As some of you already know, we were originally scheduled to spend a good part of our 30-day vacation traveling to Key West with our US 30', Wu-Wei. Unfortunately, after 4 rough days at sea with worse conditions looming, we headed back home, and decided to drive to Key West NAS to stay on the hard for a week instead...
While chilling in our $90-a-night 3-bedroom-condo within walking distance of Duval, we were plagued by terrible sunburn following a day at the Dry Tortugas (we got there on via charter boat- rough seas, too.) What's a burned-crunchy red sailor to do? Heck, we'll check out what could have been our dock.
I am not going to lie- really wasn't expecting much. My dock on a nice USAF military base is sub-par, and these Navy people were only going to charge me $25 a night with power and water for a dock. The base, (KWNAS consisits of several locations) was a typical old, run down Navy base. So, I wasn't expecting much for a marina....
WTF?!? Is THIS an actual military-base marina?!?! I've been to many a marina- THIS is the BEST marina I have ever seen in my entire life. There are million-dollar boats there. The water is CLEAR. Each cement dock (with cement pilings) have power and water. There is a nice dinghy dock, a restaurant/bar with $1 beer specials,laundry, showers, diesel, and a pumpout. But wait, there are mobile pumpout carts you can use, along with regular gear carts. There was even a private sand beach on the other side of the clubhouse! Had I died and gone to heaven? Why did we not have our cameras with us that day? Most boats at the docks made Wu-Wei look like a dinghy. We saw huge fish, jellyfish and tropical fish as clear as day swim along the live reef that hugged the marina.
If you are active-duty military or even carry the blue retiree card, and are a cruiser, you must definitely make this marina a stop. I have never seen anything like it- let alone on a military base! Sure, here in Tampa, we have brand-new docks- and yet, our marina looks like the ghetto compared the Boca Chica! Great facilities, docks, and location!
Chris
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