I think Kings Bay is a nice place to
anchor. ItWe draw 4.5 feet and it can be a little challenging for us to get up the Crystal River. Most of it is deep, but there are a couple spots that are only about 5 feet deep at low tide and the channel from the Gulf to Shell Island is a little hinkey and it's easy to stray out of the channel. Kings Bay West of Pete's Pier is about 8 feet deep and very protected. Most of the bay is surrounded by light residential development and there is quite a bit of
small boat traffic.
When we were there a couple months ago, there were about 20 boats (mostly sailboats) more or less permanently anchored to the West of Peter's Pier but still plenty of room for
anchoring. Pete's Pier has both dry
storage and deep
water slips for cruising sized boats. They have gas,
diesel,
water, ice, bait,
beer, soda, and snacks.
There are a lot of manatees on the bay, especially in the
winter. There are a couple beautiful, crystal clear springs on Kings Bay, especially Three Sisters which is on the first
canal to the South of Pete's Pier. You can take your
dinghy all the way to the end of the
canal and beach it within walking distance of grocery stores, West
Marine, restaraunts etc. To the North of Pete's Pier is a little bay where number of shoal
draft boats are anchored. There are several nice low key restaraunts on this bay and several places that offer manatee tours and dive
equipment rentals.
We like Kings Bay and have been back several times. Hope this helps.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions