Stats for Sunday, December 30, 2018

Origin: Jewfish Basin Anchorage

Destination: Bahia Honda State Park Anchorage

Distance: 41.6 miles

Speed: 8.2 mph

Time on the Move: 5 hours and 3 minutes

After a long day of dodging crab pots (do you see all those crab pots?! Thank goodness there are no crab pots in the Great Lakes!!) we arrived at our Bahia Honda anchorage.

As soon as we dropped anchor (and set anchor alarms!) the kids were in the water playing. Even Colin decided to get in since he could hide from sharks on the Lilly Pad.

We tried out our new water maker that uses reverse osmosis (what?!) to make fresh water from salty sea water. Bahamas here we come!! This portable case will sit on our bow (because it is convenient and close to our water tank) and make all our fresh water by running a few hours, a few days a week. Amazing!! The owner of the company was great to work with and creates these kits on his own–let us know if you’d like details!!

Heading into the Bahia Honda Marina we had our first iguana sighting. Very exciting for this crew, and we had to circle around for a few minutes so everyone could get a good look and we could document the moment in pictures. We hear they are all over in several places, but this guy being #1 was pretty exciting!

Bahia Honda State Park pretty much covers this whole key with beach access to both the gulf side and ocean side, along with a nature center, old bridge remains, and heavily traveled RV park. My grandparents had a house down here until I was 7, so I have some fleeting memories and lots of family stories that center around this area of the Keys. It was magical to be so close–I could just picture my grandpa out in his boat years ago, zipping around the flats.

Tobin loved swimming around the roped off area and practiced with his snorkel and fins for a while. Colin dug holes in the sand because Colin LOVES digging holes and making dams–he could engineer sand for hours. Hayley mostly wanted to go on walks and lay on a towel. It’s like 7 is the new 17?! Mike and I enjoyed a bit of all of it.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset glow for New Year’s Eve.

Bring on 2019!!

When we were ready to go off adventuring the next day, we noticed several boats anchored at a sand bar along the edge of our anchorage. We decided to head over and check it out. Of course one of my first questions was “are there sharks here or anything scary?” I was open about the fact that I was new to salt water and was just trying to learn what could be out there so I can make smart decisions for the kids. Right away we met up with a sweet, adventurous 5 year old little girl who showed our kids jelly fish and hermit crabs she had collected in a little “hotel.” Her family was very nice and said that yes, there could be sharks around, so just don’t go back towards the mangroves too far. They also admitted that they were still learning what could be in the water, as well.

After playing for a while, the kids started adventuring a little more and they ended up finding some “sink sand” where Tobin got completely stuck. He ended up losing a croc (shoe) deep in the mud and needed me to come rescue him. Then I got stuck and needed my new friend, Shelly, to come rescue me. As Tobin was getting unstuck, he started yelling about being very ITCHY and it became pretty clear that he must have gotten bit/stung/attacked/mauled by some creature on his thigh because there was some red raised lines on his leg. He would not stop crying about it, so we rushed back to the boat after quickly deciding to abandon the croc and leave it as an appetizer for the sharks or maybe a new hotel for the hermit crabs.

After a dose of Benedryl and a new, dry swim suit, Tobin settled down right away. I had hoped to walk along the old bridge while we were at the beach the day before, but no one else really wanted to leave their activities on the beach to make the effort. I think it’s interesting that the original highway was damaged by a hurricane, so a new one was built, yet most of the original span still runs right next to the new one. Someone did think to cut a few sections out to allow tall boats to anchor in front of the beach, but the end off Bahia Honda is still sturdy enough to allow visitors to walk out on. Since Tobin was feeling better, everyone agreed we should walk out onto the bridge and I’m so glad we did!

We loved this anchorage and park!! Thanks for following along on our adventures!!