Weighing the usual winter options — an expensive bareboat charter, or hauling the dinghy down for a regatta — a work trip to southern Florida led Tommy Barnes to Key Largo instead, and dinner overlooking Buttonwood Sound with a view of boats sailing to and from a nearby mooring field.
Asking locals about it turned up glowing, unsolicited recommendations for a nearby spot: "authentic," "as bohemian as the Keys themselves," "for sailors, not ordinary tourists," "old Keys bungalows that come with a sailboat." That was enough to send him wandering over to Key Lime Sailing Club.
A walk around the grounds — brightly painted cottages, hammocks, tiki torches leading to a waterfront palm-thatch hut, docks and a mooring field — was enough to sense something special about the place, and to start rethinking his winter sailing plans entirely.