Largo Sound

Largo Sound is the water behind Key Largo, and the whole of it belongs to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The park is open 365 days a year from 8 a.m. until sunset, with its headquarters on the south-west side of the sound and the visitor centre open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Staying on board is provided for: dock slips in the marina, mooring buoys in the sound, and – according to the park's own boat-camping page – anchoring overnight in Largo Sound.

How large the park is depends on which of its pages you read: one gives 70 nautical square miles, another about 72 square nautical miles. Both figures come from the operator, so both stand here and we do not pick one.

The way in is a dredged channel from Hawk Channel through South Sound Creek, running 0.3 mile into the sound, with coral rock on both sides and sharp bends. The Coast Pilot calls the entrance difficult and narrow and notes that it fills with southerly winds. Inside, the sound measures about 1.8 by 0.8 nm, and depths run from 1 to 6 ft.

The Marvin D. Adams Waterway cuts across Key Largo at the north end; the 14 ft given for it is the clearance under its bridges, not a depth. Depths and clearances change – the current chart decides, not this page.

A slip or a mooring buoy is arranged with the dockmaster at the dive shop. The park's fee list gives a boat camping unit at $36 a night plus tax, with a non-refundable reservation fee of $6.70 and a utility fee of $7 a night. The boat ramp is $10 per vessel and day use only, and takes most boats up to 36 ft.

Coming by road, entry is $8 per vehicle plus 50 cents per person, or $2.50 per person on foot.

The dive shop is the centre of things: the dockmaster sits there, and it has rentals and air fills. There are outdoor showers, with tickets sold at the ranger station, two washing machines and two dryers in the campground, and the Blue Heron Café for food. Paddling trails run through the mangroves and in the sound itself.