[Ron Reefman]

Wednesday was considerably more windy, so we didn't use the Zodiac, in fact, we didn't even go snorkeling. We did go to Spanish Harbor Key again. The intention was to look for an easy way into the water on the other side of the island from the Horseshoe (the south side at the northeast end of the island). Last time we went there the rocky entry to the water was totally covered in seaweed so it was hard to see where to walk. This time the rocks were totally clear and even finding a path of higher, dry rocks around the tidal pools was easy. BTW, the tide pools were full of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of tiny black shell cerith snails. But the ESE wind was really stirring things up, so there was little point to getting in the water.

The Florida Parks & REc people have been busy in the area as well. There is now an asphalt path (bike path?) that goes down to the northeast end of the island and wraps around under the US-1 bridge and back over to the Horseshoe parking area. There is a cool foot bridge that runs up high along the side of the road, above the mangroves on that side. I'll post some photos when we get home.

We also considered putting the boat in at Bahia Honda's boat ramp and going to the northwest side (leeward) of the island. The Google map looks promising. We stopped at the end of the bridge and looked out that way. It may have been OK, but we decided to not get wet. However, we did note that there were an extremely high number of crab pots in a relatively small area just off that side of the island. That really makes me think that it could be worth a look next time we come down.