Backcountry

Boot Key Harbor
"Marathon- the Heart of the Florida Keys"

An On-Line Cruising Guide for the Florida Keys & Cuba
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KEYS BACKCOUNTRY
between Key West and Marathon in the Lower Keys on the Gulfside
North UP on all Satellite and Chart views
(Not for Navigation)

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Review the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service restrictions for the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge, & National Key Deer Refuge (essentially ALL of the Keys)

Jewfish Basin - Marin Keys & Snipe Point - Johnston Key Channel - Tarpon Belly - Content Keys

Overview Photo of Entire Back Country - 128 Meter Resolution
From about Key West (left) to Big Pine area (right)

Jewfish Basin
Approach Channel is approximately 24 40.451N 081 44.006W

Overview of entire area and the basin

Close up view of the entrance channel showing an airplane wreck in the shallows to the east.
The general location is around 24 40.135N 081 43.621W

Marvin Keys (& Snipe Point to the West)
Approximate 24 42.734N 081 38.978W just off the sandbars

Best Sandbar in the Keys. Popular day anchorage. Once you get there and walk around, you couldn't tell you weren't somewhere out in the Bahamas Out Islands. The large flats/shoal to gulfside is very shallow (less than ankle deep). Lots of live rock. Small pockets of water in the sand around the Island are at Spa-like temperatures in the tropical sun. Can lie down in the Sand and have a therapeutic Spa treatment. Main Sandbar where you beach the small boat has steep sides so you can bow in your boat to the beach while the stern is floating. HOWEVER - at high tide the sand beach is almost entirely submerged. The tides are not high, but if you beach your boat at high tide it'll be stranded when the tide goes out - just keep an eye on the tide level while you're there. Locals keep this area very clean - no broken bottles or trash around (please keep it this way) - so you can take off your water shoes and walk around in the deep sand. This is one of the very few places you can do this in the Keys without sharp or crunchy corals, rocks or sea plants cutting your feet. (ALSO - Snipe point is just to the West of Marvin Keys. It also has a very nice beach but you can get there directly from offshore to anchor your boat in the sandbar - unlike the better Marvin Keys)

CLICK HERE for photos of Marvin Keys Sand Bar

Johnston Key & Channel
Approach to the channel is approximately 24 44.437N 081 36.840W

This can be a tricky approach. I'd suggest good sunlight at your back when entering & leaving. We use a GPS interfaced to a chartplotter, plus put someone on the bow to watch for the shoals.

Tarpon Belly Keys - in Cudjoe Channel (Satellite Photo)
24 43.599N 081 31.170W at anchor on South West side of Island.
Approach from Gulfside into Cudjoe Channel is at approximately 24 46.482N 081 33.600W

Beach on SW side of Island (Cudjoe Channel side) is a gravel beach. There are much better beaches in the back country (try Marvin Keys), but this Island has open areas with pine trees for picnics and exploring. The old canals were used for the fishery but long since abandoned. There is debris at both ends so it's not passable by boat. If you go ashore by dinghy on the SW beach you can cross the first canal at either the NW or SE end. At the SE end you can walk through the water - about waist deep - and climb out the other side. The middle of the canals looks to deep to do this but I haven't measured the depth. OR - at the NW end of this canal is an old broken concrete pile of some sort all the way across the canal and we've walked across this. Once you're on the other side of this first canal and walk up the trails toward the NW, you'll come across an old rusted transaxle with one remaining tire and the rusted hulk of an old engine. The trail over to the other canal starts about there. It goes to your north through the mangroves. It's an old poured concrete road that's covered with an archway of mangroves down the path to the next Island. Lots of mosquitoes and no-seeums at sunset. Good Islands for exploring and picnics.

Content Keys - good snorkeling on edge of shallow reef
General location of 24 47.592N 081 29.960W

(* Approximate Site of the famous Pilot Whales beaching in the Spring of 2003)

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