We left Indian Key around 10:30am and sailed for a couple of hours to Panther Key. This area of the Everglades is called the “10,000 Islands” and there are literally 10,000 islands. Some as small as one single tree. A ‘key’ is a small, low-elevation, sandy island. In this area most of them are covered in mangroves and inaccessible, but towards the Gulf, sand is able to build up around the edges. We were lucky in that it was chilly by Florida standards. Plenty warm for us, but the mosquitoes stayed in hiding.

Panther Key and the surrounding area had tons of small beaches. We were so excited we forgot the put fuel in the outboard and ran out of gas after arriving at our first beach. We got to row back to the boat against wind and the outgoing tide. But the beach was great. This area also has some of the best shelling in the US.