Parrott_Head and I looked down, over the side of the boat, and saw the tracks buzz-cut in the bottoms sea grass by other boaters' props that had traveled a similar path to ours over the shallows. Lucky for us, the water level was up and kept us from adding a fresh marker with our stainless steel props. Since this Montereys Bravo III drive is designed with two props on one shaft, that would have been an expensive ouch! <br /> <br />We were on our real first trip. An adventure run well away from the intensely populated boating areas of South Florida. Hey, Key Largo, here we come! <br /><br />The route held some challenges. It was both an inside run--mostly on Biscayne Bay--and an outside run on the Atlantic Ocean. About a sixty mile trip down, and right back the next day. <br /> <br />Why just an overnight trip? My admiral had a narrow window of time away from work, and we wanted her to have her first experience on the new Monterey. So her schedule fixed the dimensions of the float plan. One point about cruising: Decide what you want to rule/dominate the experience. Will it be time constraints, weather, destination, or some particular activity? It can make a difference in your cruising experience. <br /> <br />We began our run inside within the well-marked channel on Biscayne Bay. The speed was set by "No Wake", "Manatee", and "Bridge" zones. Parrott_Head split helmsman duty with me. At first, the Admiral enjoyed the sights as they passed by, but eventually took advantage of the aft bench to catch up on some lost sleep resulting from her recent grueling schedule. She never did say which of our driving styles delivered the better rest for her. <br /> <br />Government Cut and the cruise ship terminal passed to port and then we saw the Stilt Houses just south of Key Biscayne on the Biscayne Flats. These sit proud over 3' to 6' of water -- everything comes to and goes from them via boat. After each local hurricane, they often need re-building. Building new stilt houses is no longer allowed, and apparently any construction on the existing ones is limited to only replacing what was there previously. These have captivated me since the late 1960s early 1970s when Seabuddy was a college student.<br /> <br />We threaded our way through the narrow cut in the cross-channel shallow water barrier inside of Sands Key, and then headed over to take a look at the marina set-up on Elliott Key. While we did not go in and tie-up, this functioned as sort of a trial to see how the water shallowed and changed colors as we came closer to shore. This helped us gain local knowledge and navigational insight before we reached our stop for the night. <br /><br />At the bottom of Elliott Key, we picked up the passage at Caesar Creek to enter the Atlantic Ocean. It's marked well and we stayed off the really shallow water areas as we threaded our way through the boat traffic. Once outside, the wind and waves gave us a different ride and navigational challenge. It was a following sea with some wind, but the Monterey and the team aboard banded together and took it with ease.<br /> <br />Parrrott_Head took command of the ships Garmin 48 GPS to keep us on track in the run segments southbound. You don't want to venture either too close or too far offshore, as there are shallow spots virtually everywhere. Fortunately Parrot_Head mastered the Garmin and ocean navigation PDQ. He morphed into an old Salt. I want to thank him for all his involvement.<br /> <br />another installment to come in a few days...
