Planning to cruise from Pensacola to Keys

[jecaperton]

Good morning all.

My wife and I are planning our inaugural cruise from Pensacola to Key West in May. Having never done this, does anyone have some tips and advice as to duration and places to overnight? Is (for planning purposes) 3 days enough time to get down there or is 4 or 5 more the standard?

We have heard that the typical first stop is Tarpon Springs for the first night and that is a good distance away. It appears that we would be spending a good deal of time cutting the corner which could be fun, but wanted to see if that was the best way.

Thanks all and please understand that I am still learning all that I do not know. There is a whole lot of that.

Jim and Catherine

[bud37]

Heh there......If you have very little experience with this boat out in the gulf, perhaps a wise choice would be to stick to the coast for the first while, get to know your boat.......Panama city beach. Port St joe, Appalchicola then cut the bend to Tampa. I am guessing you have been to these places, but sometimes by water things are much different.

Get some up to date charting/ reports for that area considering the shoaling changes....perhaps some local reports.

Just my opinion and what I would consider based on knowledge and experience.......good luck, be safe and have fun.

[jecaperton]

Agree wholeheartedly with the advice. We are getting more and more experience daily with systems and local spots thanks to other boaters we are friends with.

PCB and Apalachicola are also on our list of places to get too in the near future.

[RGrew176]

Sounds like you have a lot of great and hopefully fun trips ahead. Keep us in the loop and we love pics.

[quickdecision]

Recommend getting Aqua Maps loaded onto your tablet, with Master Lic. Lots of shoaling. Gets updated daily. Chartplotter is passive, with out dated charts. The tablet is live.

Ron