Boating in Key West
 

Does anyone know of a place in Key West where you can rent a 40 ft.+/- trawler or similar type motor yacht so that we can boat to the Dry Tortugas and stay for a few nights? How long does it take to get from Key West to Dry Tortugas?

Hopefully, you are an EXPERIENCED boater who has in the very least taken an approved boating course. An inexperienced boater can quickly get into trouble in the keys because of the shallows, reefs etc. And the fines for hitting a reef or ruining sawgrass are pretty steep. That said, I would check boatus.com and click on charters/travel left hand side.

You will have to find a broker to rent a 40 foot trawler. I spend a lot of time boating in the keys and the previous poster is correct. The keys are shallow and can be hazardous to navigate. Do you know how to anchor in the ocean? It's hard due to currents and quickly changing weather. The fine for uprooting sea grass is $50 per square foot. To anchor out without having a generator would not be a lot of fun. No electricity. Most boats that do have generators, have them for the basic electronics. <BR><BR>A yatch or trawler of that size could easily cost you $10,000+ a week not including delivery fee, crew, tips, gas (250 gallons an hour for a 40 foot yacht), moorings and a host of other things.<BR><BR>Can you navigate in the ocean? The keys are night and day from boating in fresh water. I've sailed and boated from Maine as far south as Tortola, as far east as the out islands of the Bahamas and everything in between. <BR><BR>Get a copy of yachting magazine and look for the ads in the back. <BR><BR>The Florida Keys are the most difficult boating I've ever done. Good luck to you and tell us how it turned out!

<BR><BR>Okay, I'm curious. How does one anchor in the ocean? Seriously. I don't know.

Sam, it's tough. You have to have a special kind of anchor (the head of the anchor is a different shape). You hopefully find a semi sheltered cove and line the boat up with the current. You slowly ease the anchor off the bow (front) of the boat instead of throwing it, and then let the boat settle in the direction of the current all the while making sure the anchor is secure. After the boat settles you go to the aft (back) of the boat and this time throw the anchor of the back. You make sure the anchor has caught and tie it off. In really rough current, we pitch two anchors off the bow of the boat.<BR><BR>BTW, you can rent plenty of 40 footers for less than $10,000 but you will getting the SS Minow.

<BR><BR>So, you're achoring in shallow water, right? Is it possible to anchor in deep water? (I guess you've realized that I didn't a lot of time at the Naval Academy.) When you're taking a long boat trip, I guess every night you have to find shallow water. Right?

It depends. The deepest I've anchored in was about 35 feet. For a long trip such as Maine to Miami, most people take day trips on the outside (the ocean) and come in at night to a marina. Some people would rather just go down the waterway and anchor in a cove or find a marina. For an offshore (ocean) trip to the caribbean or something, depending upon how fast your boat is, you can't anchor at sea. You just keep going until you get there. This happens two different ways. You either keep someone at the helm the whole time by splitting shifts or a hired captain, or you put the boat on auto helm (auto pilot).

x-Thanks for your post. I have seen first hand too many novice boaters or boaters from the Great Lakes or inland lakes get into trouble in the Keys. Anyone who even thinks about renting a boat in the Keys IMO should have completed a safe boating course at the very least AND have an experienced, licensed captain with them.

Thanks Capt Bob. To add to what you said, any first time boater in the keys needs to hire a captain for the first day to show them the area.<BR><BR>Curious as the Wendy's answer.

Hey Boater, didn't we go through this a year or so ago? Sawgrass is a freshwater emergent grass commonly found in the freshwater portion of the Everglades, therefore there is little chance of someone boating in the Keys &quot;ruining sawgrass&quot;. You of course mean seagrass. If you are going to dispense advice at least try to sound like you know what you are talking about.

Lighten up Larry. He probably meant seagrass and typed in the wrong thing. Why diss him? Having a bad day at work or what?

x-You are correct. I am also curious why Wendy wants to rent a 40' trawler and how much boating experience they have. That is a lot of boat to handle.<BR><BR>Smooth sailing x and perfect seas.<BR><BR>CB

Deep water anchoring is possible, of course. I have had to come in from 1400 feet to shallower water, 600 feet to ride out a steady blow. We rode there for 36 hours or so. 51' Thompson, 10' seas, 600' deep. Plenty of line.

Dan, I don't envy you that! I was sailing to Bermuda several years ago and we were about 150 miles off shore when a gale force winds came out of nowhere. We dropped the main sheet, threw up a tiny part of the storm jib and threw two anchors off the back of the boat with about 30 feet of line. We threw the anchors out to slow down the boat because the maximum hull speed of the boat was 10 knots and we were averaging 14.<BR><BR>Can't imagine trying to anchor in 600 feet of water!<BR><BR>Captain Bob, I'm guessing not a whole lot of experience. The trawler would take forever to get to the Dry Tortugas.

nobody answered this part, dry tortugas are about 60 miles away. <BR><BR>That is pretty ambitious to do that but do be careful as noted by previous posts. <BR><BR>Call me from Cuba!

with an average speed of 10 knots, that trip would take 5 hours.

Fuel alone is going to cost a pretty penny.

Wendy did you find anything?

Wendy probably had no clue how much it was going to cost so she slunk out of sight.<BR><BR>Wendy has LEFT the building people!

Its nice to see a sense of humor on some of your posts:)<BR>I just found this forum and when I put some replies up..well there seemed to be alot of sarcasm..is that the way it goes sometimes?<BR>I just like to find info about things or learn about other peoples travels..I guess it has to do with who is online at the time?