3-10 to 3-18 Key West to the Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are a group of keys located about 70 miles west of key west. The ride was relatively smooth with the exception of about 20 miles that the bait shop guys told us about.

The keys are named for the Giant Turtles explorers found there. 'Dry' was incorporated into the name to indicate that there was no fresh water on the keys.



This is Loggerhead Key, which is accross from Garden Key, where Fort Jefferson is.

The construction of Fort Jefferson began in the mid 1800's. It was to be a state of the art fort, but after 20 years of work it had not been completed. The Fort was obsolete by then and the project was abandoned. It was primarily used as a prison, the most famous inmate being Dr Mudd (convicted of being part of the conspiracy to kill Lincoln as he provided medical services to John Wilkes Booth).

The Dry Tortugas turned out to be anything but dry in my opinion. We thought we were going to be somewhat alone at this isolated park, but wound up having what seemed like a busy social schedule! We arrived around 5:00, and after having some difficulty finding a place to anchor (the anchorage was crowded with boats) we finally found a spot with a magnificent, unobstructed view of the sunset. The fish and wildlife patrol came by to make sure we knew the rules about where we could and couldn’t fish, and told us that the tour boats that come to the fort from Key West provide tours to their guests at 10:30, and we could tag along if we wanted.

The next day we didn’t get going in time to catch the tour, but took the dinghy to Fort Jefferson and wandered around for a couple of hours. I am no expert, but I have done my share of traveling and it is rare to find an historical structure as available to the public as this one is. We were able to climb around the fort freely with very few restrictions.

Thursday we managed to get up in time to catch the tour, but shortly after it got started I lost Dave, who had stopped to talk to people from a couple of sail boats that had come in the night before. John and Debbie (Wanderlust) and Bob and Sue (Buterfluge) are cruisers that are traveling together and anchored near us. Debbie is one of those people who always have their ear to the ground, and told us that she heard the Park will give candlelight tours of the fort if requested; an Archeological dig was going to be starting the next day; and someone was giving a talk about Easter Island (in the south pacific) that evening if we wanted to attend.
We sat outside the fort and just looked around for a while. One of the highlights was watching some poor guy try to paddle his dinghy from the fort back to his boat against the current and the wind. Dave got up to start the dinghy and give him a tow to his boat, but before Dave even got the dinghy back in the water it became apparent that the guy could make it on his own power. We returned to the boat to clean up, then went back to the fort and attended the talk, given by a guy (Dave) from England who travels a lot. That was followed by a sunset tour of the fort provided by Chris, the Park historian. He is a great story teller, and couldn’t finish the tour before dark, so it re-commenced the next morning.
Friday we packed up our snorkeling gear and headed over for the rest of the tour at 9am. Afterwards we stopped by the Archeological dig for a little bit to see what they were up to. A new site had been discovered on the fort premises when the Park Service went to put in a new leech field for their septic system. A test is always performed to ensure there is no archeological significance before a new structure is made, and when they tested this site a warehouse from the 1850 something time frame was found. The dig would only last a few days, and we just happened to be there for it. The Florida Archeological Project was letting volunteers help with the dig so we joined in and screened for artifacts for a little while. Hey, how often do you get to participate in something like that? After a little while we were thoroughly dirty and it was time to go snorkeling.
While we were putting on our wetsuits Dave thought he saw the guy who was paddling his dinghy the day before near by putting on his wetsuit too. So Dave asked if he was the same guy. Arlen and Glenda were indeed the dinghy paddlers, and said they wouldn’t refuse a ride next time. We were all going snorkeling for a while and we told them we would be happy to give them a tow to their boat afterwards. The four of us, along with Wanderlust and Buterfluge all spent an hour or so snorkeling around the outside of the fort mote.

We took Glenda and Arlen back to their boat and they invited us in for a glass of wine, so we accepted. It has been quite a few years since I have been in the cockpit of a sailboat, and it was a wonderful, old familiar feeling. Arlen just bought the boat and is living on it in Tampa, and Glenda has a home just inland from Crystal River. On our way back around we will most likely stop by and visit them.

Saturday we went back to the dig for a while in the morning. At first I was the one interested in participating, but Dave’s enthusiasm for the project seemed to be growing significantly. That afternoon we went over to Loggerhead Key with Buterfluge and Wanderlust to snorkel. Debbie wasn’t feeling well so we took John over and Debbie stayed at their boat. Loggerhead Key is about a 15 minute dinghy ride from the fort, and it houses only a coast guard station and a house for park volunteers to stay in. The water was just a magnificent series for clear turquoise and blue tones.

Sunday Dave noticed a new powerboat had anchored near us that didn’t have a dinghy. We were headed over to the fort to participate in the dig some more, so we stopped by and asked if they wanted a lift. Mike and Tracy of Lolita said sure. We spent a couple of hours digging that day, and in addition to finding pieces of glass and pottery, Dave found a bullet casing.

One of the reasons we wanted to get back to the fort was to give Chris, the Historian a bottle of wine as a token of appreciation for the tour. He had really done a great job. When Dave gave the wine to him he invited us to share it with him at the top of the light house at sunset with the guy who gave the Easter Island talk and his wife. Sounded good to us!








It looked like Mike and Tracy had found another ride back to their boat, so when we had finished digging we swung by Lolita just to make sure. They invited us aboard for a glass of wine, and we said sure! They are new boaters, having just picked up a brand new boat in Tampa that they are gradually bringing up to Rode Island, their home. Tracy is a designer and wanted to see the inside of our boat, so since we had to get going in order to have time to clean up and make it back to the fort for sunset, we invited them over for brunch the next morning. We already had plans to snorkel a wreck site with Wanderlust and Buterfluge around noon the next day, but since Lolita was heading back to Key West early in the day anyway, we thought we would be able to fit that in, no problem!

Dave and Helen are from England and have been coming to the Dry Tortugas every year for the past 11 years. They travel to remote regions of the world and study indigenous cultures as a hobby. They are fascinated with the Dry Tortugas, and apparently no one is ever allowed up in the light house. Chris was offering us quite a treat. The five of us polished off a couple of bottles of wine against a fantastic sunset at the top of Port Jefferson.

When we finished the wine Chris invited us back to his apartment to try some moonshine. He is originally from Eastern Tennessee. After a bit too much moonshine we all were heading home and British Dave saw some of the construction workers having drinks in one of the rooms of the fort and wandered in. Of course I followed him.
Staff appartments are built right into the fort!
Breakfast the next day came a bit too soon, but we enjoyed having Mike and Tracy over. She is the designer of the Lolita glassware line (sold in places like Macy's),and had to rush back to Key West for a radio interview. She was also supposed to be on the Today show. I vaguely remember being busy like that (well, sort of, minus the TV and radio part).


Right after they left we raced around to get into our wetsuits and meet the sailboats for snorkeling at the wreck. We made it out there okay, but between the night before and having my breakfast sit like a rock in my stomach, sitting in the wobbling dinghy wasn’t working too well for me. After a little while Dave and I headed back to the boat to rest a bit.








The night before British Dave had offered to give a talk about his trip to China at 5:00, so feeling fairly refreshed we went back to the fort in the late afternoon. No one else showed up for the talk so Dave didn’t give it, so we looked for Chris a bit, found Helen to say good bye, and wandered over to the pier to watch some of the construction workers who were fishing and had hooked a shark.

While we were watching the fight between the men and shark the Archeology girls (hmm, maybe that explains Dave's sudden interest in Archeology?!) came by and so did Chris. So we had a nice visit with them and said our good byes as the girls were leaving the next day. We planned to leave the following day, as did Wanderlust, Buterfluge and Chris.

Wednesday was supposed to be a beautiful day for traveling, but instead it was windy so all of the boats that had planned to leave the Dry Tortugas decided to stay another day and wait for better weather. Following on the past couple of weeks of mad socializing it was wonderful to just sit on the boat and not talk. We’d been having a great time and met some really interesting people, but both of us were pretty wiped out.