07/03/2019
On the last day of June 2019, I ran my final sunset trip from Sundowners Restaurant. The new owners from Miami did not renew the dockage rental with Capt. Sterling's Everglades Eco-Tours.
Instead of moving with the business to docks that are less appealing (IMHO) I have chosen to upgrade my own small commercial boatyard that is tucked neatly between John Pennekamp State Park and the Dagny Johnson State Park. My next door neighbor is the Shipwreck's Restaurant which has an excellent affordable menu and is super friendly to both tourists and locals.
Over the next few months, I will be securing the liability insurance, llc designation, multiple State and Federal licenses/permits to run my own excursion/charter business as well as rent out commercial dock space to other working captains displaced by a wave of Miami mediocrity moving southward.
In the meantime, I am still outfitting and selling motorized kayaks that can be found at wavewalk.com or floridafishingkayaks.com.
The commercial corridor of Garden Cove in Key Largo has the best access to all of our Federal, State, and County Parks in the Upper Keys. Although I thoroughly enjoyed running trips for Capt. Sterling and his wife, Admiral Jill, it is time for me to provide a greater level of access to all of our parks as well as increase my own dockage rental income.
After running over 600 trips over the past year and a half, this is a great time to take some time off and fix up my work boats while decking out the new inshore pontoon boat that I intend to light up to visit and view the nearshore waters of Key Largo after dark.
Stay tuned...