Marinas in Key West / Stock Island

[Fosca]

I'm considering a job in Key West, but I don't really want to live on the hook there. I've had too many friends come home from work to find their boats have been broken into, and I don't want to put my cats in danger. Besides I'm going to have to "dress up" a bit, and it would be a pain to dingy in.

So I'm thinking about finding a spot at a marina, but whenever I ask my Key West friends about what the marinas on Stock Island are like, I get a variation of "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here". Drugs, crime, shady-looking people lurking about, the whole nine yards.

So, anyone who actually has first-hand experience here: which is better, the rock or the hard place? Even if anchoring out is better, what are the marinas actually like?

Thanks!

[lorenzo b]

I've been living on my boat here at Robbies Maritime Center, 7281 Shrimp Rd, 305 294 1124 and really like it here. It is a boatyard with work going on, but there are quite a few people that live here all the time. The services are basic and clean and the price is right. There are also other more upscale marinas here on Stock Island and some fabulous seafood joints like the Shrimp Shack. I use a bicycle and get downtown in 30 min, but stores are closer.
As for Stock Island itself, it does have some public housing and trailer parks and a mixed population. I feel it is quite safe. I have heard some older white Floridians say some ugly things about the people here, but Key West is in the Caribbean and if you don't like Cubans and people of color, you'all just might as well move on.

[Fosca]

Thank you for the information! Your second paragraph is what I thought might be happening. I'm used to living in diversely populated areas (let's see, a year in a working-class neighborhood in Hawaii where I learned a bit of what it's like to be a minority, another year in Hell's Kitchen in NYC in the early '90's, when it deserved the name . . . ), and it doesn't bother me. I also don't mind a working boatyard, since I won't be on vacation and therefore won't be around much during the day, so I'll keep your suggestion in mind.

[wildshore]

you might consider anchoring on the ball in Marathon harbor and taking the bus into KW. It's inexpensive (for that neck of the woods), relatively secure, and a lot quieter than KW.