Dry Tortugas

Dry Tortugas

We’ve piloted MV Simple Life from Warwick, RI all the way to Key West, FL. We might as well make the 70 mile trek to the last seven tiny islands referred to as Dry Tortugas. US Highway 1 ends in Key West but the FL Keys continue West into the Gulf of Mexico. The last stop, Dry Tortugas, is a national park and is home to Fort Jefferson.

We awoke at sunrise, had breakfast and let go of our mooring. The winds were picking up but the predicted sea state was something we were OK with. We put Mallory Square in Key West to our stern and began motoring South. Very quickly into the journey you realize that there is no cellphone service outside of Key West

The first clump of low-lying keys that you pass of to starboard are part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge.

What is very cool is that there are half dozen or so home on Ballast Key.

You could clearly see on of homes as we passed.

The next set of islands are the Marquesas Keys.

We had planned to use an anchorage just along the western shore of Tin Tin Key. However, in-route we decided to go the whole 75 mile distance in one shot.

You can see the Marquesas Keys in this video.

On our journey, we passed many sea turtles flippering their way against the waves.

[Insert Youtube video of sea turtle passing

The water color at in this area is just amazing greens and blues.

When the cloud shadows move over the top of the water you’ll see distinct shades of blue.

Along with sea turtles we saw manta rays on the surface. I attempted to catch it on video but alas it dove as we passed.

[insert YouTube Video of Manta ray ]

The wave heights were beginning to pick up and you can see MV Simple Life is surfing at times in this following sea. When a wave would lift our stern our speed would increase about 1.5 knots we compared to our speed when we would slide down the back of a wave.

[insert surfing waves YouTube video ]

I had to keep my speed up to try and keep up with the following sea and at times our speed hit 10.5 knots. Keeping the speed up also meant a shorted duration in a following sea. After about 9 hours we could see Fort Jefferson off to starboard. Also noteworthy is Loggerhead Light on Loggerhead Key

We quickly raced around the narrow channel and found a spot to anchor in the small harbor. Shortly after anchoring many small commercial fishing boats appeared and two anchored along side us. I found it interesting that with the anchorage full, the fishermen decided to tie one boat off the back of the other anchored fishing boat.

This allowed the two boat to fit where only one could have using the traditional every boat rides on it’s own anchor.

There is a sea plane that takes visitors to the island and we watched as it raced over the surface prior to takeoff.

[insert sea plane YouTube Video]

It had been a long day but I brought the dogs ashore as I checked out the small island. On my way back in the dinghy I noticed the sun was going down so I raced the dinghy out to where I could get a good video of it.

[Insert sunset video]

If watching the camera view bob up and down as bounce in the waves here is static picture.

At night, sitting in the aft cockpit and looking up at the most amazing starry night. I must have seen twice as many stars in that black sky than ever before. As they wind howls over the boat and the stars rock in the sky you sip your beer and feel very small in the universe. It really is moments like this that will stick in mind.

Before retiring to my cabin, I decided to put the underwater lights on and to my surprise there we big fish maybe 2 footers swimming just a foot below the surface.

[insert YouTube video of underwater lights fish]

The morning came and unfortunately things were pulling us back to Key West. I rounded out of the entrance channel and we took the waves head on for our return trip

[insert YouTube video of waves head on ]

Just as we were arriving back in Key West we passed this sport fisher towing a small commercial fishing boat. It’s a long way home at tow speed.

I leave y’all with a reminder to never go to long before starring up at the stars and a dinghy sunset pic from Dry Tortugas