Marina Review: Key West Harbor Yacht Club

The Key West Harbor Yacht Club on Stock Island is approximately 3 years old and very, very nice.  We were able to get the same monthly fee as the other marina, but it's 10 times nicer.

It has a small convenience store and dockmasters office--but that's not what makes it nice.

It has a club house with restaurant and lounge--but that's not the best part.

It has it's own pool and little private beach--but still not the best part.

It has a Tiki bar for members to use--still not the best part.

It has these open air showers on the point that are absolutely divine.  After several hours wrestling with batteries, inflatable dinghies, no shore power and assorted nonsense. Taking a shower with a hot water rain head, large stall and a view of the water with the sea breezes blowing over you--well, it's just about as close to a religious experience that you can have.

The shower/bath out on the outer basin is also a tiki hut, my one complaint is that the actual bathroom part is poorly lit and has no ventilation, so the feeling of suffocation happens quickly. It looks like it's set up to have a/c added, so maybe they'll do that one day.  Absolutely no complaints about those showers though, but I'm sure they could be a bit nippy on a cold day.

The staff there was really nice, including the cast of thousands that came jetting out to us when we were having shore power problems.  Even our boat neighbors were nice and friendly, maybe too friendly for Tim since there were two ladies chatting it up about 20 feet from where he was taking a shower with only the bamboo screen as privacy.

If Southwest makes my dream come true and takes over AirTran's route into Key West, this will be a definite option for us, it's about 10 min from the airport.

It's also in the direct path of the Key West NAS, so it's rather alarming to hear the jets go screaming by, because you don't hear them coming. However, I like the fighter jets so I don't mind.

Entrance from channel showing club house and small beach area

The entrance into the Harbor, and the one time that ignorance is bliss.
Evidently, the channel is dredged to around 7 feet, however, the
charts are not updated to reflect this and we had more than one
sphincter moment on approach.