Dry Tortugas (Feb 23 - Feb 26)

Saturday February 23, 2013

24 37.569 N

82 52.217 W

The fast cat

We were up by 6:15 AM and underway at a few minutes before 7 AM. The sun was coming up but it was already quite bright, we could have left ½ hour earlier. Soon after 8 PM, the Dry Tortugas Fast Catamaran tourist boat roared past us at over 25 kts. We will take 9+ hours to do the distance that  they take 2½ hours.

We had picked the weather perfectly. The water was an amazing blue color and the wind less than 10 kts out of the south. We settled down for a long trip. The main leg of our trip was 50 miles without a change in course. By more luck than judgment we seemed to ride a tide 75% of the day so made good time. Another bonus – few crab pots. Looked like we would shave almost an hour off travel time and arrive about 4PM

Deidre finds these long days boring, I find them relaxing and quite enjoyable. As we made distance our phone and internet connections died. Conversations on the VHF were infrequent and in Spanish. We could pick up a few commercial radio transmissions. The engines purred on…….

(I think this is a recording of Fidel and Raoul chatting about political prisoners)

Land Ho!!

The island and the fort were in sight by 3PM. We poked our nose into the East anchorage but it seemed too narrow for us so we ran around the island into the southern anchorage. There were 6 boats in place and not a lot of room. We soon discovered that the chart was totally wrong and so we had to survey the depths for our own spot. We dropped the anchor in what seemed very shallow water, but part of the “problem” was that the water was so clear it looked like it was inches deep. The anchor set like a rock, the batteries were at 100%, the ‘fridge was cold, seemed like paradise to me.

Goliath Grouper under Tide Hiker

To our north was the fort on Garden Key. To the east was XXX Key with a curl of sandy beach. South of us was the coral reef – we could see the breakers. West is open to Loggerhead Key about 2 miles away, but with a very shallow reef in between. The water was “clear as crystal” and perfectly blue, easy to see the grass growing on the sand. The local “giant groupers” came over to welcome us. There seemed to be 3 or 4, all well over 6 feet long (So much for Deidre taking a swim!).

Sunset?

We settled on the boat deck with a beer (and green tea) to watch the sunset. Dinner was tuna patties and salad – yum! After the sun set the humidity descended on us like a wet blanket. You could just about see it. Everything in the boat seemed wet, the bed felt wet as we went to sleep. 

Sunday February 24, 2013

Another perfect and sunny day. After running up the batteries we launched the dink and went ashore to register with the Park Rangers and have a look around. A bit of background about the fort:

        * Building started in the 1840s

       *  Intention was to protect access to and from the Gulf, and as a naval military coaling base

       *  The famous “Maine” coaled here immediately before meeting it's fate in Havana Harbor

       *  It is second largest brick structure in the world – second only to the Great Wall of China

        * All sorts of big guns but never fired a shot in anger

        * Used as a prison during the Civil War

Sea Plane

We did the self guided tour and took some photos, quite interesting. The tourist catamaran arrived about 10:30 with 30 or so people. Two sea planes arrived with a few people. After our stroll we went back for lunch and to get our togs/swimmers and snorkels/goggles. Deidre and I snorkeled around the perimeter wall of the fort. Whatever coral there ever was is now dead, but the supply of fish was impressive.

On the beach we met up with a boating couple we had first met at Bock Marine in NC. We talked about taking a group of dinghies over to Loggerhead the next day. After a few hours in the sun we had had enough and went back to the boat for a shower and some shade. There were 4 “Goliath Groupers” under the boat. At dusk I fired up the big gen and cranked up the AC for a few hours. Cooked burgers on the grill. We watched the OSCARs “red carpet” show on CNN but could not get the actual show, watched “Tootsie” in lieu.

Monday February 25, 2013

How blue is that?

When we got up “everybody” had left! (There were two sailboats remaining, but the rest had gone). Of course, that gave me the heebee-geebees. I had looked at the official forecast the night before and the weather was worsening, but it had been perfect, so it could hardly get better. True, the wind this morning was a bit “fresher” than the last 24 hours. It seems I am a nervous boater, so “we” decided to leave.

As a compromise, we decided to anchor at an isolated island on the way back, about 20 miles short of Key West. Called Boca Grande Key, it is a small island, surround by reefs and shallows but with a decent anchorage area.  The seas turned out to be a bit rough – not that bad, but “awkward”. The conditions seemed to upset the ice maker the most, and some time about mid day Deidre found the salon floor covered with water.

We are anchored in about 15’ of water alongside a deserted little island by about 4 PM. We have good shelter from the south, OK from the north and a bit open from the west. It’s nice and calm now. Should be a good night.

Tuesday February 26th, 2013

Looks nice enough - Bocca Grande Key

Was not such a restful night. The tidal current through the channel was really strong. Strong enough to spin our props - that's a first. The anchor seemed secure enough,  but the current changed directions 4 times when we were there and that is not easy on an anchor. Of course the anchor alarm went off at about 3 AM and it was "all hands on deck". The wind had also built and the boat was really squirrely.  The anchor seemed to re-set, but I made some hot chocolate and sat up in the pilot house for a couple of hours. It was a bit spooky.

We could now get the NWS marine forecast which indicated that the winds would peter out after lunch. We did not have far to go (25 miles) but by 2PM we needed to get rolling. And "rolling" we did!

The "entrance" was over a fairly shallow bar (maybe 10' to 15' deep) and the rollers that had built up over night in the Atlantic had nowhere to go but "up". Needless to say Tide Hiker did OK but the crew suffered a bit of stress. Deidre has authorized me to say they waves were 8' to 12' high, close together and very steep. It was our baptism. Anything not tied or glued down decided to learn to fly. Deidre tells me she wanted to cry, but decided it would not help, so did not. What a girl! I was worried that we could hit the bottom, but Tide Hiker kept her poise and we made it out to deep water, where we turned East.

Now we had a beam sea, not as sharp but still steep. It is in these conditions that Tide Hiker's stabilizers shine. But 10 minutes into the new course we started to hear a horrible noise/vibration. Our first reaction was that we had been buzzed by an F16 - there had been a few around. Obviously not, I headed for the ER with my heart pounding. All seemed OK in the ER, the "Bad noise" was less obvious. Back on deck I circled the boat looking for the source. No dice. Back in the ER I observed that the Stabilizer pressure guages were gyrating in the same pattern as the noise.

I immediately shut the stabilizers down and the noise went away! But now Tide Hiker started to roll like a banshee. Deidre wanted the Pilot House doors closed as she was concerned she could be pitched out! We altered course to "quarter" the waves but that did not help that much. Things were starting to crash around again. So I made an executive decision and turned the stabilizers back on - and they ran like a charm!

Back at the mooring field by 5:00 PM. Happy campers.

Some Extra Photos:

Going ashore

Two float planes, two yachts and Tide Hiker

The big gun

The moat

Our neighbors day 1

Inside the fort