Weather forecast for March 18, 2019:
Dry Tortugas Anchorage, Garden Key, Florida
Low 68 high 75
North winds, 15 to 20 kts
Captain’s Log: March 12, 2019 thru March 17, 2019
With the business trips and travels north now behind us, it was time to start preparing in earnest for our cruise to the Dry Tortugas. Our plan was to depart Skipjack on Tuesday, March 12th, and head for our first anchorage at Bahia Honda; only a 15-mile cruise.
From Bahia Honda we would sail to Stock Island, a 28-mile jump, where our daughter Erica and son-in-law Shawn would join the crew at Ocean's Edge Marina. An anchorage off of the Marquesas Islands would be our next hop, another 28-mile cruise, and our departure point for the Dry Tortugas. The Marquesas-to-Tortugas leg would be 41 miles of open water.
At 10:30am, and with a rousing send-off from our Skipjack neighbors, we left the dock. We had originally thought that our stay in Marathon would last, at most, a couple of weeks. Now, after four months, we were finally leaving. Obviously, we adjusted to life in the Keys quite well.
It took us 30 minutes to motor out of Boot Key Harbor and into open water where we set the sails for the first time in almost three months. We were rusty. We had trouble with our big genoa and I had to climb out on the bow sprit while under sail to untangle the furling line. With that messed cleared up, the rest of the cruise was uneventful. We dropped anchor in the protected waters of the Bahia Honda State Park at 1:30pm.
We lowered the dinghy, motored to shore and spent a pleasant day exploring the park. I blew our new conch horn at 7:30pm to herald the beautiful sunset.
We were on our way shortly after daybreak the next morning. Strong winds on our nose kept the sails furled but with only 2 to 3 foot seas we made our usual 7.5 knots under power. We reached the channel to Ocean's Edge Marina before 12:30. That is when things started to get interesting.
The channel into the marina is narrow with submerged coral on the west side, 3 to 4 feet below the surface at slack tide, and a tide swing of a little less than 2 feet. Hugging the side opposite of our slip, I left the channel and slowly motored down the fairway, then I turned the bow into our slip. The wind was blowing a steady 15 to 20 knots on our port bow and it pushed the boat away from the slip. We were not going to make it; I had made too shallow of a turn. With our bowsprit dangerously close to the very expensive trawler sitting vulnerably in the slip next to us, I threw the engine into hard reverse. I then did a quick back-and-fill maneuver, and headed out of the fairway and back into the channel. We had to try again.
In the channel, as I turned hard to port, intending to re-enter the fairway, Perfect Love suddenly lurched hard, almost putting the starboard railing in the water. We had hit a choral head and the sound of rock scrapping against the hull was nauseating. Thankfully the boat quickly righted herself and we were able to continue our approach. This time I got it right. The dock master caught the midship line that Shirley had expertly thrown and, after a bit of a struggle with a strong wind pushing the bow away from the dock, we got her secured.
There just happened to be a diver scraping the hull of a big sport fisher a few slips down from our new home so, after we were all settled in, I approached him and asked if he could assess the damage to my hull. He did, and we only had three relatively minor scrapes on the port side about 2 feet up from the bottom of the keel. Our Vagabond is one tough boat! The $20 that I spotted the diver was well worth the peace of mind.
Later, as we walked from the boat to the marina bar, we passed a 65ft slip that was for sale for $999,000. A million bucks for a slip, with no condo, just a dock! Ocean's Edge is a real nice place.
Erica and Shawn arrived the next morning, Thursday, March 14th. That evening we introduced them to our friend Jonathan, the captain of a 50ft Swan docked at Ocean's Edge, and then we headed out for dinner and drinks at the Hog Fish Bar & Grille. Shirley met Jonathan, a really nice 40s-something guy from Kansas who has captained big sailboats for ten years and has sailed all over the world, on a flight into Key West two weeks earlier. We celebrated Erica's birthday the next day at the marina bar, with Jonathan, after a day spent provisioning and preparing the boat for our departure on Saturday, March 16th.
We slipped the lines at 10:00am and pointed the bow towards the Marquesas Islands. We dropped our hook at the Tin Tin Key anchorage in 11ft of water shortly after 3:00pm. A strong current, probably 2 knots, was flowing as Erica & Shawn climbed into the dinghy to do some exploring. Later, after we all tried blowing the conch, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of salad, steak and potatoes. Another beautiful sunset brought the day to an end. Tomorrow we set sail for the legendary Dry Tortugas.
We were underway the next morning before 9:00am and, after 41 miles of open ocean, we dropped our big Rocna anchor in 20ft of water in the Garden Key lagoon, just opposite the Ft. Jefferson ruins. It took us several attempts to properly set the anchor but, by 3:00pm, we were settled (or so we thought). Not 15 minutes later a Park Ranger in a center-console inflatable pulled along side, welcomed us to the Park and informed us that a storm packing heavy rain, gale-force winds and 8-to-10ft seas was predicted to hit the next day. We immediately changed our anchor rode from 4-to-1 to 8-to-1.
We shared the anchorage with four other boats; a large catamaran and three mono-hull sailboats, each of which was smaller than Perfect Love. The Key West-to-Tortugas express boat was tied to the dock and two Key West-to-Tortugas float planes were pulled up on the beach in front of the express boat. A mega-yacht sporting an inflatable, four-story slide, was anchored about a half of a mile outside of the anchorage in deeper water. The yacht was accompanied by its 25ft tender.
We splashed the dinghy, motored over to the dinghy beach, secured the dinghy and then embarked upon our initial exploration of Ft. Jefferson. We split up during this first visit with Erica and Shawn heading in one direction while Shirley and I headed in another direction. While walking the outer wall of the mote, Shirley and I saw the sails of a large schooner on the southern horizon heading towards us. It was a beautiful sight. Meanwhile, Erica and Shawn headed to the dock where several men were cleaning their very recent catches and tossing the scraps into the water. The chum had attracted a very large lemon shark and a Goliath grouper. Erica later admitted that the lemon shark had freaked her out a bit.
While all of this was going on, several float planes had arrived and then departed. It was awesome to watch the planes land and then take off in-between the anchored boats, ours included. Just before dark I noticed that the big schooner that Shirley and I saw on the horizon earlier in the day had dropped anchor in deeper water not far from the mega-yacht.
We ended our first day in the Dry Tortugas with a delicious shrimp and grits dinner followed by a marathon card game known as 'Hand and Foot'. This card game would become our nightly routine.
Until next time, may your tomorrow bring fair winds and following seas.