We’re on a Boat… in Islamorada

We had decided the night before to book a glass bottom boat trip out of Robbie’s, our apparent favorite place in the upper Keys, today. We figured since there were boats going out at noon and at 3pm, we would be better off with the heat on the 3 o’clock one. So we were in no rush to get up and out. We didn’t get out of the house until about 1:30 or so, up until then we were just chillin. Then, once it was time, we put the top down on the Mustang and headed south to Robbie’s. Once we got there, I found out that AMT was canceling the show that was to be on Sunday. So once we arrived at Robbie’s, Kacie went over to the dock to tell them we were here and I made some calls canceling everything I had set up for that show.

When Kacie came back to find me, on the phone by the car, she told me that the lady that signed her in was very nice and was showing her some pictures from the noon boat run and how clear the water was. Kacie was very excited and talked to her for a second about how she was looking forward to it. This will be important later.

I wrapped up my calls and we both headed to the dock. We sat on the dock for a minute watching people feed the Tarpon, until the first mate, named Abigail, found us and told us we’d be boarding in a minute. As it turned out, it would just be Kacie and I, along with a couple from the UK with a few kids. A total of seven people on the boat. Nice.

The captain, Jenna, gave us the safety rundown and we quickly headed out to sea. It was about a 20 minute cruise out to the first spot we would be viewing the sea life at, Yellow Reef.

On the way out we spotted a few dolphins, one with a baby.

Once we got to the reef, we pretty much stopped to view the sea life around. Jenna moved us around here and there when we saw something cool, while Abigail told us what we were seeing and other interesting little reef tidbits. Kacie had her good camera out and used it…

This is the dolphin with the baby

After we hung out on the reef for a while, we took off to our next stop, Alligator Reef Lighthouse, which is not named that because there are alligators out there. It was actually named after a Navy ship named the Alligator. The reef there is also called Alligator Reef. The lighthouse has been there since 1873, and has taken 100 foot waves. The keeper even lived through it by hiding in the base of the lighthouse. It’s no longer manned, but is a favorite with boaters and snorkelers.

It’s pretty shallow here, only about 10 feet, and is a protected area of the ocean. Because of this, there are many tropical fish, nurse sharks, stingrays, and protected corals out there. We did see a nurse shark, sea turtles, and many tropical fish. We learned that there are a couple kinds of sea turtle out there. One is a Green Sea Turtle, which is what Kacie and I thought of as a Sea Turtle. Another is the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, which has a huge head. Damn thing looked like a dinosaur, which i guess it kind of is.

Not the best pictures through the boat but you get the idea

After we floated around the lighthouse for a while, chasing various interesting sea creatures, Abigail came up to us and told us that the owner of the boat, the lady Kacie checking in with and talked to for a minute before we went out, wanted to offer us a buy one get one free deal for the night boat trip. Sounded like Kacie made an impression. She wanted to offer the trip to us because we seemed like we were really into it. We were, and decided to take them up on it. This one left the dock at 8:30pm.

On the way back to Robbie’s, we did see a few more interesting fish, and then a couple sea turtles mating. Apparently the male wasn’t thrilled with us watching, and actually took off pretty quickly toward the boat. He obviously wasn’t going to attack or anything, but it was cool to see him fly through the water towards us.

You can see the turtle’s flippers

Once we docked, we told the ladies that we would be back, and then had to decide what we would do in the meantime. We could’ve come back to the house, we had enough time, but we instead figured we’d get something to eat at a dockside spot named Wahoo’s. We sat on the deck, right beside the water where boats were coming in and out. Kacie had a BLT with some fish in it, and I had a burger. We both got drinks figuring we had enough time in-between where we wouldn’t have to worry about getting sea-sick. We didn’t. We sat there for a minute, killing time, then headed back to Robbie’s at about 6:45. Jenna had told us to be back around 8, and if everyone was there, we would head out early.

This was a bigger trip, with a total of about 14 people on the boat. We didn’t really head out much earlier than 8:30 and the sun was still setting to the west. It was a pretty nice sunset, Kacie took many pictures.

This boat trip would hit the same places we had hit in the afternoon, only at night with lights illuminating the bottom. Which was cool since we could compare the day and night at the same spots. Abigail told us that at night we would see more turtles, crustaceans, and sharks, now that the smaller fish had hid themselves once it got dark. There were also so many flying fish at night, they were everywhere around us flying through the air and cruising by the bottom windows.

Again, we first hit Yellow Reef, followed by Alligator Reef. We did see a couple Nurse Sharks, Stingrays, both kinds of sea turtle, and a bunch of lobsters. Along with a few fish different from the ones we saw during the day. It was a different experience, and we were glad we came back at night. Also, were weren’t going to turn down a deal.

This is a female, you can tell because it doesn’t have a tail.

Lobster

To top it all off, on the way back to Robbie’s, Jenna pointed out what she first thought was Starlink. It turned out to be a pretty large drone show somewhere north of Islamorada. We watched the drone show as we traveled back. In the dark, there isn’t much else to see other than the light on shore while you’re moving that fast through the water. The show seemed to end right about when we got back to the dock, so it was some nice entertainment for the trip.

We got back to the car, dropped the top, and headed back to our place. It was nice to cruise up 1 at night with the top down. However, it’s just not as special of a drive without being about to see the blue-green water all around you. The next day would be our last full day here, and we figured we would just chill out and do nothing, which is pretty abnormal for us. But we both kind of wanted it. The day after will be an 18 or so hour drive home.