Great Loop Adventures Aboard Next Chapter: The Dry Tortugas

After Mark and Nancy left, Poseidon treated us to a rare weather window to allow us to go out to the Dry Tortugas which is 75 miles to the west. We were up early and left at first light. Once we past the Marquesas we had a period where we lost sight of land until Fort Jefferson showed up on the horizon. It turned out that there was five other Looper boats from a different marina heading there also.

The water was such an amazing color all the way. We anchored right in the small harbor right in front of the fort. Along the way we managed to catch a errant piece of line in our prop so first order of business was to put on my dive gear and go cut it off. The water was crystal clear. While I was working below the boat I had a visitor. It was a 250 lb plus Goliath Grouper that was about four feet long. He was very curious about me for some reason so much so at one point I got uncomfortable so I tapped him on the nose with my fin. He backed off but a few minutes later he showed back up and was right in my face. So I gently reached out and pushed him back.

He finally got the message seemed to honor my personal space. I must say I was quite intimidated by his size but an exhilarating experience none the less. What I would have given to have a camera! Sue was topside watching him swim around under the boat wondering if this was going to be an updated version of Jonah and the Whale!

We enjoyed hiking around the Fort and hearing the history of how it was built and it’s significance of the times. Couple of quick facts. It contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 million bricks all of which had to be brought by ship from as far away as Maine. There is no potable water source hence the word Dry in the name. Due to it’s location on the straights of Florida it was a strategic stronghold to protect the inland rivers which at the time was the life line of our developing nation.

And lastly, during the civil war it was occupied by the Union! We spent a day over at Loggerhead Island which was a quick 3 mile dinghy ride. The reef along the island is one of the healthiest we have seen in a long time. We were teased by numerous large lobster that somehow knew they were in protected waters. The sunsets and sunrises were epic showing off an almost pink hue.

The sound of conch horns serenading the sunsets was magical. We also looked over a couple of Cuban Chugs that were beached on shore. They looked like they had been there for decades yet the park ranger said the oldest one was less than a week old. As some of you may have heard, there is a mass exodus out of Cuba due to deplorable economic conditions and new draconian laws that go into effect forbidding Cubans from leaving the country. Watching the float planes come in and take off never gets old. On our second night one of the bigger Looper boats hosted an extended Happy Hour with over a dozen folks. At one point during the evening we saw a UFO! Now I know I will take a ration over this but everybody onboard saw it. Most were unwilling to even try to offer a guess as to what it was. That’s pretty amazing with all the captains present who usually have an opinion about everything. Yes there was both pictures and video, none of which accurately portrayed what we saw. The morning of our departure we again were treated to a magical sunrise shortly after which we hauled the anchor and set a course back to Key West. The Dry Tortugas deservedly earned a place in our top ten experiences on the Loop.