Has anyone ever sailed in the Cedar Key, FL area? I went there last weekend and could not take my boat. What a beautiful spot. Cedar Key has all the charms of the traditional "FL Keys" area, but without all the people. I here there is one island there, about 5 miles from the main key called North Key. North Key is supposed to have one of the most beautiful beaches in all of FL, and is only accessable by ultra shallow draft boats.

I had never heard of Cedar Key, and your post kind of threw me off when you made reference to the Florida Keys. I finally found it pretty far north on the west coast of Florida -- directly west of Ocala. Is that the place you are talking about? It looks like it would be peaceful, well off the beaten track. I hope somebody has information about it.

Gus, I have spent some time around the Cedar Key area, sailing and fishing.
In fact the Gainsville Fleet used to have Regattas there a few years back
and they had a 20mile distance race from Crystal River to Cedar Key.
It is a small fishing/boating town with lots of small, shallow waterways. There
are 'lots' of oyster bars and rocks close to shore. When sailing, you really need
to stay in the channels until you get offshore a ways, unless you know where you are
going. The water is not very clear around the shallow areas. There are no large condos
or hi-rise hotels. They do have a web-site with some info about the area.
Hope this helps.

Hi Gus,
Lots of cat sailing has happened around Cedar Key. I have helped run Hobie Points Regattas there, with up to 90 happy sailors. (Remember Points Regattas anyone?) We daysail every so often now, sometimes racing around 3 of the islands (no rules- go any way you want). There are yellow sandy deserted beaches on several of the south and west sides of the uninhabited keys offshore. Some, like Seahorse Key are official bird sanctuaries and offlimits to explore inshore. This is where the egrets, pelicans, diamondbacks, saltmarsh mosquitoes and horseflies live. Its best to visit these beautiful undeveloped beaches, pull the cat up for a while to picnic, and to shuffle your feet when swimming and wading so as to not step on any stingrays. (No jetskis will be appear to buzz your head!) Lots of rolling fish, leaping mullet, horseshoe crabs and big birds roosting in the trees. Then, typically, my wife scores a superb restaurant fish dinner while we have a cold beer and watch the sunset over the gulf, as there are no highrises in the way, and no traffic either. If several boats want to use the public beach, we ask the Mayor ahead of time by phone, and check in with THE Policeman. It is not called Florida's Nature Coast for nothing.

Dave Carlson, Commodore Hobie Fleet 153

That's right on - Dave, I was there two weeks ago for a big cookout in the Park.
I stayed in the Dockside Motel (on the dock), visited the L&M (you know the one).
Anyway, what are the chances of having another Regatta over there. I know
there has been a lot of changes, but we used to look forward to going over there
every spring.

Omigod, Dave:

You've given it away to the new generation! Tell them about the bad parts: the mosquitos, the shallow water, the islands, the black-tipped sharks swimming along with the boats, the currents faster than the wind, the warm water, the mediocre seafood restaurants (I'm not giving away my favorite), the surly policeman (the only on in town)....

Oh, Hell! I can't diss it enough to discourage anybody from coming over to our heaven.

It isn't just cat delight - nearly 100 shallow draft, small cruisers come there every year first weekend in May. See http://members.ij.net/wctss/wctss/index.htm for an entry to their web communications.

Murph asks an interesting question - could the few of us left in Fleet 153 put on some sort of event at Cedar Key?

Sharks?

I'm so there.

From Buffett's song -- "Travis McGee's still in Cedar Key, that what John MacDonald said"

John MacDonald did write some books about his main character Travis McGee from Cedar Key. Try "The Quick Red Fox".

Just a little trivia......

Cedar Key is a popular stopping off place for cruisers going from northwest Florida down south, and back. It's a relatively short straight shot across open water from Apalachicola / St. Marks to Cedar Key avoiding the shallow water and the Big Bend, while minimizing time off shore. Should see a lot of cruisers this time of the year.

I agree, a great place to sail around, but like it was said earlier, stay in the channel until you get off shore, away from the oyster beds. And don't ever jump off your boat barefooted if you run aground!

Don

I just picked up my brand spanking new Wave yesterday and me and the whole fam damnly went out last night in the Indian River near Titusville. We had a ball. The entire time, my thoughts were lingering back to Cedar Key and the great time Sandy (my GF) and I had there - we wern't sailing that weekend, because we were boatless. The best we did was take the pay charter ($15) around the islands. What a trip! Seahorse Key was beautiful as described in one of these replies. I heard North Key is the most beautiful place in Florida, but is so shallow no one can go there. I wonder if my Wave could make it? Thanks for the replies everyone.

Gus
Titusville, FL

The Wave should do fine there at CK, but PLEASE go out when there is a breeze. Also note that there is a lot of water that ebbs out the deep channels (-> west) between the islands then floods in (east <-) with tide changes. All the islands there have a shoal side and a deep-water side. It is fun to hunt for them.

Note true sailing story from about 1985- a fellow, girl and dog went out from CK on a Sunfish, and say they were "carried out by the tide": Three (3) days later someone found them floating helplessly and towed them back to CK, somewhat the worse for sun and wear. I still think this was very wierd... but some people really can't figure out how to make sailboats go. However, LOTS fewer sailors have died at sea very near CK in the last 50 years (0), than stinkboaters (~25), or inhabitants of fragile aluminum flying machines that were temporarily in the air off the end of the airstrip before crashing (maybe 25), including 2 friends of mine. A Dangerous business - not-sailing!

What would be the best time of year to visit this area? I really want to do more sailing/camping. I rarely camp out on the islands in the summer though, as the mosquitos are truly unbearable at night.

This is the best time of year. Before the afternoon storms start up. I do a lot of camping not far from the mainland on islands and we do not have any florida birds (skeeters). They are only a problem where there is fresh water lying around. We do get noseeums but thats only when there is no breeze and during sunrise and sunset for about an hour or so. If you can get away from the mainland you should be OK.(hopefully)

Mike

The sandflies are out now on the Florida west coast in and near salt marsh and beaches: this is NOT a trivial problem or a joke. This means you MUST have and use repellent, because both male and female Culicoides mississippiensis (properly called biting midges) can walk thru normal mosquito netting on a tent to bite you. The netting that they CANNOT get thru also does not pass much air, meaning heavy night sweats in a tent. When I said many mosquitoes live happily on the wild birds nesting on the offshore islands at CK, I meant it. Dr. Dan Kline at my USDA lab has just finished a successful experiment with an grid of propane-powered CO2-producing mosquito traps inland across uninhabited Atsena Otie Key to reduce the heavy mossie population. How does a liter of dead mosquitoes per day per trap sound? Stay on the beach!

I was wondering just how well those mosquito traps work that use Co2 to attract mosquitos away from you.

From now until August you had better get there before 7 AM or after 2 PM if you want a parking spot. Oh yeah, you have to pay $10 to launch. You probably don't have to pay for a sailboat if you lauch from the beach, but if you don't have receipt hanging from your rear view mirror and you are parked anywhere within 15 miles of the city limits you will probably get a ticket! Once away from the city, it is an awesome place for sailing!