These good suggestions come from AGLCA member, Dave Fuller, as posted on AGLCA’s Digest.

If this is your first trip from Marco to the Keys, I recommend coming out Capri pass and proceeding south. Going the back way is a little shorter, but MUCH shallower and requires you to pay close attention. The Cape Romano shoals are the first area you need to avoid, so look at your chart and plot your course accordingly. Depending on your speed, you should consider an overnight and Little Shark River (marked by a Green 1 on a 16 ft. pole) is a well protected anchorage. Depending on wind conditions, you may want to go further up river to use the mangroves to break the wind and waves. It is plenty deep quite a ways in so you should not have a hard time finding a suitable spot. Just be aware of small fishing boats zipping by so make sure you are well lit at night. For a general route, try to stay outside the boundaries of Everglades National Park. You will notice what looks like I-beams marking the park boundaries. Inside the park boundaries, you will have less crab traps to negotiate, but the tradeoff is that the water is much shallower. So much so that I had to shut off my depth alarm as it was constantly in alarm mode, but we never touched bottom. There is one place on the chart that you must observe. I don’t know the name of the banks on either side, but it is called the “yacht channel” and is a fairly narrow opening in the bank where you make a sort of S turn. It is clearly marked on the charts. There are a number of places to cross over from Florida Bay to the Atlantic such as Channel 5, Seven mile bridge, and others depending on where you are going. When we last did the trip, we went straight to Islamorada to visit friends so we skipped Marathon. Have a fun and safe trip.
Dave & Nan Ellen Fuller
WACI 3

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Marco Island

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Islamorado