13. Northeastern Pumpkin Key Anchorage
13. Northeastern Pumpkin Key Anchorage
Statute Mile:1122.5
Lat/Lon: 25 19.665 North/080 17.557 West
Location: off the northeastern shores of Pumpkin Key, which is itself located on the eastern shores of Card Sound, west of Snapper Point and south of Angelfish Creek
Minimum depth: 7 feet, BUT you must successfully bypass a charted but unmarked underwater rock to maintain these soundings
Swing Room: unlimited
Foul Weather Shelter: good, but open to northern and northwestern winds
Rating: 
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Comments from Cruisers (3)
DEC 24 2015 – Moored NW of Pumpkin to shelter from 17kts wind from SE. Initially well sheltered, but Wind swung during night to be direct from East and we dragged badly, about 400 yards before I realised at 3 am, even though we were only 150 yards from the island & I would have thought we would be better protected. Good in that I was blown into deeper water but from looking at the anchor flukes the bottom is sand/mud which does not hold well. The wind protection from Snapper is not great, there is enough open water for the wind to get up speed. However lovely location, with dolphins feeding at dusk & super quiet at night tho dawn brings some traffic from Angelfish Key
Pumpkin Key is one of the best anchorages for an exit from Bayside to the Gulfstream. Even at low tide if you draw 5ft or less you’ll have no problem. Deeper draft boats will have to wait for high tide. The anchorage is not where it is shown on the chart, but to the SW of R12 between Pumpkin Key and the marker in 8-12 feet of water. Good holding and protection and even if it blows from the West, you’ll be OK. However, if you’re expecting bad weather, you can go NW of the anchorage across the bay to the Arsenicker Keys and anchor in 8 feet of good holding sand with beautiful clear water and excellent protection from the West. The oddity is that the water at Pumpkin is opaque green while the Arsenickers is Bahamas like.
Ron
Just spent 2 nights here and the holding was excellent, scenery great, except for all the Do Not Trespass signs on the island, and very quiet. We stayed about 300 yards off the shore of the island. Great place to drop the hook. Last year we stayed on the opposite side and also had a great experience. Left this morning by going out of Angelfish Creek to Hawk Channel and never saw less than 7.7 feet, 3 hours before high tide.