Dry Tortugas
Introduction
I purchased Music, a 1985 Vancouver 27 sailboat in Gulfport, FL on December 28, 2001. The boat needed a lot of work, so Gulfport became my home base for the next few months. While working on the boat, I had some friends come out for a visit and did several trips up and down the west coast of Florida. This is a short story with pictures of my trip out to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson.
Music was one of the best sailboats I have ever owned and made many more trips with her!
On Monday, April 22, 2002 I decided to head south from Gulfport, FL for Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. I had two great days of sailing, with the wind from the NW, to get me down to Cayo Costo State Park.
The park is on a small island and is only accessible by boat. They have great beaches, nature trails, a good anchorage, and cheap ice. Osprey's nest all over the island and are great to watch. On the way down, I had a dolphin follow me for about an hour. He would dive down and swim just next to my rudder about 5 ft below the surface and then come up for air next to the boat. I have no idea what he was up to, but I really enjoyed watching him. I stayed 3 nights at the state park and had a great time.
I moved the boat to Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island to stock up on supplies for the trip to Fort Jefferson. Med style mooring is always fun by yourself! Boca Grande is a small town filled with very rich people who are very friendly to the low life sailors, like me.
I was at Miller's Marina (Home of the World's Greatest Tarpon Fishing) and a film crew was interviewing a local captain about the tarpon fishing at Boca Grande and sharks. After the interview they all hopped in the boat and headed off for some fishing. The story goes that sharks show up at the inlet during the tarpon run in May and wait under the fishing boats. Tarpon get hooked, tarpon gets tired, and shark eats tarpon. Later that evening in the bar, I watched the interview on TV and a huge shark came out of nowhere, ate a hooked tarpon, and turned the water red. This was a picture right out of the movie Jaws!
Everyone fishes on the Boca Grande (north) side of the inlet and just inside. It doesn’t look like it from the picture, but there were at least 40 boats out fishing and who knows how many sharks just waiting. Just around the corner in the far left side of the picture is a swimming beach. Cayo Costo State Park is on the south side of the inlet and just behind me.
I started off on the 135nm offshore trip to the Dry Tortugas on Saturday morning but the wind was right on the nose and blowing 15-20, so after about 2 hours, I turned around and headed to Cayo Costo State park. Later that day, I was swimming on the beach with all the other idots and was hoping the sharks had another good day!
Monday, the wind switched to the NW and I headed off in 2-3 ft seas. The weather was great and I made the trip in just over 21 hours. Due to the light winds, I motored sailed all but about 3 hours, which explains the fast passage. The picture above was taken as I approached Garden Key in the early morning. Three sides of the fort drop right into the water on a shallow coral reef. On the left side of the picture is the front of the fort and the only land outside the fort walls.
This is a picture of the front and only entrance into Fort Jefferson. The fort and narrow strip of land in front of the fort is Garden Key.
During a big storm, Bush Key became connected to Garden Key by a long sand spit so the two islands now form a big L. The picture was taken on the sand spit with Bush Key just behind me. Bush Key is closed to the public.
The two islands and the surrounding coral reefs provide the only overnight anchorage in flat calm, crystal clear water. You can just see the reef in the upper portion of the picture that provides protection on the east and south sides of the anchorage. Music is anchored in the center of the picture with a sailboat from England just off her stern. The English boat was sitting on a very short scope and the wind switched from the north to southeast overnight, which placed the boat a little closer than I like. Seaplanes and powerboats provide day trips to the fort from Key West.
This is a picture of the inside of the fort. The park rangers all have residents inside the fort with all the modern conveniences. I visited the fort twice, snorkeled around the mote with the other day tourists, and stopped by several other snorkeling spots near Garden and Bush Keys. It’s really a great place!
I was just lucky enough to catch the Sooty Tern mating season, which happens once a year on Bush Key. This is the only place in the US that the birds mate. The park ranger said there were 60,000 birds this year, a camping bird watcher said 80,000, and National Park sign said up to 100,000. All the specks in the pictures are terns either taking off or trying to figure out which nest to land on. Once away from the island, the birds spread out quickly and the traffic control becomes much less of a problem. It was just unbelievable the decks stayed clean with all these bird flying around.
The weather was still great and I headed for Loggerhead Key for a change. Only private boats are allowed to anchor near the island and it really showed. The day I was there, only four other boats were at the island. I snorkeled on the famous Windjammer shipwreck, a tall ship that went down in the late 1800's. The reefs on the western side of the island provided some of the best snorkeling I've seen in the last year or two.
A sand spit on the south side of Loggerhead Key is actually the southern most point in the US, and not South Point in Key West. That’s my dinghy on the southern most point with Music anchored in the background. The dark color to the water is a coral reef that runs all along the western side of the island. Music is anchored just outside the reef in about 20 ft of water.
I met Fred and his wife Doris, who are voluntees that live on the island for one month each year in May. About five years ago, the Coast Guard turned the island over to the National Park Service and they didn't really want it. So to save money they get one couple each month to watch over the island. The couples live in the old Coast Guard building next to the light house with all the modern stuff like AC, TV, and a big watermaker. This is a great job and Fred told me all about the interview process, so maybe someday I can get a free tee shirts just like his.
All of the power for the island is provided by some newly installed solar panels. Fred really likes the new solar panels over the old diesel generator he was required to maintain.
Ice was running low, wind kicked up from the SE, I was getting a little home sick, so I pointed the nose back to the Boca Grande inlet and decided to head for Texas. The 135 nm trip back took 25 hours and I sailed all but about 4 hours. Back at Cayo Costo, I was hoping the sharks had another good day!
The trip from Cayo Costo back to Gulfport was the same old story, except for a great anchorage at Stump Pass. Great undeveloped spot with a nice beach and about 20 miles north of the sharks!
This was really a great trip!