Dry Tortugas - Loggerhead Key

5.23 - 5.25

Today we picked up the anchor again this morning and headed over to Loggerhead Key. It is an uninhabited island that has only a lighthouse on it and 1 mile of beautiful beach with the most spectacular snorkeling in all of Florida. The Park Rangers only allow 28 people on the island at once and you have to radio in that you are heading over there for a visit. You cannot stay overnight and you can only get there if you have your own boat. We anchored just south of the island and beached our dinghy on the southern-most tip. We met another coupel, Bill and Kely, who were beaching their dinghy simultaneously and quickly learned that this is their favorite spot in all of Florida. They come down from Tampa a few times every year and sit with their chairs and beach umbrella on the southern tip and imagine themselves in a corona commercial.
We grabbed our snorkel gear (compliments of our good friend Sean!) and headed over to the west side of the island for the best snorkeling around. We donned our flipped and snorkels and high stepped our way out to the water. We dove in and were suddenly in another world. The snorkeling over here, although similar to the things around the moat was far more wild and preserved. Having been mostly untouched by humans, everything was growing freely. There were dozens of schools of fish and huge coral heads that almost came completely out of the water. We dove into a school of thousands of small bait fish that scattered upon our arrival. Hot on their tails were some small barracuda hoping to pick off a few of the stragglers. We wound our way through the reef and were treated to spectacular displays of color and vibrancy not previously seen elsewhere. Small fish darted in and out of coral while the larger fish swam lazily along, not interested or concerned about us in the slightest.
Having become water-logged and developed rings on our faces from having our goggles on for too long, we trudged out of the water to dry out in the sun. We met another couple on the beach who were also from Tampa and they invited us over for drinks later in the evening so they could give us helpful tips on our journey up the west coast.
We went back out to the mothership and had lunch and brought Koa back out to the beach with us. We stayed on the southern tip and played with the dog for a bit and then the corona couple came over to talk to us. While we were playing catch with Koa, Kely pointed out just to the right of Koa and said, that is a really big fish. As the four of stood there and watched, we all quickly realized that it was a shark! And he was rapidly heading over to check out what all the commotion was about - Koa causes quite the stir when he is in the water! We all started yelling at him to come back in and luckily, he made it in without incident and although the shark circled the area twice, he quickly became bored and swam on. Needless to say, that was the end of playtime for Koa.
We sat and had some beers with Bill and Kely and exchanged information with the hope of meeting up with them when we hit Tampa.
We all headed back out to our boats and anchored for the evening. We also visited the other couple, Nan and Rick Major on "Austral" , who were on the beach with us and they gave us invaluable local knowledge about anchorages along the West Coast so that we can gunkhole our way up to Tampa. They had a beautiful Beneteau and were more than happy to have us over for cocktails and hor dourves.
The next morning we sailed out, with two other boats in tow (one being Rick and Nan) and, with the wind in our face, motor-sailed most of the way to the Marquesas. Although we were sad to be leaving the Tortugas, we had met many wonderful people and had enjoying beauty and tranquility seen by few. We were out of fresh food and had resorted to canned food the day before, signaling that the trip was coming to an end. While at the Marquesas, the other boat we had sailed back with, Bob and Kathy on "Sundancer", invited us over for dinner, having never even met us! We grilled out and they also gave us more wonderful information about traveling up the west coast.
Although it was a great trip, it was nice to be back in civilization with our friends at the mooring field for the final stretch of our stay in Key West.