Why is the bluewater so blue?

A while ago, I asked why the water down here in the ocean is so intensely dark blue.  Got the answer from Mark & Diana Doyle's "Managing the Waterway - Florida Keys" cruising guide (p. UK-53):

Paraphrasing: These waters are an underwater desert.  The water is nutrient-poor, with relatively little planktonic food, so the water is transparent.  The water reflects the blue of the sky, but not the green of the planktons, and therefore the water is blue but not blue-green.

And that's why tropical seas are so blue. [Unless someone has a better idea.]

Fort Lauderdale pictures - not at the beach

bird on the dock

bird on the boat

Fort Lauderdale - "main street" from the 17th Street Bridge

Commuting vehicle parked next to boat -
bought a new water hose and a fishing spear

s/v-Ihana from the Las Olas Bridge

s/v Ihana and some of her neighbors
at the Las Olas Marina, Fort Lauderdale, FL

That girl in the kayak, again

Onward to the Florida Keys

Tentative voyage plan –

Tuesday, February 5 - leave Fort Lauderdale, sail outside on the ocean to Miami, then inside on Key Biscayne and Florida Bay side of the Keys

    Possible overnight anchorages:

Fisher Island or Miami Marine Stadium (or Hurricane Hole, or No Name Harbor)

Pumpkin Key in Card Sound

Tarpon Basin or Sunset Cove

Barley Basin, outside of Little Basin

Channel 5, Oceanside or Bayside (depends on wind)

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon

May arrive in Marathon by the end of the week or thereabouts.  Maybe.

Ilona got a kayak

and red hair!  now she can solo, off the mother ship, without needing to take the husband.  But I still get the dinghy - less tippy, bigger motor, much faster and less work to run it.

We are still in Fort Lauderdale.  Great place.  Marina is 3 short blocks to the beach - it's like Spring Break here.  Lots of restaurants, sun, sand, waves, bikinis, and a good wife to keep me out of trouble.  Biking, walking, good buses and trolley, shopping, and more.  F.L. is a great town!


Headed south to the Keys, sometime - maybe this weekend?

Blue Water

From Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, the Gulf Stream is only a few miles offshore.  We followed the 50 foot contour (approximately), staying only a mile or so off the shore.  A mile or so farther out, the depth drops to a hundred feet (or much more) - here the Gulf Stream has a couple of knot northerly current, so we didn't want to be out there when heading south.

The water is incredibly blue here.  I didn't think that it could be that deep blue in that close to shore, or in water that shallow. I have seen it before, notably in the center of the Gulf Stream, much farther out.

Does anyone know what causes this color?

Beautiful!

Bluewater, in the Atlantic off of Boca Raton, Florida

down to Fort Lauderdale

Two days out on the Atlantic, moving down from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale.  Some motor-sailing with tailwinds on 1/25, tricky entrance into Hillsboro Inlet that afternoon.  Highest concentration of [expletive-deleted] motorboats; hard enough to make it into the narrow channel without these nuts flying by at high speed and higher wakes.  Great day sailing.  Marina was a new-worst-ever: would not talk on VHF or cellphone, then pointed us down a fairway between slips that was only slightly wider than our boat length - tried to turn around and/or make it into a slip; couldn't.  We got the hell out of there and anchored for the night.

January 25

January 26

Bobby sailing on the Atlantic - on his birthday!

Leaving Palm Beach, headed south on the Atlantic

Next day, a short 10 mile run down to Fort Lauderdale.  Very wide, 50' deep entrance channel.  Some cruise boats here are larger than most upscale hotels!  Got a terrific slip right here, only 3 block walk over to F.L. Beach - looks like Spring Break here.  A lot of fun, fantastic weather.  Will stay for awhile.

Fort Lauderdale Beach - perfect weather and scenery

Ilona & Bob at Fort Lauderdale Beach

Jan and Lynn drove over from Naples yesterday.  They are at the Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina hotel; nice warm pool there.  This was after eating in a bar & grill near the beach, and walking over to the beach.  What a perfect day!!!  They will be with us again this afternoon, then driving back to their 5th-wheel in Naples.

Fort Lauderdale Inlet from the Hilton Marina Hotel (10th floor)