Apologies if this has been covered before.
I'm off to southern Florida for a few days in February (to collect the FAA temporary certificate, get a checkout etc.). Will be flying from Naples and would love to fly down to Key West. I know there are quite a few Ppruners who have trained/hired over there and some must have done this same trip.
I've been searching through stuff on the internet about overwater flights in the US, and the Keys seem to be classed as 'marginal overwater', i.e. "you're not actually over water, but in reality there'd be nowhere to land so you'd probably end up ditching should the worst happen". Is this true? I've never been, but it seems from the map that the only place to land would be the (probably) very busy highway.
Added to this, much of the route from Naples to the start of the Keys is over the Everglades swamp. I have read a lot of accident reports from the NTSB website which seem to suggest that, should a forced landing be required there are few really suitable landing areas in the Everglades. Many of these landing seem to end with serious injury or worse.
These same websites I've studied say that for overwater flights such as this, the only requirement is that each person aboard have a "flotation device" - even lifejackets aren't required until (I think) 50 miles offshore
Having read many posts on here about Channel crossings, liferafts, wetsuits etc. I have become very aware of overwater safety. Now I know the (near) tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico are not exactly the English Channel, but even so - no lifejacket???
So basically my questions are:
1) Should I, as a low hours pilot, be flying down the Keys at all?
2) If I do, wouldn't I be just as safe taking a direct route across the water (80nm due South from Naples), rather than 170nm over swamps/tiny islands with nowhere to land anyway?
3) Are the suggested safety precautions re: equipment for ditching really adequate?
4) Are there sharks !!!!!!!!
I'm sure the people at NAC will cover all this, but to be honest, I'd rather have a 'heads-up' from Ppruners before I go. From what I've seen the Americans (in general, not all) seem to have a more relaxed attitude to personal safety in flight (for example the lack of requirements for lifejackets). This may be unfair, so I stand to be corrected if wrong.
Anyway, thanks for any help I can get.