Its
all in the name after all. After looking at the chart of Biscayne
Bay Jan noticed Elliott Key at southern end of bay. She was looking
for a way to leave Biscayne Bay and access the Hawke Channel without
going back out Government Cut. Just south of Elliott Key is Caesar's
Creek. Locals assured us that it was passable despite the charts
showing only 4 feet MLW (mean low water). They also raved about how
beautiful it was. It is also a national park. It was designated so
in 1964 after a bitter fight with developers.
However,
Jan had a more compelling reason to want to explore this place. You
see, her maiden name was Elliott. Elliott is spelled several
different ways, but Elliotts with two L's and two T's stick together. We had to see this island and find out
about Mr. Elliott. Here the story takes an unusual twist. No one
knows anything about Mr. Elliott. There is no official story posted
at the Ranger Station. The volunteers at the Ranger Station did not
know who the island was named after. There was a long story about the
Sweeting family who homesteaded the island in the 1880's and grew
pineapples, but no Mr. Elliott. Later I went deep into Google (about
10 pages) and found a newspaper article from the 1970s that posed the
same question. The enterprising reporter could not find a Mr. Elliott
anywhere in the historical record. But he did find a Mr. Endicott,
who surveyed the island in the 1740's. He surmised that over the many
years Endicott evolved into Elliott.
White
Pepper motored across Biscayne Bay on a lovely afternoon in order
to charge the batteries. We dropped anchor about a mile off shore in
7 feet of water. This place is shallow!
Happy after finishing the anchor drill
The
next day we headed into to explore the island. The only practical
access to the island is at the Ranger Stations, one on the west and
one on Caesar's Creek on the southern edge of the key. A dense
mangrove forest grows right to the water's edge.
The water reminded us so much of the Bahamas
A very happy Elliott
After
a look around the empty marina and ranger station we struck out
across the island to the Atlantic. Along the way we came across
Spite Highway.This is now a hiking trail maintained by the park. But
in 1964 it was a 6 lane highway bulldozed through the island by
developers at the last minutes to try to forestall the government
from seizing the key.
Spite Highway
The
Atlantic is always wonderful! We were surprised at how small and
rocky the “main” beach was. Jan and I ate our sandwiches and
wondered what life must have been like for the Sweeting family 150
years ago. Mosquitoes were an issue so we were soon back to boat.
Looking out over the Atlantic and the Hawke Channel
The
next morning brought the transit of Caesar's Creek. Caesar was an
escaped slave who set up a pirate business in the creek in the 1840s.
It sounds so romantic; however, Caesar's method was to hide in the
mangroves until someone came by, then he would murder them all before
robbing the corpses. I guess this gruesome detail is why he is not
mentioned along with Black Beard and Captain Morgan.
Caesar's Creek
White
Pepper waited until an hour
before high tide to begin. At the western (bayside) entrance to the
creek I saw 5.4 feet on the depth sounder. The Garmin predicted 1.8
feet of tide at that time. The moon was full so the tides were
higher than average. Thus it seems that the controlling depth for
Caesar's Creek is 3.6 feet MLW. Once past the western bar the creek
was deep and as beautiful as advertised. One small note: the channel
extends about 3 miles into the Atlantic and there is shallow coral
all the out alongside of the channel. Finally , White
Pepper bear away and set sail
for Rodriquez Key. Unbelievably, this was the first time we had set
sail since leaving Green Cove Springs in November.
