How We Dried Our Tortugas

After a week of prep and more provisioning, we left Marathon Marina at 10:15am on Tuesday, January 19. A slight stick in the mud at low tide but an otherwise uneventful send off. Much appreciation to Captain Matt Dowd for bringing Casstaway in after her stay on the hard. And thank-you to our boat neighbor Nancy for loaning us her car for shopping and giving us a hand with lines as we headed out.

The day was breezy, but after more than a month on land we opted to make an easy adjustment back aboard and not raise sails. Still, it was a very chilly motor to our overnight anchorage at Lois Key. We once again spent an excruciating amount of time pot watching and dodging. By day’s end Tanya’s face was sun/wind burned from sitting eagle-eyed in the stern seat and Captain Todd was feelin’ the pain.

Wednesday, January 20.  Made our first ever voyage to the Marquesas Keys, where we planned to meet-up with the crew of EWWE2, Eric and Wendy Ramsey, good friends from Regatta Pointe. We had anticipated getting together for celebratory arrival cocktails, but after a long day on the water both couples were too pooped to party. Todd and Eric barely had enough energy left to bring out the conch shells to herald sunset. Tanya noted that Eric blows better than Todd, although Todd’s conch is bigger. Todd will need to spend more time practicing his technique. The Casstaway crew grilled burgers and made an early evening of it. Before bed, a consultative weather discussion with the EWWE2 crew resulted in a joint decision to hang out in the Marquesas until Sunday when wind is predicted to pick up enough that we can at least motor-sail to the Dry Tortugas at a reasonable speed.

Although the Marquesas offer zilch in the way of exploring, with most shore and inlet water too shallow for even a kayak, they are a lovely and popular anchoring spot – we had upwards of 15 to 20 boats joining us each evening. We spent the days there doing boat chores and Todd exercised our portable generator and water-maker. It was a relaxing and fun time enjoying food, beverages and several rousing games of Rummikub with Wendy and Eric. 

On Sunday, January 24 both Casstaway and EWWE2 weighed anchor and spent the day buddy-boating our way to the Dry Tortugas. With both the main and genoa up, it was a cool, sunny, and very comfortable motor-sail.

For those unfamiliar, the Dry Tortugas are located approximately 70 miles west of Key West, Florida and a little more than 100 miles north of Cuba. Originally named Las Tortugas (The Turtles) in 1513 when discovered by Ponce de Leon, these keys became known as the “Dry” Tortugas because they have no source of fresh water. The Dry Tortugas National Park consists of seven coral and sand keys (islands) and surrounding waters that form a designated wildlife refuge that is home to the endangered green sea turtle among other threatened species. Garden Key is the site of the Fort Jefferson National Monument which served as military protection for the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean shipping channels, and Union military prison for captured deserters during the US Civil War. Although Fort Jefferson was never finished, during construction it was home to over 400 soldiers, families, and prisoners, until it was abandoned in 1874. Even though the Dry Tortugas are only accessible by boat, water ferry, and sea plane, Fort Jefferson hosts over 70,000 visitors annually.

Monday, January 25 through Wednesday, January 27 were beautiful, sunny days spent exploring historic Fort Jefferson and Loggerhead Key with Wendy and Eric. We’re all museum junkies so we enjoyed reading about life at the fort, the construction process, and the amazing weaponry. Todd appreciated the advanced architecture for the time and we both got a kick out of reading about the fort’s volunteer theatrical troupe.

The crews of Casstaway and EWWE2 took turns preparing dinner each evening. Eric sweet-talked some near-anchored fisherman into donating several snapper from their day’s catch and Todd taught him the art of fillet. Eric’s secret fish recipe? Old Bay seasoning, foil wrap, and grill – delicious! Wendy made homemade focaccia bread that was amazing – Tanya may have to try her hand one of these days, although yeast baking has never been her forte.

Thursday morning, January 28, was cloudy with winds at 20-25 mph. Very “sporty”! Weather predictions are for high winds to continue at least through Friday, which required us to stay safely hunkered down on the boat. Soup is Tanya’s usual “hunker-down” meal, so making chili was on the day’s agenda, which also included reading, writing blog posts, and completing a 750-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Winds died down slightly on Friday, January 29, so we ventured a dinghy ride over to EWWE2, whose crew had plenty of hot water and kindly offered us “Hollywood” showers and chicken enchiladas for dinner. Todd and Eric dinghied over to the rafted boats of a local fishing crew and practiced their VERY rudimentary Spanish by trying to barter beer for fish. The captain was not going to allow beer for his crew but kindly made us a gift of several snapper anyway. Todd and Eric later returned to the fishermen with fresh-baked brownies courtesy of Chef Wendy, which were much appreciated by the fishing crew.

Saturday, January 30. Winds still at 15+mph. Todd and Tanya make a bumpy dinghy ride to shore to answer the call of nature and get a weather report from the gift shop proprietor, who kindly shared his data connection to Windy (weather app). With no internet or cell access available to private boaters in the Dry Tortugas we’ve been forced to rely on VHF forecasts and our Garmin InReach for most of our weather intel. Although Casstaway’s Wi-Fi Extender would be of use under most circumstances, the Park Service is not sharing their password, and we’re way too far from public towers for our cell booster to be of any help. (Lest you worry too much, even with no data connections, our Garmin InReach also allows our loved ones to track us at all times and send/receive limited email messages.) This will be our longest period of “disconnection” ever and it feels very weird to be that out of touch.

Todd brings out the never-before-used-on-Casstaway anchor sail (a re-gift from Jan and Ted Mast, thank-you) and we are now appreciating less swing in our tossing and turning.

Based upon Todd’s excellent prior tutoring, Eric took fillet knife in hand and prepared last night’s “catch” – we all enjoyed fish tacos on EWWE2. Earlier in the day, Tanya used her “easy bake oven” to make wild berry muffins, starting with a packaged mix and adding rehydrated raspberries and blueberries. Too stuffed after our taco feast, several muffins were left behind for Wendy and Eric to enjoy another day.

Sunday, January 31 was a lovely, sunny day, with just enough wind to keep the anchor sail busy. In fact, it’s so nice that we had originally planned our departure back to the Marguesas for today. But weather reports are for more high winds tomorrow and Tuesday and since this anchorage is more protected than the Marquesas for riding those out, we’re now looking at Wednesday to set sail.

Tanya added the leftover muffin batter to pancake mix and served delicious wildberry pancakes with butter and syrup, turkey sausage, and hazelnut coffee for breakfast. Todd discovered that the portable generator needs servicing after finding that what should have been a 1–2-hour water-making task took all afternoon. Tanya did some cooking and general boat-cleaning, then rewarded her hard work by reading, napping, and sunning on the lido deck. Dinner on Casstaway tonight – smoked salmon appetizer, spaghetti squash spaghetti, more of Wendy’s excellent focaccia bread and her homemade peanut-butter cookies.

The winds are baaaack! As predicted, things pick-up during the night and on Monday, February 1 we awoke early to check on things – winds in the 25mph range. We quickly discover that a monohull charter boat has anchored some time during the night and is now swinging like crazy less than a boat-length from our bow. After watching and clenching for a while, Captain Todd extended a first light “top-o-the morning” greeting to its captain and then kindly suggested that perhaps he might consider moving his boat. He agreed, but it was clear that he and his one-person crew were new to not only this anchorage but to the entire process of anchoring in general. After a couple of near collisions, they thankfully got ‘er done, and since the crews of the near-miss boats were apparently still asleep, any possible trauma was avoided.

By early afternoon Todd decides to bring in the anchor sail because it was not secured ideally and was putting too much strain on the boom and various other boat parts – very noisy! Fourteen commercial fishing boats anchored on the horizon also waiting out the winds. Todd and Tanya pass the time playing several rousing games of Skip Bo, and eating a very strange “clean-out-the-fridge” casserole for dinner.

Tuesday, February 2 begins with coffee and Wendy’s peanut butter cookies for breakfast in the cockpit. Winds around 20mph but predicted to lessen as the day goes on. Surprised to see that the water ferry didn’t make the trip today, the first time since we’ve been here. Perhaps the last two voyages have been too rough? Last night’s sleep was interrupted several times by an alarm from our wind generator. Apparrently it didn’t like the many major gusts, which forced us to eventually turn it off. Captain Todd is spending time today reading documentation on both the wind generator and the gas generator.

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, February 3, we say goodbye to the Dry Tortugas and begin making our way East to (Key) West.