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Feb. 2 – Key Largo, FL

Blackwater Sound – Anchorage

“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.” ―Robert Henri

We're moving up the Keys. Our day started in Islamorada enjoying our coffee on the flybridge...our favorite way to begin our day. Our next stop was Key Largo. We anchored in Blackwater Sound and took our dinghy through the cut to Largo Sound and John Pennekamp State Park. Pennekamp offers snorkeling trips and glass bottom boat rides out to the reefs, but the park also provides mooring balls at the best sights so private boats can stop and snorkel. We’d love to visit some of those sights one day, but the Atlantic was a little too rough and the water a little too chilly for us today.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was established in 1963 as the first undersea park in the United States. The park and the adjacent Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, it covers approximately 178 nautical square miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamps. It extends 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is approximately 25 miles in length. These areas were established to protect and preserve a portion of the only living coral reef in the continental United States.

We wandered around the park and went through the visitor center and aquarium, it would be a great place to visit in an RV but we both were glad we anchored in Blackwater Sound instead of staying in the park.  After visiting the park we did a little more exploring in the sound before we stopped at Sundowners for an afternoon snack. We spent the evening enjoying a nice dinner onboard with a great view of the sunset. It felt wonderful to be swinging on the hook.
Our morning view
The Marvin D. Adams Waterway that runs between Blackwater Sound and Largo Sound
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
A few of the tanks at the aquarium 
Sundowners in Key Largo 
Our afternoon snack at Sundowners
Our evening view...the Key Largo Marriott on one side and a beautiful sunset on the other

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