Fort Jefferson and the ferry
We’ve just wrapped up a little over one week anchored out in
the Dry Tortugas, Florida. We knew when
we left that there was some blowy weather coming in and that we might end up
spending more than a few days there. As it turned out, two high fronts came
through, one after the other, so we chose to stay put and enjoy the quiet and
very pretty anchorage.
We had a nice ride out of Key West. It rained a bit (just as
I was untying the lines, of course!) but the winds were behind us and the crab
pots weren’t too bad. Luckily there was
only one other boat in the anchorage when we arrived. The anchorage is very
small and provides the only protection from North and Easterly winds there
is. We were shocked when just after
anchoring I looked down and saw a huge nurse shark and then an equally large
grouper hanging out under our boat. There are several large groupers that seem
to spend their days wandering between the boats at anchor.
Blossom & Vector
at anchor
It’s really very beautiful here. The keys are tiny and all
uninhabited other than Garden Key on which Fort Jefferson is located. The fort is a huge six-sided brick structure
built as a naval defense to control the straits of Florida. It was never actually
used to defend against anyone though it was used as a sort of prison for a
while. Now it’s a national park. There are a handful of people who live on that
key, park rangers, researchers and a few people who help maintain the island.
There is no internet, no cell coverage or fresh water on the island available
to visitors. Visitors arrive by a large
ferry, by small plane or by private boats.
Plane leaving the anchorage
You can camp on the island, bringing
in your own water and carrying out all trash. There is a rhythm to the island.
Every morning, one or two planes arrive from Key West bringing visitors around
8:30. At 10:30, the ferry from Key West arrives bringing several dozens of
people. The planes come and go all day, as many times as they have people
paying to come visit. Some people stay
the night, camping on the island, but most leave by plane or ferry at
3:30. From the late afternoon to evening,
boats arrive. A few sail boats came through and every evening fishing and
crabbing boats would come in and anchor for the night.
The guys
The anchorage is very small so only a handful of boats can
anchor there and not be in the path of the ferry or planes. It’s deceptive here because it looks like a
huge expanse of water but much of the water around the keys are 1-2 feet deep. There
is another anchorage to the west but it’s not as well protected from north and
northeast winds. The charts are also way off. Martin ran through the anchorage
on our tender to get a feel for the actual depths. With that information, a
couple of boats were guided to anchor in what the charts said were 1-2 feet of
water.
The area is teaming with wild life. In addition to some very
large fish, we heard dolphins breathing in the anchorage our first night. The
next afternoon a sole, large dolphin swam around the boat. There is a key
called Bird Island where frigate birds breed. These are large, impressive,
black birds that seem to spend most of their time floating on air drafts above
the island. There are also hundreds of terns that are fairly quiet during the
day but party down after sunset, making so much noise that Martin had a hard
time falling asleep one night.
Bush Key and frigate birds
Tricolored Heron
Starfish
Crab in need of a shell
Portuguese Man O' War
Area around the fort
I had fantasies of snorkeling around the island but the wind
and the 74 degree water kept me from going.
The first day, we went to the island and took a tour of the Fort
Jefferson with a ranger. Wednesday I got out my nice camera and tried to take
some good photos of the island. I wasn’t terribly successful but a few came out
half way decently.
Photos from Fort Jefferson
On Thursday a nasty front blew through and winds were
holding at 25 knots with gusts up to 34. We hunkered down and held fast. A
fishing boat lost its anchor and came drifting through the anchorage in the
evening. Luckily Sean saw it and blew his horn 5 times (this is a signal for danger).
That got the captain out of bed and he turned on the engines and moored his
boat on a mooring ball for the rest of the evening. Otherwise our time in the anchorage was
uneventful and downright peaceful. The
wind blew hard for three days and we stayed aboard reading, quilting, cooking
and doing chores. It was great! We
shared dinner with Sean & Louise, on Vector and Blossom, several times.
On Sunday the wind had calmed down to 15 knots so we invited
folks from the three boats in the anchorage over for sunset drinks. There were
two sailboats, Sea Monkey and Vizu, and Vector. We had a great evening and I
was so happy that we’d invited everyone over. One couple has been sailing for
25 years, crossed the Pacific, visiting the small islands of the south Pacific
and New Zealand. The other is a young family cruising for a year hoping to
provide their 12 year old son with an experience of a lifetime. What a lucky
kid J I hope we’ll be hosting many more happy hours
over the next several months. Meeting such interesting people is one of the
highlights of cruising!
By Tuesday the winds and waves had calmed down enough to
head out so we left at daybreak for Tampa. I’ll be posting this blogpost as
soon as we’re within cell range. I
surprised myself a bit by not missing the internet or email. One afternoon I
listened to NPR as I was quilting and was almost sad that I had when heard the
news of the week. Sticking your head in
the sand isn’t an answer but it was nice to be oblivious for a short while. Once we’re back in cell range we’ll be taking
care of business, reconnecting with friends and family and getting back into
the groove of normal life. We plan to
visit St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Cape Coral and Ft. Myers before we turn
eastward and head across Florida via Lake Ocheechobee.
Boat Business: Sitting at anchor gave us the opportunity to
test some systems on the boat.
Watermakers. We have two watermakers, one up front in the
basement and one back in the lazarette. They both make about 35 gallons an hour.
We haven’t run them yet and with such pristine water we thought this was a
perfect place to do it. We were bummed to find that the membrane in our forward
watermaker is fouled even though we had flushed it well after testing it at
commissioning. Luckily, the aft watermaker is fine so we made a couple hundred
gallons of water. Martin tried to clean
the membrane but it’s shot so we’ll get a new one before we head to the
Bahamas.
Blossom with her
floppers out
Flopper Stoppers. We’ve practiced deploying the floppers a
few times but we’ve never really needed them until this week. The flopper
stoppers are poles that stick out from the side of the boat. Normally, they
stay tucked up under the side of the boat. Deployed, the stick out like wings,
held by three lines. A heavy metal “fish” hangs from the end of the pole. The
fish is a large rectangular piece of metal that is hinged at the bottom. As the
boat tips to one side, the pole lifts the fish which opens. This movement and
the weight of the fish, slows the roll of the boat. We deployed both fish
before the storm hit and were really impressed by how well they worked to
reduce roll. The only problem we had was that during the worse of the winds the
fish would spin, coiling up the line. We need to do some research to see if
this is a common problem. We’re thinking that we could put a swivel on the fish
and that might stop the coiling.
Blossom’s bottom. Martin broke out our hooka system and
cleaned the boat bottom along the waterline. The system worked well (an 80 foot
hose attached to a dive tank) and found mostly algae with a few barnacles
growing in the through hulls. (He confirmed that the water was really, really
chilly!)
Underwater lights. We have lights mounted under our swim
platform for night time fish viewing. Our friends, CJ & Margie had them on
Pazzia and we thought it was the coolest thing. Since August, we’ve had them on
a few times but seen little as the water has been pretty murky everywhere we’ve
been. In Key West we were able to see some of the large tarpin come in at night
to eat the little guys that were attracted to the light. In the Dry Tortugas it was awesome! First come the little guys, then fish about 6
inches, then some large silvery fish, about 2-3 feet long. I’m not sure what they
were, and then arrive - the goliath groupers. What a nice show! I’m looking forward to seeing what we can
attract in the Bahamas.
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