Voyage 2000: Chapter 5

Dry Tortugas and Back

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Our dingy trip to Loggerhead Key was not without excitement. For several minutes we were accompanied by a large (nearly five feet) barracuda. Being the coward that we are, we waited for his departure before we waded ashore. The Park Service recently cleared the Australian pines from Loggerhead. They are hoping that native species will take over. Though they did it a couple of years ago, the place looks rather bare. Park rules prohibit camping on Loggerhead, we returned to the anchorage and the Jule III.

Bob is a complete coward when it comes to heights. He has been that way all of his life. So mast duties are delegated to Ann. She went aloft to inspect the rigging and to take a few aerial pictures of the anchorage. I was winch-boy, hoisting her up when she wanted to go up and down when she wanted to go down. She indicated that she really enjoyed the view. Not sure if she ever inspected the rigging.

S/V Chatauqua (38' Shannon ketch) arrived at the anchorage a few days after us. They had left Connecticut in the fall. After securing their boat, they invited us over for drinks. They gave us some tips on visiting the Bahamas and indicated that they may try Bermuda (and they did). Their tips provided the necessary encouragement to us to undertake a trip to the Bahamas. They had a single sideband radio which enabled us to keep in touch the remainder of our voyage (email helped also).

S/V Tell Me Something Good arrived at the Dry Tortugas shortly before we did. Pat and Laurie had recently acquired their boat and were still learning some of the tricks. They were 'home schooling their two kids. They also invited us to dinner – meatless pizza. It was quite tasty. Tell Me Something Good was running a little low on diesel so we gave them 5 gallons from one of our jerry cans. Later they returned the favor by handing over some ice (we don't have an ice maker).

Fort Jefferson is a neat place to explore. Except when the boats from Key West bring the tourists, we had the Fort to ourselves. The Park Rangers provide tours during the day. In addition, they started twilight tours for the boaters and campers (they have 11 primitive camp sites). The Easterlies were becoming constant so the temperature was often in the high 80's This made outside exploring less than fun but inside the fort was always cool.

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