After returning from the Tortugas, our friends insisted we have a night out on the town. So we headed into Old Town and made our way around to the various bars, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying being around our friends again. Memorial Day was soon upon us, so we decided to have a cookout. We loaded up on hotdogs, burgers, beers, chips and fruits (to even out the amount of carbs we were consuming that day!) and headed over to Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park on Saturday. John made an excellent chef as he slaved over the grill while the rest of us (Blake, Jeremy, Brad, Desi, Koa and I) lazed around on the beach and enjoyed the day. We all enjoyed the grub, especially Koa who got all the leftovers. We cooked, we swam, we drank; and then we left the park, showered up and headed back out to do more of the same. All in all, a successful Memorial Day weekend.
Without even realizing that Monday was Memorial Day, we planned to have a party - Margarita Monday. John's friend was in town, another couple that we had met had friends in town and it jut seemed like the perfect day. We had everyone out to our boat (we have learned in our travels that whosoever has the biggest boat is automatically the host), including some landlubbers (Lori, Desi, Daniella, and Sonia) that we had to dinghy in from the dock. Don't worry, we didn't use our slow dinghy - they would have bailed ship before they even got out to our boat! One of the other guys on the mooring field picked them up in his super fast 25hp dinghy.
It was an awesome day - perfect for Margaritas!! We had chips and dips, quesadillas and frozen margaritas (thanks to our generator!) We listened to music, relaxed on the boat and everyone swam around with Koa - much to his delight!
When darkness fell and everyone had been transported back to shore, the mooring fielders met back at our boat to finish out the evening with some games. It was a very successful first "Margarita Monday" and will need to be repeated on a regular basis!!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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.
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.
Dry Tortugas - Garden Key
5.16 - 5.23
We left on Sunday morning for the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West - our first "big" trip as sailboat owners. We figured it best to get out there before the oil did! We sailed the first 20miles out to a group of islands called the Marquesas. It was an easy sail with the wind off our beam the whole time; we made great time and had set the anchor by 4pm. We had an early dinner and went to bed so we would be ready for the long trek the following morning.
There were three other boats anchored off the Marquesas the same time that we were and it was comforting to see that when we hauled up our anchor the following morning at 7am, so did the sailboat closest to us. Obviously they were on the same schedule as us and heading the same way - always nice to have someone to travel with! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The wind was a perfect 15knots off our beam again and with the chain of Keys soon at our back, the water opened up into a gorgeous azure paradise. We saw lots of turtles surface for air and had a few pods of dolphins join us for short durations of the trek. Being out at sea for 5hour with no sight of land can be quite daunting your first time, but with the scenery as exquisite as it was, we quickly forgot to be nervous and just took in the beauty of it all.
Finally, although much sooner than we had planned, we could make out the looming structure of a building on the horizon. The 3story, 18million brick structure that covers the majority of Garden Key is the first thing that welcomes weary sailors as they come upon the westerly islands. We sailed around the fort through the marked channel which opened up into a small harbor right off the beach of the island. There were only 3other sailboats there when we arrived, one of which was the couple we had been following all day. We quickly found a spot along the edge to anchor (away from all the other boats, as we are still not completely sure of our anchoring abilities). The water is so clear it is like looking down into a fish tank. I was at the helm while Brad was at the bow getting ready to drop the anchor. Brad told me to stop the boat, he could see the bottom at what he assumed was about 10 feet and he didn't want to be in water that was too shallow, so I complied and held the boat still while he dropped the anchor. As soon as he dropped the anchor, he leaned over the bow and looked down, then back at me with a confused look and then back down into the water before he yelled back at me - " We are in over 30 feet of water here!" After lifting the anchor and resetting it elsewhere, where we finally determined there was actually shallow water, we cracked open a celebratory bottle of wine and cooked some steaks and sat back to watch the sunset.
The following day we dinghy-ed into the fort - only a short 2 minute ride (unbelievable to us who are used to 30 minute dinghy rides daily!!). We took a self-guided tour of the fort and took lots of pictures - albeit mostly of our boat as we were looking down from the top of the fort. What can we say - she's a beauty! Then we meandered over to the beach to try our hand at snorkeling. There are two "fastboats" that ferry people out to the Tortugas daily from Key West. They arrive by 10am and leave by 3pm, bringing over 200 pesky tourists, I mean people, to the very small island. We quickly learned that if you want peace and quiet while enjoying the nature around you, go early in the morning and go back to the boat for a rest while all the tourists are there, returning to the island when those boats pull out.
The snorkeling around the moat of the fort was beautiful, the water so clear that you barely even needed the goggles. Exotically colored yellow, purple and blue fish weaved their way in and out of brain coral and beautiful purple fan coral heads. Small black and yellow striped fish (sergeants maybe?!) were the greeters of the reef, often swimming right up to you before darting away when you reached out to them. They followed closely behind us on our entire journey around the moat, as interested in us as we were in them. And of course, the reef wouldn't be complete without the predators. Although we were lucky enough not to see any sharks, we did see our fair share of large barracuda.
We snorkeled daily for about 3 days, following everyday with an evening on the beach with the dog. We would take his orange toy and he would play fetch for hours in the water; he thought this place was heaven too.
After about 4 days on Garden Key, we started to get restless so decided to go ahead over to the other islands that make up the Tortugas. We left the safety and the harbor and anchored at another nearby, somewhat less protected harbor. Once we were sure the anchor was set, we saw what looked to be a small island that appeared to be only visible during low tide. We dinghy-ed over and sure enough, there was a small patch of beach covered by only 1foot of water. We beached the dinghy and snorkeled around the small beach for a few minutes, basking in the knowledge that we were the only ones to step foot on this island all day.
Tomorrow, the last island in the group of the Tortugas, Loggerhead Key.
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