Day 88 - 3 March

The Dry Tortugas are legally an unincorporated part of Monroe County, Florida and the Lower Keys. The Dry Tortugas National Park consists of seven islands, or keys and the surrounding reef. Located on Garden Key is Fort Jefferson, the largest 19th century American coastal fort. The fort is surrounded by a moat which now serves to protect the walls of the fort from weather by breaking the waves before they reach the walls. The light that was built on Garden Key just visible in the center picture above the walls has now been replaced by a lighthouse on Loggerhead Key, the largest island of the Tortugas which can be seen in the map on the right and in the photo below.

We left Marathon and headed for Key West at 6:00AM to get on one of the two ferryboats to Dry Tortugas National Park at 7:30AM. The ferry we took was the less expensive and was run by Sunny Days (http://www.drytortugas.com/) and advertises itself as the fastest ferry and the name of the boat name is Fast Cat. The cost was $120/adult with a $10 discount for seniors (over 62). The other ferry was Yankee Freedom II (http://yankeefreedom.com/) and cost $149/adult. It advertises itself as the largest, most stable and comfortable way to get to the fort. Both vessels were there today. The tours advertised by the ferry services are actually run by a Park Service Ranger who conducts a guided tour of Fort Jefferson.

We would have preferred to sail Windreka the 70 miles from Key West to the Dry Tortugas and pictured her in the natural harbor in front of Fort Jefferson. However, the weather conditions weren't right and we were concerned about getting stuck for several days while we waited for the weather to clear. So, the second best thing was to take a ferry to the Dry Tortugas. As it was, the trip back was a bit rough and the Fast Cat wasn't as fast as it was advertised to be. In fact it frequently had to slow down to avoid bashing into high waves and deep troughs on the way back to Key West...but that was all right with those of us who value safety and comfort over recklessness and discomfort.

Bush Key is the closest to Garden Key and is not open to the public for several months of the year. It's the habitat for Sooty Terns which nest during the restricted months (September thru April) and we could see many of them flying above the island. The shoal area to the left of Bush Key is part of the channel into the harbor at Garden Key which is just visible at the lower left of the photo on the right.

Frigate birds are another winged inhabitant of the Dry Tortugas. These amazing birds have a wing span of seven feet, yet only weigh about three pounds soaking wet. Hundreds of them can be seen soaring on the thermals above the fort. Except for flapping their wings to climb into the air to find the thermals and to land, they seem to glide effortlessly overhead enjoying themselves and not making any sound that we could hear. What a life!

In addition to the birds and the lovely water, Fort Jefferson is the main attraction at Dry Tortugas. The Fort was built as part of the system of coastal defenses built between 1817 and 1867. Within a half mile of Fort Jefferson is a natural anchorage bowl of approximately 50 feet deep and two miles in diameter...the only anchorage between Chesapeake Bay and the Rio Grande deep enough to host the battleships of 1898. The guns of Fort Jefferson commanded the anchorage and with a fleet of battleships berthed in the anchorage and scouts spread out over the navigable waters nearby, naval control could be exerted over the Gulf of Mexico and the nearby islands of the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

Construction of the fort was never completed and during the Civil War, it remained in Union hands and became a military prison for captured deserters. You can read more about the Dry Tortugas at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_Tortugas and enjoy the photos we took while we were there. The official National Park Service web site for the Dry Tortugas is: http://www.nps.gov/drto/

The big powder magazine is depicted on the first photo. There were several powder magazines planned or built and this was the largest. If it's readable on the weblog, the plans for the powder magazines is outlined on the next photo. The third photo shows the bins where the powder was to be stored inside the magazine.
Inside the fort looking north toward the US Park Service rangers' apartments and the foundations of the officers' barracks. The big magazine would be just behind the fort structure on the right hand side of the photo.


Fort Jefferson was constructed with arches everywhere. The coral limestone foundation for the fort was inadequate to support the heavy weight of the fort walls and the installed weapons and the arches helped reinforce the walls. In addition, well over a hundred cisterns were built into the walls all around the perimeter of the fort to catch and hold rainfall as the only source existing source of fresh water without having to import it.



Arches were also a strategic engineering plan to help deflect cannon shot from an attacking vessel and if the shot hit the fort and did damage, the arches helped ensure the walls would not collapse.





The old lighthouse on top of the fort is another example of the heavy weight the walls of the fort were asked to support.








Looking toward the west with the foundations of the officers' barracks and the Park rangers' apartments in the background.










The casement windows all around the fort were once protected by iron shutters that opened when the cannon was moved into firing position. After the cannon was fired, the recoil pushed the cannon back into the casement and the shutters closed automatically to protect the crew of the cannon until they were ready to fire the next shot. Unfortunately, the shutters were made of iron and didn't last long in the salt air. Neither did the bricks and mortar surrounding the casements. There is currently a three-year project going on to repair and restore the shutters, brick work and mortar around the casement windows.

Still another heavy item located on the top of the fort walls were the huge parrott rifles. The parrot rifles were an innovation that improved the accuracy, range and lethality of artillery. Grooves were cut into the barrel of the cannon to impart a spin on the artillery shells that stabilized them in flight and enabled them to travel further and do more damage (compare the range of a football to a basketball). Interestingly, the development of the parrott rifle also made the series of forts that made up the defenses of the coastal United States obsolete. That's one of the reasons Fort Jefferson was never finished.

The building on the right is a "hot shot" furnace, where cannon shot was heated to cherry red color before it was fired at enemy vessels. The idea was to set the enemy ships on fire. What's not clear is how the hot shot was to be moved to the cannon for firing...or maybe I missed a key part of the concept!





During its role as a Civil War Union prison, probably the most famous of the "residents" at Fort Jefferson was Dr. Samuel Mudd, one of four men convicted of complicity in Abraham Lincoln's assasination. These prisoners were housed in one of the casements and the walls were bricked over except for the narrow "gun slits" at the top of the walls. These slits represented the only ventilation the cell had. In addition, rainwater was collected by the prisoners by digging trenches and catch basins in the floor of the cell to catch the rain that leaked into the cell from the roof of the fort whenever it rained. It doesn't sound like life was pleasant for these prisoners! When the fort surgeon was stricken with malaria and died, Dr. Mudd volunteered to treat the soldiers and prisoners at the fort. For this action, Dr. Mudd was later pardoned.

Spiral staircases were the means of getting from one level to the next of the fort. The steps were large rectangular granite stones set into the walls of the fort around a central vertical axis. This technique of constructing steps was a common way of making strong stairwells. One other example of this construction is the Old Executive Office Building east of the White House. The steps in the OEOB were much larger and wider and just as strong. Neither steps moved when you stepped on them!

After the return trip to Key West, we ended the day at Mallory Square for one last viewing of the sunset and the various street performers. We didn't actually watch the sun set since it probably looked like it did the last time. We did catch a neat shot of the sun as it sank low behind the sailboat on the right. There are many opportunities for such interesting photos and if you don't have a camera, there is no shortage of street vendors who will sell you a photo they have on display. One act we wanted to see this time was the Great Rondini who was a Houdini-like "escape" artist. We never saw Houdini perform, but the Great Rondini was both humorous and successfully "escaped" from a strait jacket and chains that volunteers from the audience wrapped around him. The volunteer in this photo was named Anna and her role was to be embarassed as Rondini cracked his jokes. All in all, not a bad act and we left a tip for him. It was interesting to see his children laying behind the green platform playing with their Ipods and ignoring their dad's performance...probably heard it one too many times.

After leaving Mallory Square, we decided to have one more meal in Key West and stopped at the Turtle Kraals again for a light dinner. On the way we passed another key lime pie factory and couldn't resist taking another pie back to Marathon with us...after all a boat without a key lime pie is like a day without sunshine. This one would last us until we got back to Miami...now that's discipline!

Day 87 - 2 March

Day 86 - 1 March

The only thing to report here is that we dropped Phil off at the Marathon airport to catch the Greyhound bus to Fort Lauderdale and his plane back to Virginia. We were saddened by his departure and both of us returned to Windreka wondering where the week had gone. We don't often say this about visitors to our home on the water, but Phil was a worthy shipmate and we had a lot of fun during the week he spent with us. We wish he could have stayed longer!

Later in the day we joined friends and fellow Whitby sailors, Pat, Greg and Judy for lunch at the No Name Pub (You Found It!) on...where else...No Name Key. We ordered our own pizza and had enough for two more meals on the boat.

Day 85 - 29 February

Question: How does a sailboater celebrate the 29th of February?

Answer: Visit the Turtle Hospital in Marathon (http://www.turtlehospital.org/), the Shipwreck Museum (http://www.shipwreckhistoreum.com/) and Mel Fisher Museum (http://www.melfisher.org/) in Key West...and, of course, the mandatory pilgrimage to Mallory Square!

It was an interesting and full day. We returned to Key West to do some land touring and to act like several of the thousands of tourists who flock to this Margaritaville and madness mecca.

However, before we headed to Key West, we visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. The hospital is a unique organization with a mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and release sea turtles that are injured either by the negligence of humans or by one of their natural predators...sharks, for example. Peggy was our guide and gave us a lecture to introduce us to sea turtles and the work of the hospital. Sea turtles are found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. There are seven species of sea turtles: flatback, green, hawksbill, Kemp's Ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and olive ridley.
The leatherback is the only sea turtle that does not have a hard shell. Instead, it has a mosaic of bony plates beneath its leathery skin. The loggerhead is the largest of the sea turtles, measuring six or seven feet in length at maturity, three to five feet in width, and weighing up to 1300 pounds. Other species are smaller, for example, two to four feet in length.

A turtle is considered injured when it is found floating on the surface of the ocean and can't dive under. Anyone who spots a turtle in this condition...whether or not there is any other evidence of distress...can call the Turtle Hospital who will arrange to have the injured turtle brought to the hospital. The hospital receives as many as 70 injured sea turtles a year and has released more than 750 sea turtles to date. The hospital uses the services of a volunteer reptile vetrinarian and has the ability to perform surgery. There is even one turtle that is being fitted with a prosthetic device to replace the flipper lost to a shark

After an informative and interesting hour, we headed for Key West. Our first stop was at the Turtle Kraals for lunch. The restaurant is located on the site of a green turtle "corral" which was once used to produce green sea turtle soup before the turtles became an endangered species. In retrospect, this was an interesting contrast…first we visited a place dedicated to the preservation of turtles and then we visited a place where turtles were slaughtered to make soup. Lunch was very good and turtle soup wasn’t on the menu! While we were eating a contingent of “suits” trooped in and sat at a table near us. At the same time, several armed Customs and Border Protection agents took up strategic positions surrounding the restaurant. Of course, Sarah couldn’t resist moving in on one agent and inquiring what was going on, who they were protecting, etc. I’m not certain she learned anything, but she did manage to get her photo taken with one of the agents!

After lunch we visited the Shipwreck Historeum where we learned the story of the Florida Keys wreckers or shipwreck salvagers. The wreckers began their trade on Key West in the 1800s and made Key West one of the most prosperous location in the United States. In the mid-1800s ships were piling up on the reef at the rate of nearly one a week. The museum is a reconstruction of a wreckers warehouse containing items salvaged from the Issac Allerton which sank on the reef in 1856 and was the largest individual award by the federal court in Florida…or wrecking court…in the history of wrecking.

Above the warehouse/museum is a tower the wreckers used to keep a lookout for ships grounding on the reef. When a ship went aground on the reef, the cry from the tower of “Wreck Ashore” alerted the town and the race began to lay hands on the hull to claim salvage rights. The dark side of the humanitarian work of the wreckers is the rumor that some navigation lights were moved to mislead ships approaching the reef…now who would think of doing something like that?

The second stop on our touring itinerary was the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which contains items salvaged from the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha (Our Lady of Atocha) which was the most famous of a fleet of Spanish ships that sank in 1622 off the Florida Keys while carrying copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, jewels, jewelery and indigo from Spanish ports in the Western Hemisphere. In 1622 the Atocha was driven by a hurricane onto the coral reefs near the Dry Tortugas.

In case you don’t remember the story, American treasure hunter Mel Fisher and a team of sub-contractors, funded by investors and others in a joint venture, searched for the Atocha for 16 and a half years; potential helpers were discouraged by the fact that this dangerous professional diving job was at minimum wage unless the ship was found. The Atocha wreck and its mother lode of silver, gold and emeralds was finally discovered in 1985. After the discovery, the U.S. government claimed title to the wreck, and the State of Florida seized many of the items retrieved by Mel Fisher. After eight years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of Fisher and the items on display in the museum are owned by the Fisher family.

After we left the museum, we discovered a neat place we wish we had included on our itinerary…the Key West Museum of Art and History. It looks like it would have been an interesting tour, but it was closed when we discovered it and we had other things on our agenda. Actually, we missed a number of interesting things like President Truman’s Little White House, the Custom House Museum, the Key West Lighthouse Museum, the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, etc. We did manage to snag a photo of a couple standing outside the door of the Art and History Museum and had our pictures taken with one of the more famous Key West celebrities...we think he wrote a story about an old man and a fish...probably true since he had a fishing rod in his hand when we found him!

It was now time for the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square and we hurried to the bulkhead to take our place with several hundred close friends. Predictably, the sun set at the appointed time and the crowd went wild. Before and afterwards we walked around the square to catch a few of the street performers who work for tips…some of them even were talented. All were entertaining and since we were going to be in Key West to visit Dry Tortugas, we’ll probably drop by to see if we missed anything.

Perhaps we'll even be back to celebrate the next "Leap Year!"

One last item...on our way back to the car to return to Marathon, we stopped at the Key Lime Pie Factory (http://www.blondgiraffe.com/) and bought a whole pie. After we got back to the boat, the three of us ate half of the pie with no apologies for our indulgence. It was wonderful and worth every calorie. It may even live up to its advertisement "Best Key Lime Pie in Key West and Florida...5 years in a row!"

Day 84 - 28 February

We got serious about land touring today and stopped by the visitors center at Big Pine Key on the way to Key West to learn about what there was to offer us. This was our first excursion into the heart of the Conch Republic and we wanted to be certain we didn't miss anything. So, we picked up a handful of brochures and the first thing we learned was about the $200+ rooms in Key West. We decided Hotel Windreka was the best deal, so we planned to drive the 50 miles back to Marathon from the end of US1 and Mile 0.

The first stop on our trip south was at the Florida Keys National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key. The refuge is a federally protected habitat for a number of endangered creatures and plant life. Trivia question: The term "hammock" is used frequently to describe some locations. What does "hammock" mean? Answer: tropical hardwood forest...or at least that's what we think.

The Key Deer Refuge is over 84,000 acres located in the Lower Keys on 25 islands. The Key Deer is a sub-species of the Virginia white-tailed deer and the current population is estimated at about 750. Read about the National Refuge at: http://nationalkeydeer.fws.com/. We visited the Blue Hole site visitor center which is an abandoned limestone quarry that is filled by rainfall and salt water that flows in through the surrounding limestone. We didn't see any crocodiles, but we did see an iguanna and watched a sea eagle at work fishing in the blue hole.

After our stop at the Key Deer Refuge, we headed directly for Key West and stopped at the Welcome Center just off US1 on the northeast edge of town to enquire about a place to park, a place to eat lunch, and pick up a map. We found a garage at $10/day on the edge of the historic waterfront, parked and walked around the waterfront to find Alonzo's. After lunch we headed for an Old Town Trolley stop for a guided tour of the town to help us decide what we wanted to see when we returned tomorrow. We've had good experience with Trolley tours (http://www.historictours.com/) at other locations and the cost of the Trolley and the more famous Conch Tour Train was the same. Also, the Trolley tour consisted of one car full of people and the Conch Train tour consisted of several "train" cars full. We felt as if we got more personal treatment.

After the Trolley tour, we headed for Mallory Square to scope out what the "Sunset Celebration" is all about. The Square is located on the northern edge of Duvall Street, facing the Gulf of Mexico where tourists can watch the sun setting each night. The tradition includes arts and crafts exhibitors, street performers, food carts, psychics, etc. beginning two hours before sunset. We don't know how long the celebration goes on since we left right after sunset to drive back to Hotel Windreka in Marathon. Maybe tomorrow when we return for some more touring we'll stay longer.

Day 83 - 27 February

Damage in the vicinity of Windreka from the squall that went through yesterday included a flooded dinghy and outboard motor belonging to the trawler in the slip next to us. Joe checked Windreka's dock lines a couple of times and this morning tightened them and added a fenderboard between Windreka and the piling on her starboard side. The deck was cleaner than it had been before the rain and everything was drying nicely in the wind.

Due to the weather...windy and rainy...we're touring the Middle and Lower Keys. We rented a car from Avis and picked it up at the airport. We would have preferred Enterprise since they will deliver the car on pickup and deliver you back to your origin on dropoff. However, the only cars they had available were more expensive than Avis. So, we called for a yellow cab that picked us up at the Marina, As a bonus, the driver gave us some advice on places to get lunch and dinner and places to visit.

We ate lunch at the Wreck in Marathon where our cab driver said they had the best key lime pie in the Keys...it was pretty good! We stopped at a visitors' center in Islamorada and picked up a few brochures and a couple of books. Once again, we were dismayed by the lack of knowledge of many of the things we wanted to see. It wasn't the visitors' center fault since there is no single source of visitors' information we have come to expect when we travel for relaxation in other areas.

After the visitors center, we drove north toward Tavernier to visit the "historic" old town and were a bit disappointed in what we saw. All we found was a few run-down buildings and a few new ones, so we moved along quickly. We turned around and drove south again to the History of Diving Museum at mile marker 83. The Museum is a well-organized private collection of diving apparatus and its history. We spent about an hour going through the museum. Preview it at: http://www.divingmuseum.org/.

Down the road in Islamogorda, we passed an eclectic collection of crafts and artwork. We stopped and spent about a half hour looking over the collection of things for sale before moving on.

Our next stop was to feed the Tarpon at Robbie's http://www.robbies.com/. At first we thought the Tarpon were penned up in tight enclosure to be harassed by Florida tourists trying to get close and personal. However, the Tarpon seem to gather around the dock pilings and hang out there during the day. Toward evening, the Tarpon all head out toward the channel to hunt for their dinner. Apparently, during the day, the Tarpon are fed by the tourists. When the tourists go home for the evening, the fish all head out to dine in the ocean. The next day the fish return to start the cycle again.

After our visit to Robbie's, we stopped at Publix grocery store to top off our food reserves. Afterwards, we drove back to marina to settle in, have dinner, and look at how the weather will impact our plans in the morning. High on our accended is to visit the Turtle Hospital here in Marathon before going anywhere else.

If the weather doesn't break by Friday, we'll probably drive to Key West early on Friday and spend the night so we can drop Phil off to catch his bus north to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. If the weather breaks, we can drive Windreka down to Key West on Friday where we can drop Phil off to catch his bus on Saturday.

As I'm closing the log, we've got 30-35 knots of wind from the north and the skies are clearing. The temperature is 66 degrees.