Florida Keys & the Marquesas:
Hawk Channel, Key West, crewed.

Leaving Miami, the first choice is Biscayne Bay and a real marina, not a sandbar as the embarkation. The Miami guide covers KOPF and the 25 to 40 minute transfer. Ocean Reef and Key Largo are the first overnight choices when the week is actually heading south rather than circling the bay.

Islamorada and Marathon break the distance to Key West into captain-sized days. Bahia Honda is a parks and bridge landmark, not an automatic anchorage for a deep yacht. Key West, with KEYW’s published runway near 5,076 feet if anyone is flying in, is a harbor with its own traffic and mooring rules. A private flight into KEYW is a light jet or turboprop conversation because of that runway.

West of Key West, Boca Grande Key and the Marquesas are the reward and the risk. They are not a place to be stubborn about a schedule. Build a Key West marina night as the backup so a guest flight the next day still works.

This itinerary assumes a captain and crew. That is the product ALINARI arranges. A recreational bareboat arrangement, where the guest is the operator under a different insurance and Coast Guard framework, is outside this brief. If that is what you want, you are in a different market and this form will not pretend otherwise.

A crewed motor yacht and a crewed sailing catamaran share the Keys differently. The motor yacht may prefer marinas and Hawk Channel depth. The catamaran may use shallower Gulf-side corners. Read both the motor yacht guide and the catamaran guide and pick one logic.

Florida tax is whatever the written charter agreement states for a U.S. coastwise week. Do not paste Bahamas VAT language onto a Keys invoice. If the week continues into the Bahamas, it becomes a second set of terms, including, when it applies, 10% Bahamas VAT and applicable Bahamas Port Department charter fees (confirmed per vessel in the written charter agreement)

Tell the desk the start marina, the end marina, whether anyone flies into KEYW, and whether missing the Marquesas would ruin the week or merely disappoint it. The second answer produces better quotes.

ALINARI is the intermediary. The captain operates the yacht. Any Key West flight is operated by a properly licensed air carrier. Email charter@alinariairandsea.com. No phone number is published.

Bridge openings in the Miami River or at Key West can erase a casual departure hour.

A strong easterly makes Hawk Channel unpleasant and the Gulf side more interesting, until the depth runs out.

Key West moorings are not a private marina. Ask what the boat does if the mooring field is full.

The Marquesas at night need a competent watch plan. That is a crew topic, not a guest preference.

Dive guests and a sandbar guest are different days. Split them instead of compromising both.

Provisioning in Miami or Key West is easy. Do not spend the Marquesas night wishing you had ice.

If the group must be back in Miami for an airline flight, end the yacht the day before. Same-day west-to-Miami is a race.

A Bahamas continuation is a new customs and contract event. Start that discussion early, not at Bahia Honda.

A Keys week that must also satisfy a Miami dinner and a Key West sunset is usually one day too short. Pick the dinner or the sunset as the fixed point and let the other move. Hawk Channel is not a highway with a speed you can demand. The crewed agreement is there so the captain can slow down. Use that, and do not staff the week as if it were a bareboat schedule you intended to drive yourself.

Key West is a working harbor with a mood and a set of rules. A crewed yacht that expects a private marina silence will be disappointed. If quiet is the point, Marathon or a bay north of town may be the better night and Key West the afternoon visit.

The Marquesas overnight fails honestly when the window is wrong. The brief should say the week is still a success if the boat stays in Key West and runs to Boca Grande for the day only. That sentence saves the captain from heroics.

Hawk Channel on a winter northeast wind is wet. The Gulf side is shallower and can be the kinder path until a catamaran’s draft advantage runs out for a motor yacht. Pick the hull before you pick the romantic side of the islands.

A KEYW arrival for two guests who will not do the Miami embarkation is a normal pattern. Their flight is a short-runway problem near 5,076 feet. Mention them early so the air broker and the yacht week are not planned as if everyone started in Biscayne Bay.