Good advice, good friends and good fun...Sailing away to Key Largo

I am writing this sitting at the dock at the Marina Del Mar in Key Largo. We arrived here yesterday and decided to stay two nights as the Marina has a lovely swimming pool, a water's edge bar called 'Coconuts', and includes a delicious breakfast buffet with the cost of the dock ($3.00 per foot!).
Since I last wrote we have met some wonderful people and have been given a great deal of good advice about sailing in the Bahamas, and also much needed technical advice about how to use our Single Sideband Radio to listen to the weather and some of the 'Cruisers' Nets'. The 'Nets' are to be found on certain frequencies at set times, and are usually hosted by a cruiser who passes information on about cruiser-related events, or acts as a contact point for cruisers checking in with their present position.
Before we set off from Dinner Key on Thursday (4 December) we had met the crew of 'Nauti Girl', a Beneteau 473 - Bob & Bonnie - and the crew of 'Brenda Star' a Caliber 47LRC - Brenda & Herb. They gave us a crash course on sailing through the Bahamas, and we were able to mark up our charts with the best routes, anchorages, beaches and, of course, restaurants. Thank you Bob, Bonnie, Brenda and Herb for sharing seven or so years of Bahamian sailing knowledge with us. We hope to meet up with you somewhere 'over there' in the New Year.
Later that day we sailed/motored to Boca Chita Key to spend the night. It's one of the barrier keys between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic. At one time it was the home of the rich and famous, but now it is a National Park area which provides alongside docking around an almost circular lagoon with a very narrow entrance and a picturesque old lighthouse. Our friends at Dinner Key had assured us we'd get in with our 5 foot draft, and, as we followed the narrow channel in, we were encouraged to see another large sailboat already at the dock. The boat was 'Estelle', a Bristol 41.1, and her owners, Jim and Jeannie, are from Charlottetown, P.E.I. Our conversation started with the state of Canadian politics and, after a few drinks, we discovered we had friends and acquaintences in common. The 'no-see-ums' sent us scurrying back to our boats that night, but we decided we would carry on south together to anchor off Pumpkin Key the next day, en route for Key Largo. Both the weather and the anchorage at Pumpkin were tranquil, and we had a lovely evening helping Jim celebrate his birthday on board 'Estelle'. As we could not carry on much further on the west side of the barrier islands because of shallow water, we needed to cross over to the Atlantic side. Pumpkin Key is very close to Angelfish Creek which is touted as a cross-over point but with one possible drawback - a shallow, rocky ledge of about 5 foot depth at the eastern end. We wanted to try it, but were also cautious. Luckily Jim and Jeannie had a wonderful device - a handheld depth sounder (a 'must-have' for the Christmas stocking')- so Bill and I took the dinghy through the creek checking depths. We thought we could just about do it....and we did, with a resounding sigh of relief as we slipped past the last channel marker into the Atlantic waters. From there we had hoped to anchor at Rodriguez Island, but the weather seemed a bit unsettled, so we made it through the narrow and shallow 'Port Largo Lagoon', assisted by explicit instructions from Carli, dockmaster at the Marina Del Mar. And here we stay. Unfortunately 'Estelle' has travelled back towards Miami because of Christmas plans, but we hope to keep in touch and meet up again one of these days.
Tomorrow will be a BIG DAY. It is Bill's 'special' birthday...meaning he will now start getting pay-back from the Canadian Government! We have booked 'Southern Vectis' in to the 'Ocean Reef Club', just a little way north of here. It is a very special place from all we hear...so we hope it will be suitable for a very special celebration. We'll let you know!