1 December 2023
Depart: Perry Marina, Stock Island, FL 7:15
Arrive: Dry Tortugas anchorage 3:20
Distance: ~ 71 nm
We decided on an early start to be sure we arrived before the park rangers quit work at 5:00. I got some early morning pictures at the marina.
Once underway, Clark grabbed some early morning pictures.
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| Clark called him to make passing arrangements as he cut the corner into the entrance channel. |
I snapped a few photos along our sea voyage.
As we passed by Man Key, we noticed a lone house on the island. The ultimate location to live if you wish to avoid nosy neighbors.
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| House all on its lonesome at Man Key. |
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| Sand Key Lighthouse off in the distance |
We had trap duty for the entire voyage. Even at 40 feet deep and 40 nm out, we still found trap after trap. The difference with these traps, however, is that they generally had multiple floating balls attached. As such, I thought I saw a trap ahead, but it was oddly shaped. When we got close enough, I realized it was a huge (and I mean huge) sea turtle. Before Clark could react and grab the camera, the turtle submerged!
After that I wondered why, since we have seen so many dolphins on the inland waterways, why we had seen no dolphins out here in the open water. Right after I mentioned that thought to Clark, six dolphins came by to say hello.
As we traveled, we periodically heard a "bonk" coming from down below. The first time, we thought we hit something in the water. The next time we thought it was a wave slapping the side of the boat. Finally, Clark went to investigate. He said, "I'm going to check the swim platform."
He reported that he went down into the bilge (like the boat basement) and heard the sound coming from the starboard side. After some looking around, he determined that the starboard door to the cockpit was not tightly secured and was "bonking". He latched it tightly - mystery solved.
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| Interesting sky |
Back in 2018, Clark and I took the ferry from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. Even as we took the ferry, he wished he was visiting there on our own boat. (Weather did not permit that for us at that time.) He tracked the path of the ferry via Garmin charts. It took him a while to dig through his old tablet to find the plot, but find it he did and compared his planned route to that of the saved ferry route as we made our way to the island.
As we traveled, Clark saw the ferry going our way but passing by us to our north.
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| Ferry on way to Dry Tortugas |
We passed a couple of shoals along the way, and Clark saw that the path the ferry took appeared to go over the shoals. Clark decided to skirt them. We passed the Marquesas as we made our way to the Dry Tortugas. The ferry does not stop here. Clark was determined that on our way back to the mainland, we would go in and check it out.
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| Nets up at the moment |
Finally, we could just make out the fort in the distance.
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| Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, FL |
I found the pelicans looking at each other on a marker interesting.
As we approached the park, the ferry was just leaving. They are at dock from about 10:30 until 3:00 each day. Notice, we left the Key West area about the same time. At their speed, they arrived at 10:30 and were ready to leave to go back to Key West by the time we arrived at 3:20 having traveled at about 8+ knots all day. That includes the fact that we made good speed the whole way with a little push from nature.
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| Yankee Freedom III - coming straight at us! |
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| Moving away at about 27 knots speed |
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| Loggerhead Light / Key |
Clark read that you could tie up next to the ferry dock but after calling the park, it was the southside of the same dock, but since the ferry was gone, they said tie up anywhere on the dock for up to 2 hours and do a self check-in. I was glad the ferry was gone when we arrived. That meant we had the whole dock to ourselves to tie up for check-in at the park. We just had to figure out where to go.
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| Not here! |
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| Main dock where ferry ties up. Note the big fender balls - not small boat friendly |
I saw that there was a space between giant fender balls that looked like a fit for our boat. Clark was unsure about that. I helped talk him in, and we fit perfectly between the two fenders. I secured our lines, and he climbed off to take care of business.
I remembered when we were here before that frigate birds like to hang out at the fort. I looked for them, and there they were in the same place I saw them 5 years ago! One would think they would get tired of staying up there all the time circling the fort.
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| Frigate Birds hovering over Fort Jefferson |
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| First close-up view of the fort |
I stayed on the boat while Clark went to do the paperwork. He found it confusing regarding the permit and potential fees. He figured it out and checked the box to say he also wanted a permit to visit Loggerhead Key. After completing the paperwork, he had to solve the puzzle of finding the metal box to drop it in. He finally managed to get it all done. With a National Park pass, we did not pay a fee to visit the park.
After taking care of business, we left the dock to find a place to drop anchor during our visit. We got to see one of the two sea planes that bring visitors here just leaving the park.
I took a couple of fort photos as we circled around to find our anchor spot for the night. We snorkeled when here in 2018. This time we planned to take the fort tour.
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| People on top of fort - no guard rail up there Watch your step! |
It turned out that the place Clark decided to drop anchor is the same place where all the fishing boats stay each night. We had lots of "company" after dark.
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| Work boat coming in from Loggerhead Key for the night |
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| Fishing boat coming in at sunset for the night |
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