Leaving Gasparilla Marina

Leaving Gasparilla, their light house

We left Gasparella Marina late Wed Oct 23rd around 4pm, and set sail for the Dry Tortguas. The wind had turned more north so we thought it would be the best time to leave, we had way outstayed our time there, the marina is a depressing and unhappy place, way to much drama and strife there. The marina is so far away from anything that there is nothing for the people to do, they just get on each others nerves. The no-see-ems where so bad there also!

 The sail was a wild and moving adventures, the seas kept building and building till we were sliding down some 25ft and bigger waves! We did have falling seas, so that was a help but we were reaching some 7+ knots at times so we had to keep reefing in the main, we lost Brain and Angie that night and did not see them again till the following day when we had already reached the Dry Totugas and were anchored up! Wow! is all can say about that sail! Lots of bruises!

Dry Tortugas

 The Dry Totugas is a amazing place, we got to know the park rangers, they live on the island for 8 to 9 days and then they get to go to the mainland for a long weekend and back they come, after talking to them, they love it! Everyday the Yankee Freedom comes in from Key West bringing a slew of people to walk, snorkel and hangout. The crew was a hoot and we got along famously with them! They let us throw away our garbage in the bin so we did not have to worry about that! Bad thing in the DT is there is no garbage cans and they take NO garbage, so people leave garbage all over the fort! We had two huge grouper take up residence under the boat and one of them was well 600lbs and the other one was about 300lbs. They were alot of fun, the big one was as big as our dingy, we got my underwater camera out and watched them swim around.

   There was only three sailboats there, us, Brian and Angie and another couple from Gasparilla of all places! There were a bunch of fishing boat that came and went every day and night, with the winds howling, they used the Dry Tortugas for shelter from the high seas. The good thing is they loved to share the fish.

   We did go to shore almost everyday and got to explore the fort, that was so cool, I love to think about all the people that lived there and the prisoners that were kept there, Dr Mudd was held there for 4 years   We saw the cell he stayed in, there were no bars or anything like that because no one could escape! 

Yankee Freedom

Fort Jefferson

The side of the fort where you can swim

Where the boats dock

They kept the anmo here

Adagio

the middle of the fort

anchorage

the other side of the fort

Angie found this starfish

Lots of birds

entrance