Florida & the Keys

Draft, not distance, is the true unit of measurement on this coast. Miami’s Island Gardens takes a 167-metre yacht into the shadow of downtown; thirty-odd miles north, Fort Lauderdale’s New River tightens into the refit row that earned the city its Yachting Capital title; Palm Beach’s Rybovich runs the service side for the fleet that winters here. South of Miami the water turns shallow fast — the Keys are an anchor-and-agent coast most of the way to Key West, then seventy more nautical miles of open Gulf to the brick fort at Dry Tortugas. Three boat shows bracket the calendar, and the Bahamas sits across the Stream, a half-day’s run from anywhere on this shore. The season runs November to May; hurricane season owns the rest.

“Fort Lauderdale did not choose to become the Yachting Capital of the World — the New River’s refit yards earned the title one haul-out at a time.”

Signature anchorages

Deep water in three cities, then an anchor-and-agent coast the rest of the way to Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

• Stiltsville & Biscayne Bay, MiamiSeven weathered stilt houses on the Safety Valve flats, a mile off Cape Florida — the last of a Prohibition-era colony that once ran to twenty-seven, now inside Biscayne National Park. Shallow sand, tender-only, no facilities; anchor off in the bay’s lee and go across by boat.
• Ocean Reef, Key LargoA private club marina at the top of the Keys — 175 slips to 175ft (53m) — inside a well-protected, dredged harbour. Access is members-and-guests only, but it is the closest thing to a proper megayacht refuge on this stretch.
• Islamorada backcountry, Upper KeysFlorida Bay’s grass flats on one side, the Gulf Stream ten to twenty miles off the other — the reason Islamorada calls itself the Sportfishing Capital of the World. Good holding on sand and marl in the backcountry; shoal water and current both reward local knowledge.
• Marathon & the Seven Mile Bridge, Middle KeysFaro Blanco Marina’s two basins take yachts to 140ft; Boot Key Harbor beyond it holds one of the Keys’ few managed mooring fields. The old Seven Mile Bridge — Flagler’s railroad, then a road — still runs alongside the new one out to Pigeon Key.
• Key WestThe historic Bight and Garrison Bight both run shallow — a controlling depth of around 4½ft rules out anything but day boats, draft mattering far more than LOA (length overall) here. Bigger yachts anchor in the main channel or offshore and work the island through a local agent; Mallory Square’s sunset crowd is worth the tender ride in regardless.
• Dry Tortugas & Fort JeffersonSeventy nautical miles of open Gulf west of Key West, and worth every one of them — a six-sided brick fortress, sixteen million bricks, alone on Garden Key. Open anchorage, no facilities, no fresh water; a National Park Service ranger station is the only company.

The scene

Three boat shows time the season; a railroad, a stilt colony and a sunset ritual outlast all of them.

Table & stay ashore

A coast that has outlasted a century of hurricanes and hoteliers — not this season’s opening.

A week, sketched

Pair with

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