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.

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.

Catching Up

5.12.10

It has been too long since the last post! We have had two computers meltdown, our internet go out and lost a cell phone and camera to Davy Jones' locker - basically, if you were a piece of technology on our boat this month, you were doomed. But now we are back in business!
We have been in Key West since 4.9. We have successfully survived being on the mooring field the entire time, but it took some major adjusting. We invested in a generator and bought a 6gallon water tank, which we fill every time we go into the dinghy dock - it's the only way to get water out to the boat. We also bought bikes from KMart with the hope of selling them when before we leave. The trek to the grocery store is an everyday occurrence, we cannot keep food cold enough to stock for more than one day. It has been an interesting time, but I think we have adjusted very well.
The hardest part of the mooring field has been the dinghy dock - our nemesis. When we first got to the field, we hooked up to a mooring ball on the far end of the field, away from most boats and thus - far enough away that if we botched tying the lines and our boat floated free, we wouldn't run into anyone else. Well, the outskirts of the field, with a 5hp dinghy motor and 450lbs of weight, are a good 20-30minute ride into the dock. When the wind is blowing anything above 5knots - you are in for a very wet ride. We started out in regular clothes and quickly realized our mistake - we were at the dock, ready to start the day in very wet clothes. Next, we tried rain jackets - although there was an improvement, we were still soggy by the time we reached the dock. Finally, we resorted to dry sacks with our clothes for land in them and just wearing nothing but bathing suits on the ride in. There has to be a more efficient way because we are the only ones who come in in bathing suits every time - but damn if we can figure it out!
We finally moved to a closer ball, so now our travel time is only 15-20 minutes - but bathing suits and dry sacks are still a necessity.

Since we have been here so long, we have done just about every touristy thing down here - Hemingway House, Shipwreck museum, Butterfly House, Southernmost Point, parasailing, fishing, Conch Tour train, just to name a few. We have also experienced and embraced the true nature of this island - bar hopping. There are over 50bars here on Key West -and it's only 2miles wide!! In the short amount of time that we have been here, we have become locals - we are friends with any number of bartenders and servers, have met all the sailors on the mooring field, know the West Marine employees by name and frequent all the local food joints. It is easy to see how one can be sucked in down here!
Recently we have been busy - our friend Hoop came down for a crazy 3day drinkfest in the middle of Conch Days. Then up to Jacksonville for Carter and Annie's beautiful wedding!(where we tried to coerce the Brittons into adopting the life of a sailor - we still strongly encourage it!) Then we brought my friend Chelsea back down with us for a week of fishing, drinking, and tourist activities. We snorkeled around the boat and checked out the 250lb tarpon that we have hanging out under our boat. We also ran into 2 barracuda that have suddenly showed up and decided to stick around. Luckily we were on the boat when they showed up! A rousing night of card games on our boat with some of the younger guys on the field until the wee hours of the morning was a sure way to annoy the neighboring sailboat owners. We fished out in the flats and caught 12 fish, which we grilled and fried for dinner - delicious!
We had an awesome time with everyone and love having visitors! But it is nice to be back to the boring pace of life that Brad and I have adopted on the boat.
Our next big plan is to head 60miles west out to the Dry Tortugas. No water, no inhabitants; just excellent fishing and snorkeling. We are stocking up on supplies for the week long trip and as soon as the winds are favorable, will be hoisting our sails! Stay tuned for that blog as I'm sure it will be interesting....!!