Elliott Key

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.