It’s been about ten years since I sat down with an idea that had been rolling around my head for years. At the time I was a full-time general contractor and single parent. I’d learned to cater my business to my daughter’s needs, but between working and shuttling her to school, basketball, and everything else, I had little time. That all changed when she got her driver’s license.
Steve, I used to live in Marathon from 1983-1993. I commercial fished all over the area you write about in the Mac Travis series. In fact I remember a time we anchored in the lee side of Upper Harbor Key while we rode out a nasty squall.
There still may be a little-known unmarked channel in the National Key Deer Refuge area. It was marked, as you often describe, with nothing more than a PVC pole driven into the sand, with a bleach jug stuck on top of it. The water was always churned up in that pass, so you had to know which side of the stick had enough water to run in; the bad side would ground you even at high tide--the good side would float you--if you could fly through it drawing less than two feet of water.
Back then that pass was know as The Box, and if you were running out of Marathon towards the Harbor Keys, it could knock about an hour of running off the gas bill.
I have really enjoyed reading about Mac and Tru. For those who've never lived in the Keys, the guys and gals in the stories are an accurate description of the Conch's who live down there. It really is the most unique place in the lower forty-eight.
Please drop me a line at lawdigger@gmail.com, and I'll send you delicious recipe I developed for Mahi Mahi, or as those in the know still call it--dolphin.
PS. If you're ever diving off of Upper Harbor Key in about twenty feet of water, and you find an Uncle Henry, 3.5 inch lock back knife with buckhorn handle...it's mine. I drooped it there one cold March morning while I was under the boat cutting a wad of trap rope that was wrapped around the propellor.
Steve, I used to live in Marathon from 1983-1993. I commercial fished all over the area you write about in the Mac Travis series. In fact I remember a time we anchored in the lee side of Upper Harbor Key while we rode out a nasty squall.
There still may be a little-known unmarked channel in the National Key Deer Refuge area. It was marked, as you often describe, with nothing more than a PVC pole driven into the sand, with a bleach jug stuck on top of it. The water was always churned up in that pass, so you had to know which side of the stick had enough water to run in; the bad side would ground you even at high tide--the good side would float you--if you could fly through it drawing less than two feet of water.
Back then that pass was know as The Box, and if you were running out of Marathon towards the Harbor Keys, it could knock about an hour of running off the gas bill.
I have really enjoyed reading about Mac and Tru. For those who've never lived in the Keys, the guys and gals in the stories are an accurate description of the Conch's who live down there. It really is the most unique place in the lower forty-eight.
Please drop me a line at lawdigger@gmail.com, and I'll send you delicious recipe I developed for Mahi Mahi, or as those in the know still call it--dolphin.
PS. If you're ever diving off of Upper Harbor Key in about twenty feet of water, and you find an Uncle Henry, 3.5 inch lock back knife with buckhorn handle...it's mine. I drooped it there one cold March morning while I was under the boat cutting a wad of trap rope that was wrapped around the propellor.