and can buy pilot books for the ICW, the next phase of the trip. It has very expensive electric fans ($80 to $120) and I am pleased to find a auto store (like Halfords) that sells plug in fans for $14.99 that are actually better then the "marine" ones. I visit a bookstore and get a couple of books, the old ladies serving me are lovely and chatty, my accent is a good intro! They tell me of a street parade of Kinetic art on bicycles starting soon and I go and watch it.
I liked Key West, although I liked it more 20 years ago. Soon it is time to move on. I buy a US phone so I can telephone CBP - I have to report every movement from port to port but at least I don't have to go in person. The phone gives me data too so I can get weather forecasts. Although in the states they have a really neat system where an automated voice is transmitted on the radio 24 hours a day, local to your area. There are 8 different frequencies and US VHF radios have these weather channels on them. Mine does not but I have brought ham radio transceivers that can receive the frequencies ok. Also I have to persuade my VHF to move from International marine channels to the US ones. Luckily my main ship set and handheld can do this - after I read the manual!
My next stop is 30 miles up the coast - just in an anchorage. Like Cuba there is a reef a few miles offshore and the sea is pretty shallow for those 2 miles which means the sea does not get too rough. You can go North of the keys or South of the Keys and there are buoyed channels for both options. I quickly discover that a boat draft of over six feet makes the North (really sheltered) passage and even when in the South channel ("Hawke's Channel") the available marinas and fuel docks are all too shallow. Five feet is the norm and this accounts for the vast number of powerboats. There are dozens of marinas but none that suit Shadowmere. I anchor in Bahai Honda - there are half a dozen places in Florida with identical names to Cuban places. And move on at first light to Key Largo.
Key Largo is where I have arranged to meet John - he is greyhound bussing down from Orlando where he is staying with friends. I discover I have to anchor about a mile out on either side of an isolated island (Rodriguez Key). On going ashore to arrange a rendezvous I discover a waterfront restaurant I had wanted to use - free dock for patron had been destroyed by Irma (the hurricane, not an angry patron) I call at a deserted boatyard but the roadside has big big fences and electronic gates - I find a guy and he tells me about the destruction and that the site and ruin has been bought by a private individual and I must not trespass. "If you set foot ashore, you will get arrested" Welcome to Key Largo. After relating my dilemma he thinks a while and says there is an "easement" between two properties - a tiny 20 foot wide beach/launching spot with public access. I go there and find a father and son fishing. I can land the dinghy and padlock it and the outboard to a nearby high fence. I can walk up to a Denny's and wait for John. One of his buses is delayed and he gets an Uber from Miami - at Greyhound's expense. He arrives in the dark, we have a burger and pint and then head out. We get a bit wet when we return to the boat. We use the tender to go two miles to get fuel in cans the next day.
And find fuel pumps beside a pub. We also walk key largo a bit to try for some food. You need a car in America, every thing is too far away and it is too hot.
Fuelled up we head for Miami, no wind so we have to motor 55 miles