10. Russell Pass Southern Anchorage
10. Russell Pass Southern Anchorage
Lat/Lon: near 25 49.917 North/081 26.516 West
Location: found on the waters of charted Russell Pass which opens into the northern flank of the Indian Key-Everglades City channel, southwest of flashing daybeacon #7
Minimum Depth: 7-feet
Swing Room: almost unlimited
Foul Weather Shelter: very good, but somewhat open to strong southern winds
Rating: 
Click on Chartlet Below to Open a Chart View Window,
Centered on the Location of This Anchorage:
Comments from Cruisers (2)
In February 1980, while my wife, Helen and I were cruising in our 26 foot Pearson sailboat, we were anchored in Russell Bay when the anchorage became very choppy and we moved to Russell Pass.During the night we dragged anchor and at 0300 were wakened by mangroves running both sides of the boat. I rowed the dinghy till I found the pass again, went back and motored out to re-anchor with two anchors.
The current in these passes can be pretty strong.
What a beautiful cruising area.
Next stop for three days was Russell Pass outside Everglades City. A wonderful anchorage.
We dinghied four miles into Everglades City . They really shouldn’t’t call it a ‘city’. Got bait there (frozen shrimp – hope the catfish don’t like it), but couldn’t get a Sunday paper. The reason for the trip to Everglades City was to lunch at the Rod and Gun Club – a very “old Florida” experience. It opened in the late 1800s and was one of the first winter destinations for the well-heeled from up north.
As the name implies, they came to hunt and fish, and enjoy the sunshine. The walls of the place are crowded with the heads, bodies, and skins of their trophies as well as newspaper articles about the place through the years.
It’s been quite the draw with presidents Truman, Roosevelt, and Cleveland visiting there as well as Sally Field and Mick Jagger (now there’s an unlikely collection). We dined on the large veranda and had OK food and delicious Mango Iced Tea. I’d put this on the ‘must see’ list for cruisers. Our chief photographer, Rick, sent us a lot of these photos he took of our dingy ride and lunch at Everglades City.
Now, Everglades City is not just known for the Ron and Gun Club. It is air boat ride capital of the Everglades. So, for $37 per person, one can ride on one of those propeller-driven, water top skimming, turn-on-a-dime, flat-bottomed boats. Really, they told us that they only did the mangroves; and, WE DID MANGROVES!! So, what fun would that be? We decided on a nice lunch amongst the dead carcases instead.
Norm Naughton
Aboard M/V Tide Hiker