Over the six or so weeks that Eitan and I spent working on Puffin Quest while docked in Jupiter, Florida, we did manage to get away for a couple weekends. Eitan got his private pilot license last year, before leaving for Mexico, and was eager to get some more hours under his belt while we were in the land of airports (America). In the US alone, there are almost 20,000 airports, including over 5,000 public airports, and 500 commercial airports. By comparison, in the entire world, there are only around 17,000 commercial airports. So, with a plane rented for the weekend, the world was our oyster. However, based on the size of the gas tank of the plane, our “oyster” was limited to south Florida.
Eitan and I got to researching potential places to stay overnight on our weekend getaway and the Florida Keys became the obvious preferred destination. Based on weekend hotel prices in the Keys, we began looking elsewhere and considered staying overnight in Miami or Okeechobee instead. With limitations to international travel and COVID testing requirements to reenter the US, the Keys had received a huge boost in tourism and hotels were regularly selling out. As a result, most 3- and 4-star hotels were in the $800-$1200 per night range. Although the prices were ridiculous, we didn’t want to cut our memorable weekend in the Keys short just because we were too cheap to get a room. In the end, we decided to shell out the ridiculous $300/night to stay in a 2-star motel on Marathon Key, which was the cheapest accommodation we could find. Luckily, Marathon Key also has an airport, making it easy for us to transit through as we flew south.
On the morning of our flight, Eitan and I took an Uber to a nearby small airport about 30 minutes away. In order to rent the plane, Eitan needed to prove he could actually fly it. So, he arranged for the instructor to meet us at the nearby airport and Eitan would do his check flight on the way to Ft. Lauderdale, where the plane is normally kept at the flight school. The first flight went smoothly and we dropped off the instructor and took off heading south towards Miami.
While Eitan was preoccupied with not hitting any other planes or buildings, I was tasked with taking pictures and not talking. As we passed through the Miami Airport airspace, Eitan was required to drop us down to 500 feet where we were cruising along the coastline with the other planes, some of them flying banners over the beach. I was a little uncomfortable as we passed beachfront hotels, who’s roofs were higher than we were flying. Once we cleared the Miami airspace, we ascended back up to 1,500 feet where we would spend the rest of the trip.
I think it’s amazing to see anything from the perspective of a small plane, but seeing the Keys from this vantage was incredible. The Florida Keys are comprised of about 1,700 individual islands, but only a handful house any kind of population. The notoriously shallow water and sandy bottom creates a beautiful turquoise blue that outlines each of the islands. As we flew by, we could see the trails where ships had accidentally run aground trying to navigate between the islands. I used my phone to track which Key we were closest to and The Beach Boys’ song “Kokomo” popped into my head as we flew over Key Largo.
Soon enough we were approaching Marathon Key and Eitan was communicating with the tower to coordinate our arrival. Despite the gusty cross winds, Eitan landed us safely and we taxied over to refuel and get the plane stored for the night. The airport shuttle dropped us off at the nearby motel which wouldn’t let us check in for a couple more hours, so we dropped our stuff and walked to a local restaurant to wait out the time. Once we were able to check into the room, we took a taxi to Sombrero Beach, then headed over to Sweet Savannah’s to try their famous key lime pie, which originated in the Keys.
The next morning, we headed back to the Marathon airport and departed west to finish our trip over the archipelago. Since the Key West airport is the most southern airport in the continental US, Eitan wanted to do a touch-and-go there just to check it off his bucket list. I was excited for this as well, but as a civil engineer, I was personally looking forward to, and most interested in, flying over the Seven Mile Bridge just west of Marathon Key. It was amazing to see the engineering feet of constructing such a long bridge between islands.
We did our touch-and-go in Key West then started heading back up the island chain and turned north once we were above Islamorada Key. The area between the populated islands of the Keys and the main land is almost impossible to get to by boat because the average water depth is typically less than three feet. There are no roads and I imagine the area could only be accessed by an airboat or seaplane, making it extra special to lay eyes on and see it from such a spectacular view point. We finally reached the southern tip of Florida, flew over the Everglades National Park, and headed back to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. Although it turned out to be an expensive weekend, seeing the Florida Keys by a small plane was a truly special experience and definitely fits well on the bucket list!
The following weekend was Memorial Day weekend and Eitan was scheduled to fly home for his dad’s birthday and a friend’s wedding. With Eitan out of town, I decided to take a trip to Tampa to visit my friend Lindsey, whom I sailed with in the Azores. Luckily, Amtrak has a line that runs from West Palm Beach to Tampa, so I hopped on the train to meet up with her for the holiday weekend. We had a lot of catching up to do and we went out for dinner, drinks, and live music on my first night in town. I was surprised to see such an up-and-coming city with so many cool restaurants and gathering places. The next day, some of her friends rented a center console boat and we took a trip up the Hillsborough River for a few hours. With a series of thunderstorms rolling in, the remainder of my time in Tampa was spent relaxing with Lindsey in her apartment and binge watching Below Deck. As lame as it sounds, a day of TV and takeout was exactly what I had been missing over the last seven months of boat life.
I’m happy to say I got to see a little bit of Florida before leaving the sunshine state!
