Key West Sunset Times by Month

In Key West the sun sets between 5:38 pm in early December and 8:20 pm in late June and early July, by the U.S. Naval Observatory’s figures for Mallory Square. The light lasts another 23 to 26 minutes after that, to the end of civil twilight. Florida still changes its clocks: they go back an hour on 1 November 2026 and forward an hour on 14 March 2027, so the sunset jumps by an hour on each of those days.

The sails keep up: Sebago’s two-hour sail leaves at 4:30 pm in November, 5:00 pm in January and 6:30 pm from April to August, by its Viator schedule (read October 2026). It is from $70 an adult on Viator (checked October 2026) and from $70 on GetYourGuide (checked October 2026), where the calendar shows the start time for each date:

Sunset and departure times, month by month

Sunset and the end of civil twilight at Mallory Square from the U.S. Naval Observatory, in Key West clock time. Departures from Sebago’s Viator schedule, read October 2026; your booking confirms the time for your date.

So the sail leaves between about 50 minutes and just under two hours before the sun goes down: closest to sunset in early January, earliest in early July. On a winter evening the sun sets in the first hour and you sail back in the afterglow; in summer you have most of the first hour in daylight and the sunset near the end.

The clock changes

Florida keeps daylight saving time on the federal calendar. A 2018 state law, the Sunshine Protection Act, would put Florida on daylight saving time all year, but only if Congress changes the federal law to allow it, so the clocks still change. On Saturday 31 October 2026 the sun sets at 6:48 pm; on Sunday 1 November, after the clocks go back, it sets at 5:47 pm, and Sebago’s departure moves from 5:00 pm to 4:30 pm the same day. The next change is on 14 March 2027, when the sunset jumps from about 6:35 pm to 7:36 pm.

If you book across one of those dates, check the departure time on your confirmation rather than the one you saw the week before.

Where the sun goes down

The setting sun swings about 50 degrees along the horizon through the year. Seen from Mallory Square, it goes down at 296 degrees, west-northwest, in late June, due west at the equinoxes in March and September, and at 245 degrees, west-southwest, in December. From late April to mid-August that puts it toward Sunset Key, the small island across the harbor. Out on a boat the captain picks the spot, and the listings for these sails describe positioning the boat for an open view of the horizon.

The weather by month

National Weather Service normals for Key West International Airport, 1991 to 2020.

December to April is Key West’s dry season and June to October its wet season, with May and November in between, by the National Weather Service’s account; in the dry months the rain mostly comes ahead of cold fronts. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, and its peak, by the National Hurricane Center’s figures, is around 10 September.

If the weather turns

The captain makes the call on the day. Sebago offers a full refund or another date when it cancels for weather, and Classic Harbor Line decides up to an hour before departure on America 2.0. On Viator and GetYourGuide every sail linked on this site except Catamaran Echo’s champagne sail can be cancelled up to 24 hours before for a full refund, which helps when a front is forecast.

What to bring

• A light jacket: it is often cooler on the water than on the dock, and January’s average low is 65.5 °F.
• Photo ID: you must be 21 to drink, and Fury and Sebago ask for ID.
• Cash or a card for a tip: the listings for Sebago, Fury and America 2.0 leave gratuities out of the price.

The green flash

On a clear evening with a clean sea horizon, the last sliver of the sun can turn green for a second or two. The cause is the atmosphere acting like a weak prism: it bends green light slightly more than red, so the green rim is the last to disappear. The flat western horizon off Key West is the right setting for it, though you need a cloudless strip low in the sky, and it does not appear every evening.