Any day in the Florida Keys is a good day, but three sunny warm days in this tropical island paradise at the height of a cold North American winter, can only be described as priceless. This annual migration of FPC members from as far north as Canada (understandably so), the U.S midwest, and the snow-slammed Northeast, always seems to remind the Florida residents how lucky they are to live in and be surrounded by twelve months of summer. About a dozen powerboats of all descriptions gathered at SeaIsle Marina in Miami, as seventy five participants fired their engines for the Florida Powerboat Club’s first powerboating event of the 2011 calendar year.
With smaller groups, also comes new opportunities to visit some of the quaint backwater destinations that afford only limited dockage, and Alabama Jacks was selected as the lunch stopover, where a dozen or so boats can raft up comfortably. While it’s certainly not the ideal poker run checkpoint for the larger, mainstream poker runs staged by FPC, the charming and certainly rustic atmosphere was new to many, and a welcome change. Better mark that one on the GPS for a future visit!
Continuing on through Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada, taking the back waters of Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, the poker run boats eventually settled at Hawks Cay Resort & Marina, located on Duck Key, just a few miles northeast of Marathon. Large spacious cottages featured luxurious decor and furnishings, and many guests were able to dock their boats directly in front of their very own villas. How’s that for carrying the wife’s fifty pound suitcase? A party at the FPC Cottage got everyone together Friday evening, followed by dinner and cocktails at the newly remodeled TOMS HARBOR Restaurant, which had been converted to a more family-friendly format since our last visit. Of course it wasn’t long, before the group assembled in the adjacent lounge, or took a lounge chair on the patio to smoke a cigar and sip scotch.
Saturday offered beautiful weather, as three or four boats and their crews teamed up for a morning launch for the sixty five mile run to Key West, while most of the remaining boats made a shorter daytrip to the local hotspot, Burdines Waterfront on the Boot Key Channel in Marathon. No matter which destination, light winds and calm seas made for the perfect journey in any direction. The weekend continued with great food, fun, and a social vibe among like-minded folks, who were just happy to be anywhere, but back at home, shoveling snow!
Stu Jones