Angelfish Creek Channel

We left Tavernier Key this moring and headed north with no particular destination other than Key Biscayne Bay before Saturday. As usual, the winds were variable mostly from the direction we were traveling. Having spent several days in Hawk Channel, we decided to do the last part of the Keys in the ditch that goes through the Everglades, the ICW of the east coast. We chose Angelfish Creek Channel to make the move from "outside" to "inside". To say the least it was spectacular. The guides warn that leaving Hawk Channel to the Angelfish channel can be risky since there is a spot at the entrance to Angelfish that is both shallow and narrow. One must not enter that area if another boat is coming out. So, we timed it just right and started in with less than six inches under our keel. All was going well until some knucklehead in a high speed boat, who had obviously not read the same warnings, decided to pass us. Not that it was bad, but his wake removed that six inchs of water not once but twice and we touched bottom, but not hard. I could not get the Glock out quick enough to warn him off. After that minor incident with the bottom we were in one of the prettiest mangrove channels we have seen. The current was about three and a half knots opposing us so we were at a very high power setting making a whopping 3.5 knots against the current. During the time in the channel, we were passed by other knuckleheads at flank speed darting into the many side channels. Might I have hoped, quitely of course, that they miss the oppenings to those channels?

We were tired by the time we got through that channel and decided to anchor near Pumpkin Key. We were first there and now it is 1810 and we have two other boats here. Rain everywhere and we are in hopes that it washes some of the salt from the boat. This place puts us only 30 or so miles from the end of the Keys, Key Biscayne in the Miami area. We hope to take a slip in Coconut Grove at Dinner Key Marina for the Memorial Day weekend. We visited that place while guests of Safari a couple of years ago. It still has the charm of 1942. Thus, we reach another milestone in our cruise: We leave the Keys and start the Atlantic coast transit.