The Dry Tortugas Adventures – Part 1 “Things that go bump in the night”
Wednesday 24th – Thursday 25th February 2021
We are back in the world after a wild and wonderful trip to the Dry Tortugas. We left there at 4 am this morning and sailed (with some help from the motor) in a generally easterly direction for 12 hours covering just over 80 nautical miles. We’re a bit knackered now – but happy. The light south-westerly breezes of this morning gradually turned west and then north west and strengthened as a mild cold front came through. We are heading back to Boot Key harbor in Marathon but pulled into somewhat protected bay about 20 miles short. We didn’t want to get stuck on a lee shore outside of Boot Key contemplating the entrance channel in the dark at low tide, so this seemed like a good spot to stop. It was blowing 15-20 knots when we arrived but it’s settled down now and it’s quite comfortable. Our current position is just off Sugar Loaf Key, tucked in behind Key Lois … 24 36.871 N, 81 27.596 W. We did make a start writing a blog about our Tortugas adventures and there are of course lots of photos. So what follows is part 1 of our story for this part of the trip …
Visiting the Dry Tortugas has been our ambitions for many years. We tried to take the ferry when we were staying in Key West several years ago but it was fully booked on the days we wanted. Having spent a month a month on the dock we were somewhat apprehensive about getting going again, particularly to somewhere as remote as the Dry Tortugas. The journey turned out to be a wild ride.
We left Key West Bight Marina at about 10.30 am and motored west for two hours to anchor on the west side of Boca Grande. Setting the anchor was challenging and took us two attempts before we were happy. There was very little wind and conditions were pretty much calm, but the anchorage was surprisingly rolly, perhaps due to a combination of ocean swells and strong tidal currents. It was also really warm, so we went for a swim off the boat. Two more sailboats arrived a couple of hours before sunset. One of these boats called “XTC”, operated by three middle aged / elderly gentlemen, initially anchored between us and a large mega-yacht close-by, but the crew of the mega-yacht came over and asked them to move because they were too close and would collide when the tidal current reversed. We then watched them re-anchor ... what a fiasco, almost on top of a lobster pot and with no effort to reverse the boat and set and check the security of the anchor. We enjoyed the sunset eating our pork and cider casserole in the cockpit and then went to bed. At 10.30 pm I was awakened by a loud clunk which sounded like it came from the anchor chain. My first thought was that our anchor had lost it’s tenuous holding and so I jumped out of bed and went up on deck with a flashlight to investigate only to find the stern of “XTC” banging into our bow. I had to shout to wake them up – they hadn’t realized that they were dragging and had clearly not set any anchor alarm. I managed to mostly hold them off while thy got their engine started and with difficulty motored clear. They then continued to drag across our anchor chain and then swing in to bounce off the other side of our boat. At least at this point I had some fenders out. With great confusion, on account of none of them knowing what the hell they were doing, they managed to drive forward and by some miracle get their anchor up without pulling up our chain. A few moments later I thought they were trying to re-anchor right next to us, so I screamed across that they were much too close. They replied they weren’t trying to anchor but to clear the crab pot they stuck to their anchor. Well “dipshits”, that’s what happens when you drop your hook on a lobster pot! We spent the rest of the night trying to sleep in the main cabin. There is nothing like a good night’s sleep and this was nothing like a good night’s sleep! In the early morning when it was still dark we saw no sign of “XTC” and started to worry that perhaps they had been dragged out in the open ocean. However, once it got light and we were preparing to depart we could once again see them … of course, they had no anchor light on!
We departed Boca Grande in freshening breezes. After motor sailing for an hour, to charge batteries and run the fridge, we switched off the engine and had an excellent sail on a broad reach for the remaining 45 nautical miles to the Dry Tortugas. The winds were 13-15 knots out the NE and we made consistent speed of around 7 knots over the ground. The seas were quite lumpy (maybe 3-4 feet but short period) and there is no land in sight so it felt like open-ocean sailing. The skies were cloudless, clear blue and we saw dolphins, turtles, lots of big flying fish, a masked booby and a brown booby. We anchored off the fort in 20ft depth with a 100ft of chain out - that's what having someone drag into your boat does for your confidence! When we went ashore to register, the park ranger told us you can anchor anywhere within 1 mile of the fort and although where we are anchored is the most popular spot it has the poorest holding! We are expecting high winds over the weekend so we will see how it goes.
The area looks absolutely stunning and there are relatively few people around. Well it is 60 nautical miles to the nearest habitation! We were surprised to realize that the Bahamas are as close to the east coast of Florida as the Dry Tortugas are from Key West. There are maybe a dozen boats here and two float planes fly in visitors from Key west, but the main high-speed ferry that normally brings tourists down for day trips is currently not running because it blew an engine last week.
Mike
24 43.770 N, 82 42.695 W
Really looks speedy!
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