March 22, 2009 Sunday: Bahia Honda Key

With the small craft warning still in effect this morning, we opted to stay on the boat for our worship time this Sunday morning and connected to the wireless internet podcast from our home church, Trinity Baptist in Raleigh. We heard Dr Robert’s Lenten sermon from John 2:13-22, the topic – a soul searching challenge to separate your life from tolerating your own sins. It was good to hear his voice and message. Since the pod cast does not include any music, we tuned into the satellite station with some praise music and sang along with Oh Lord, Our Lord, How Majestic is your Name in All the Earth. With the choppiness of the waves, Tom got a shower on the bow pulling up the anchor.

We decided we wanted to find better shelter for tonight, so Tom found the course towards Marathon were we could pass under the Seven Mile Bridge to the Atlantic side of the Keys. We found the passage quite rough with 5 – 8 foot seas through the green white capped surf. We passed under both the old bridge and the new high bridge. From the south side of the islands, we could enter the Bahia Honda State Park. We found their small harbor with several sailboats already anchored there and proceeded inside to the boat basin and are docked there for the night. It feels good to be out of the wind.

We visited the small nature center in the park near the beach. This state park includes 524 acres and some of the Key’s most beautiful white sandy beaches. The geological formation of Bahia Honda is Key Largo limestone. It is derived from prehistoric coral reef similar to the present day living reefs of the Keys, exposed by a drop in the sealevel. On our walk around the park, we found a sample of the stone with petrified coral formations in a butterfly garden near the marina. The park is the home to a rare butterfly, the tiny Miami Blue whose wing span is less than 1 inch. We joked walking through the garden that the butterflies would have to have pretty strong wings to hang in this wind. The park also has one of the largest remaining stands of the threatened silver palm trees in the US.

We also walked up on the old remaining section of bridge that we came by on our way in to the marina. Henry Flagler built a railroad from Miami to the deep water port of Key West beginning in 1905 and completing in 1912. This railroad later became a highway and the old train bridge which became the old two lane road has been preserved as an observation pier. It gave us a beautiful vantage point to see our boat in the basin beyond the beach and to watch the sailboats coming in for refuge. The big green schooner was obviously the host to a group of young people who were going snorkeling in the inlet between the new and old bridges.