Durney Key

Durney Key is owned by the people of the state of Florida according to the sign on the key, and camping is allowed. Very close by the key is a stilt house, on pilings, in about 8 feet of water. Stilt houses are privately owned. No one can build any more stilt houses, so existing ones are grandfathered in.

The key has a beach of sorts with a lot of shells and limerock. The photo above shows the north side tidal pools on a limerock base. This is, of course, a difficult part of the key to land on, but there are many other parts where the landing is easy. Power boaters prefer the southeast side where it is deep enough for their vessels. Us kayakers can go just about anywhere we like. This key is an excellent beginner's trip with the paddle time between 20 and 40 minutes from Port Richey. Most of the water is shallow on the route of this trip, with the exception of the boat channel that must be crossed. To cross the channel safely, look both ways and estimate whether the speed and heading of any power boats would present a possible conflict. A vessel that is rowed technically has the right of way, but keep in mind many power-boaters are poor skippers at best and may not know the rules of the road. It is safer to let them have the right of way. The casino boat uses this channel too. It is a large vessel that cannot stop in a short distance. Best to wait for it to get out of your path and don't let the huge wake it produces hit you from behind (you'll get a wet behind !), or from the side. Best practice is to have your bow at a 45 degree or less angle to the wake. Your kayak will take larger waves than you imagine bow first. The channel is not very wide and can be crossed quickly. The safest way to cross any channel is to approach the channel markers at a point where both red and green markers are close to each other, and you can quickly paddle from one to the other. The markers (red marks the right side of a channel coming in), define the channel area.