Embracing the Little Pleasures of Florida Keys

The first thing Ben Woodson explains as visitors climb out of his motor launch Escape onto the dock at Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys is that they ought to consider leaving . . . and just as soon as possible.

It’s not that Woodson, part-owner of the island that is three miles offshore from Little Torch Key, doesn’t want you as his guest. Or that once you’ve settled into one of his palm-shaded, thatch-roofed bungalows on stilts, you won’t want to stay twice as long. No one, it seems, who visits this five-acre islet of sunny beach and grassy woodland--cooled year-round by trade winds--can resist its distinct blend of creature comforts and nature.

It’s just that Woodson--a lean, tan, soft-spoken Tennessee transplant--wants visitors to take the time to tour some of the remaining undeveloped parts of the Keys so they can get a feel for the way things used to be--before mom-and-pop stores, souvenir stands, gas stations and fishing-boat charters cluttered U.S. 1, from Miami south to Key West. Only that kind of exposure, he believes, will persuade people that these islands need some kind of protection.

“Have you been to the Keys before?” he asked as the Escape roared eastward across Newfound Sound during our first visit to the Keys last spring. Woodson often meets people checking in at Little Palm’s shore station at Mile Marker 28.5--28.5 miles from Key West--and takes them on the 15-minute ride to Little Palm Island.

“What you saw along the road from Miami, all those tacky stores and fast-food places, isn’t the real Keys,” he says. “You have to take a boat and go out to the back country.”

Woodson and his partners bought the island in 1986, invested $8.3 million in land and construction, and opened it for business in 1988. During winter, most guests are Northerners fleeing the snow; in summer, about half are Floridians escaping the heat and humidity inland.

The 14 bungalows on stilts, arranged village-style around a central lawn, are each split into two mini-suites. Each suite has a wood and bamboo deck, hammock and screened windows. The modern bathrooms feature imported Mexican tile, and the living rooms and bedrooms are decorated with wicker furniture upholstered with flowery prints. There are no telephones or TVs, but each unit does have a coffee maker and mini-refrigerator. The island can accommodate 60 guests at a time; no children under 9 are allowed.

After a decade of runaway development, the Keys are now protected by a moratorium on building and running-water hookups.”The new laws are so tough,” says Julie Perrin at Cheeca Lodge on Islamorada Key, “you almost have to kill to get a permit.”

Cheeca Lodge, the resort hotel where George Bush spent a fishing vacation last Easter, has the necessary permit to build 30 more guest rooms, but has so far chosen not to.

According to Perrin, the additional rooms would create more demand for fresh water, a scarce resource in the Keys.

As few tourists who dive into a swimming pool or order a glass of lemonade realize, the Keys’ entire freshwater supply is piped down from Florida City, which is about 25 miles south of Miami.

In fact, most of the Keys’ small offshore islands have no water at all. But Little Palm Island, where both water and electric service are grandfathered in, is an exception due to a fortunate legacy from the Kennedy era.

In 1962, the tall Jamaican coconut palms planted by the island’s first owner, Newton Munson, caught the eye of producers scouting locations for the filming of “PT 109,” the story of former President John F. Kennedy’s World War II experiences in the Pacific.

As the locals tell it, when Joe Kennedy heard that his son, on site to watch the filming, had to sleep amid the hum of generators, he demanded that the state install public utilities on Little Palm Island. Since then, city utilities have flowed across the water on a 50-foot easement, turning the once-dry speck of sand into prime real estate.

Robert Wagner and Jill St. John honeymooned in Suite No. 17, named “Mockingbird.” Most guests, however, aren’t so high-profile.

“We like the casual approach to things,” said Jacques Murphy, who was visiting with his wife Diana from Lincoln, Neb. “For an upper-end place, they’re not trying to impress you all the time.”every year.

What with a ratio of about two employees for each guest, the resort is rumored to be barely breaking even. But, one suspects, the profit motive is secondary to Woodson. More compelling is the task of introducing newcomers to the Keys’ pristine wilderness--the shallow, warm, blue-green seas, giant sea turtles, stately egrets and nesting ospreys.

“Have you seen our roseate spoonbills yet?” Woodson asked.”They’re on the flats today because the tide is so low.”

He recommended that we not miss the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, a coral reef three miles south of Little Palm.

“In the 10 years since it’s been protected,” Woodson said, “the fish have come back. As a dive site, it’s one of the world’s best.”

So the next day, we joined a two-hour snorkel-and-scuba trip to the sanctuary aboard Little Palm’s dive boat. Hunter Donaldson, who is certified by the Professional Assn. of Dive Instructors, helps with gear, narrates the reef’s natural history, and guides swimmers toward schools of electric yellow-and-red tropical fish darting around the coral heads.

Donaldson also teaches scuba diving, which is best when the Gulf Stream’s “blue water” pours in from the Atlantic, increasing underwater visibility to as much as 150 feet.

The following day we signed up for the five-hour back-country tour ($45 per person) with Strike Force Charters, a fishing and adventure outfitter headquartered on Little Torch Key. Strike Force carries 45 passengers on the Emerald Sea, a 40-foot catamaran motor yacht. The yacht draws only six inches, and can go anywhere in these shallow waters.

The boat cruised past scattered uninhabited keys, crossed under U.S. 1 to the inland side and stopped to whistle greetings to Suwa, an orphaned dolphin who swims free in the private marina, or her adopted “mother,” a local resident.

We anchored for a 45-minute snorkeling break, then hovered off Raccoon Key to watch about 2,000 resident rhesus monkeys rush out onto dead mangrove branches to stare at us. The day ended with a fresh-fish barbecue on deserted Tarpon Belly Key.

Exploring Little Palm Island is an easy jaunt along a quarter-mile jogging path along the water’s edge--past the tidal flats where the spoonbills feed, past Big Munson Island, past a Boy Scout retreat a hundred yards across the water and past the deep-water dock. We made a quick stop at The Quarterdeck, the nerve center for activity where guests in bathing suits check daily water temperatures and tide times.

The Quarterdeck, open 24 hours, sells newspapers, sundries, fishing line and khaki shorts, and lends frayed Monopoly sets and books with titles ranging from “Moll Flanders” to “Peyton Place.”

Other than water activities, Little Palm offers few sports, with no tennis courts, volleyball nets, putting greens, stables or para-sailing available. “We can’t be all things to all people,” says Woodson. “We think do-nothing time is too valuable to waste.”

Instead, guests laze away the hours with more sedentary pursuits, such as collecting seashells, reading novels, sunning on the beach or snoozing in their hammocks.

The island’s one public phone is inside the outhouse that Harry Truman used on many fishing vacations to the island. “We figure he made a lot of major decisions in there,” says Woodson, “so it seemed like the right place for the phone.”

Little Palm Island’s award-winning French restaurant (it has no formal name), in the original fishing lodge, offers the island’s only available food, other than candy bars and chips from The Quarterdeck. A la carte dinners, averaging about $35, are served inside or outdoors under the spreading limbs of a giant ficus tree, which is lit with tiny white lights.

Though overnighting on the island is only for guests with reservations, the restaurant serves lunch and dinner and is open to the public. It’s popular with mainland residents. Visitors can make reservations at the Little Palm Island check-in office at Mile Marker 28.5.

The boat to Little Palm Island runs daily from the mainland throughout the day, with the last boat returning to Little Torch Key at 11 p.m.

GUIDEBOOK

Little Palm Island, Florida

Getting there: American, Continental, Delta, TWA, United and USAir fly to Miami from Los Angeles. Round-trip fares from $338-$1,300. USAir and Pan Am fly on to Key West for the same fare.

To get to Little Torch Key/Little Palm Island from Miami, travelers have several choices: rent a car, ask Little Palm representatives to arrange transportation, or fly to Key West, 28 miles south. Pan Am Express, USAir Express, American Eagle and Airways International fly from Miami to Key West. Round-trip tickets cost from $118 to $300. Or you can fly to Marathon, 22 miles north of Little Torch Key, on American Eagle or Airways International for the same fare.

By car from Miami, allow three hours for a glorious drive down the Keys. Take the Florida Turnpike south to the end, then U.S. 1 for 120 miles to Little Torch Key. At Mile Marker 28.5, look for Little Palm Island’s check-in office.

Call Little Palm Island to arrange private van shuttle service from Key West or Marathon. Price is $40 per couple one way. Limousine service from Miami costs $305; from Key West, $95.

Where to stay: From Friday through Dec. 20, and May 1 to July 7, daily per-couple rates for Little Palm Island’s bungalows are $360 (European Plan), $480 (Full American Plan) and $650 (All-Inclusive Plan). European Plan includes use of swimming pool, sailboat, canoe and snorkel equipment.

During high season, Dec. 21-April 30, rates are $458, $573 and $700, respectively. Low-season (July through late October) rates are $308, $420 and $600.

All rates include 15% gratuity; tipping is discouraged. Two packages save money: the “Weekend” package adds a third night at half price; the “Midweek” package adds a fourth night free.

For more information: Contact Little Palm Island, Route 4, Box 1036, Little Torch Key, Fla. 33042, (800) 343-8567.