Our Dry Tortugas Playground

Wow...just wow. This place was high on our list of destinations and didn't disappoint. The draw...crystal clear blue water, white sand beaches, healthy coral reefs, a historic fort. The Dry Tortugas are 75 miles from Key West, 109 miles from Cuba and entirely off the grid. No lodging, fuel, water, food or cell service. Being off the grid might have been the best part. We felt like the luckiest kids around. Our days revolved around play, exploring with our friends and making new friends. We loved every minute.

We left Snead Island in Tampa Bay the afternoon of December 13. Our plan was to sail straight south for 180 miles, to arrive on December 15 in daylight. The Dry Tortugas are surrounded by reefs and shoals and the navigational marks are not lit - so it's not wise to arrive after dark unless you're familiar with the entrance. We had perfect wind conditions and enjoyed a great sail. So great in fact, we knew on day two we would arrive much earlier than planned. Arriving early sounds great until you realize that means arriving after dark. Argh. That meant we needed to kill some time which caused Garbsie some frustration. Killing time isn't my thing, especially not in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico at night.

Just as I was venting my frustration to Todd, several dolphins started swimming alongside Freya. They launched out of the water, played with Freya's bow, turned around, swam several hundred yards behind us and did it all over again. They continued this loop, playing with Freya for over 30 minutes. It was incredible. Every time they jumped out of the water, they flashed their sweet smiles at us. It was like they knew I was feeling a little low and needed some perspective. Their sweet smiles said, "Hey lady, look around, soak up your surroundings, your life is pretty great." Just what I needed.

So how do you kill time on a sailboat in the ocean? You can't toss out an anchor, it's too deep. You don't want to sail away from your destination. You just want to stay put. It's not as simple as parking a car, but one option is to "park" offshore. This is done by "heaving to." Heaving to is a method of setting your sails and rudder to counteract each other, so your boat moves forward very slowly (1-1.5 knots) about 50-60 degrees off the wind. This method enabled us to stay close to our destination and get some sleep. Anytime we sail at night, we take turns keeping watch. One of us sleeps in the cabin while the other stands watch for other boats and makes sure we are staying on course. At 3 am, we decided to start sailing toward our destination again. Hooray! We entered the harbor at Garden Key around 8:30 am and were greeted by Fort Jefferson and two seaplanes!

There were only two sailboats in the harbor when we arrived. We found a good spot to anchor in 15 feet of water. We chilled (Todd) and napped (Garbsie), as we were pretty tired from the passage. Eventually we swam in the Caribbean blue water, took cockpit showers and headed for shore in our dinghy.

Our dinghy is a fiberglass hull with three options for getting around. It has an electric motor, oars for rowing and a small sailing rig. One can never have enough sailboats! The make is a Fatty Knees, designed by Lyle Hess, a famous boat designer with the first model was built by cruising legend Larry Pardy. We named it Larry, after my dad Larry Garber. My dad would have loved the shippy design, sailing rig and the fact that she rows well. My dad was an incredible sailor who also loved to row and paddle.

We opted to row ashore because it seemed so close. The wind was blowing 15-20 knots out of the northeast and the waves were fairly big, even though we were in a protected harbor. I think we both figured, we are strong, we can handle this much wind. So off we went, rowing west toward shore. A few strokes in, we quickly realized we may have made a poor choice. One of the oars kept popping out of it's oar lock and every time it did, we drifted south. The harbor was wide open to the south and if we didn't make it to shore, the next stop was Cuba. We were headed straight for a bunch of pilings from an old coal dock. A few minutes later, we landed on the pilings, wondering how we were going to get ourselves out of this precarious situation. We somehow pushed ourselves away from the pilings and I held down the oars, while Todd rowed. Todd made short quick strokes and thankfully we landed on shore. We looked at each other and decided we wouldn't do that again! The photo first below shows the pilings on a calm day. The second shows Todd's smile after making it to shore with Larry safely tied up in the background.

Once ashore, we explored Fort Jefferson. The United States built the Fort Jefferson to control navigation and trade in the Gulf of Mexico. Construction started on Garden Key in 1846 and continued for 30 years but was never finished. During the Civil War, the fort served as a Union military prison and also held four men convicted of complicity in President Lincoln's assassination in 1865. The army abandoned the fort in 1847. In 1908, the area became a wildlife refuge to protect the sooty tern rookery from egg collectors. In 1935, the fort was named a National Monument and redesignated in 1992 as a National Park to protect the scenic, cultural, marine and scientific value for the public.

The next day, we woke up to another gorgeous day. Not drop of rain since we left Texas almost two weeks prior. After breakfast, we put the electric motor on the dinghy and headed to shore to walk the beach. Gorgeous white sand under our bare feet and clean clear water soaking our ankles as the waves rolled in. We crossed a small channel between Garden and Bush Keys to watch the Frigate birds. Bush Key is the only place in the continental U.S. where they nest. These incredible birds have a six foot wingspan, while weighing only 3 lbs. They soar for days without landing. Can you imagine? During mating season, the males use a bright red sac on their necks to attract their mates.

That afternoon, we packed up our snorkel gear and headed back to the fort. The moat that surrounds Fort Jefferson supports a thriving coral reef. We saw all kinds of colorful coral, sponges, sea fans and reef fish including barracudas, tarpon, parrotfish, trunkfish and many more. We don't have an underwater camera so use your imagination.

The morning of day three, Todd was on deck, hooking up our "floating" solar panel and I was catching up my journal in the cabin. All of the sudden, Todd exclaimed, "This might be our friends!" I leaped up to look and sure enough, I saw a blue hull, black mast and grey dodger! Sailing vessel Josephine was coming into the harbor - yippee! We had last seen our friends Blake and Diana in St. Pete. We were hoping they would join us in the Dry Tortugas but with no cell service, we had no way of knowing. I was so thrilled to see them and share the experience of this incredible place with them, I about cried.

Blake and Diana were bushed from sailing all night in rolly seas so once they anchored Josephine, they crashed and we went to shore for another snorkeling session. This time we dove down a lot more to see in the cracks and crevices of the moat where fish like to hang out. In one of the big cracks in the moat, we saw a huge lobster! It was easily a foot long and 4-5 inches thick with tentacles shooting out a foot toward us. Just a few feet below the surface is another world of spectacular living creatures!

That evening, Blake and Diana joined us on Freya for Todd's famous stir fry. We had a lovely evening catching up on each of our travels since St. Pete. To catch you up, we met Blake and Diana last April when we spent two weeks working on Freya in Waterford Marina in Kemah, TX. In fact, they joined us on our first sail on Freya, sharing their local knowledge of Galveston Bay. We became instant friends and for eight months, shared the ups and downs of preparing for live-aboard cruising. We have similar cruising plans so now we are sharing these amazing experiences together. We are so grateful for their friendship.

On day four, we toured the fort with Blake and Diana. Seeing things we missed the first time and just enjoying exploring it with them. That afternoon we showed them our favorite snorkeling route around the moat. We saw the lobster again, more fish and some huge barracuda by the coal dock pilings. Diana spotted the biggest one which had to be four feet long! They aren't interested in humans but their big teeth are still a little intimidating.

We capped off the day with a sunset beach walk. We saw dozens of hermit crabs scurrying around and Blake saw a green turtle pop it's head out of the water. The Dry Tortugas are home to green, loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles.

Day five was our first calm day and we took full advantage. I blew up one of our SUPs and went for a paddle around the harbor. Then I strapped on my open water swim buoy and swam over to Josephine. Blake was in the water and Diana was on deck. Todd paddled over and we discussed our plan to explore Loggerhead Key. Bernard, a friendly Swiss guy from sailing vessel, Go Slow, saw the party and swam over too. He lives in Nassau so he gave us great tips on cruising the Bahamas.

Loggerhead Key is 2.5 miles west of Garden Key. It's home to a beautiful lighthouse and a wonderful coral reef called Little Africa. We piled into Waldo, Josephine's inflatable dinghy, for the trek to Loggerhead. We beached Waldo and saw a friendly looking old salt, sitting on the pier. Ray had tan leathered skin and a big white beard and long ponytail. He and his wife are Park Service volunteers, living on Loggerhead key for six weeks a year. Ray pointed us to Little Africa and told us to find him later for a tour of the island. We had another great snorkeling experience, seeing an array of beautiful reef fish. We tracked down Ray and he gave us a tour of the island buildings, all of which had "no trespassing" signs. Ray told us when his kids were young, he taught them that no trespassing meant "welcome" in Spanish! So in that vein, he let us explore all the buildings, in spite of the signs. Love Ray.

After our Loggerhead adventures, we went back to shore on Garden Key to check the weather at the National Park Service dock. One of the park rangers, J. Spade was super friendly and great about printing several weather forecasts for us every day. With no internet and limited VHF radio service, we were dependent on the Park staff for forecasts. We were hanging out on the dock when all of the sudden, Blake spotted a Goliath grouper! These prehistoric looking fish grow up to 8 ft long and weigh up to 800 lbs! This one looked to be at least 6 feet long - it was huge! Blake immediately remembered his snorkel gear was still in the dinghy and said, "I want to swim with the Goliath grouper!" He ran to the dinghy, donned his snorkel gear and jumped in. He swam around with the grouper for about 10 minutes. Then all of the sudden, Blake started swimming at a fast clip towards the dinghy. He somehow, in one motion, jumped out of the water, with his butt landing perfectly on the side of the dinghy. He made it look like he had practiced this skill for months, when in reality, he had never done it before. Amazing the things you can do when you're adrenalin is flowing! His face was white as a ghost and he looked completely stunned. When he was able to form a sentence, he said while swimming with the Goliath grouper, he noticed a shark swimming straight for him at a fast pace. He didn't want to be the shark's dinner so he high-tailed it away as fast as he could.

We learned from ranger, J. Spade that it was a lemon shark. They aren't known for being aggressive which made us feel better. The Goliath groupers and lemon sharks often frequent the dock around dinner time and we were thankful Blake escaped without being on the menu that night. We went for a walk to calm our nerves - it had been an intense scene for a few minutes.

Day six was calm again so we paddled our SUPs and went for a long open-water swim on the search for sea turtles but no luck. The wind was supposed to blow hard out of the west that evening and Blake was worried about his anchor holding. I dove his anchor with him and we found a nice sandy spot nearby. Blake hopped back on Josephine to help Diana re-anchor. I stayed in the water, to mark the sandy spot for them. The new spot held like a charm.

We later went to shore for our fourth and last snorkel trip around the moat, knowing the forecast was for rain the following day. Blake and Diana walked around the moat as we snorkeled which was so fun. They kept an eye out for sea turtles and we pointed out fish that they could see from above.

That evening, the wind cranked up out of the west, as predicted. Freya, Josephine and the other 12-15 boats in the harbor all held well.

Day seven started out rainy so we worked on some boat projects. Once it cleared, we took Larry to shore for our last beach walk and tour of the fort. We loved walking along the top of the fort for the incredible views of the islands, shoals, harbor and anchored boats.

We spent the afternoon getting Freya ready to leave the following morning for Key West. The forecast was for NW winds which was perfect for heading east. We hoisted the dinghy up on the deck and secured it for our passage. Most of the other sailboats in the harbor were also planning to leave the following day. Looking around, everyone was hoisting their dinghies and getting ready to go. As I secured things on deck, a big catamaran named La Casa, entered the harbor and motored around, trying to find a place to anchor. With more boats in the harbor, finding a good spot to anchor was more difficult than when we had arrived.

La Casa appeared to be a charter boat, meaning the boat was being rented by the skipper. La Casa tried several times to anchor between us and another boat and every time the skipper backed down on his anchor, he came extremely close to Freya...within 5-10 feet. The other huge concern was the skipper only seemed to know one speed - full throttle. He would either put it in full throttle forward or full throttle reverse. By this time, Todd was on deck with me, as we were super concerned for Freya's safety. I politely told the skipper he was too close but he again tossed out his anchor in the same spot. This time, when he backed it down, meaning put his engine in reverse to secure the anchor into the sand, he literally came within an inch of hitting Freya's bow. We were both near Freya's bow but La Casa was going so fast in reverse, we didn't have time to react. We were completely stunned and in disbelief of what was happening. Never in all of our years of cruising had we been witness to such reckless behavior by another boat.

We quickly realized La Casa had hooked Freya's anchor snubber or anchor chain with either their anchor, daggerboard or rudder. So every time the skipper went in forward or reverse, he came frightenedly close to hitting Freya. It was our worst nightmare unfolding right in front of our eyes. We went into problem solving mode and Todd released our snubber from Freya. This definitely released some pressure but we still weren't sure if we were entirely free from La Casa. We encouraged the skipper to pull up his anchor but he kept saying his windless wasn't working. It likely wasn't working because he was operating it at full throttle as well. Even machines like to be finessed, not man-handled. We asked him to pull it up manually but he had no interest in that.

I looked around and every cruiser in the harbor was watching the fiasco. They were helpless because their dinghies were put away and launching them was risky in the big west wind. Thankfully, I saw the guys from Harmony, a beautiful Hinckley anchored near us, coming towards us in their dinghy. They had watched the whole scenario unfold and were equally as concerned by the skipper's inability to safely drive his boat. They told us if we needed to resort to releasing our anchor and re-anchoring with our spare anchor, they had dive tanks and would help us find and fetch our anchor in the morning. By this time, the sun was starting to set and we knew we had precious little time before dark. We discussed our options with them and decided to try pulling up our anchor, praying we were free from La Casa. The guys from Harmony stayed near while I was on the helm and Todd used the windless to pull up the anchor. Their knowledge and support was truly a gift and helped us stay grounded in a super stressful situation.

Freya's anchor came up free from La Casa! Hooray! What a relief! We re-anchored Freya, setting the hook just before dark. Meanwhile, La Casa tried to anchor near Josephine. Blake hailed La Casa on the VHF and walked him through how to safely anchor. Then Maynard, a German fellow joined Blake on the VHF and calmly gave La Casa specific step by step instructions on how to anchor. What did Maynard say the most? "No engine, over. No engine. Just let the wind push you back." With Blake and Maynard's help, La Casa anchored in a safe place for the night.

Todd and I didn't sleep well that night. We both kept replaying the afternoon's events over and over in our minds. Luckily, that fiasco aside, we had an incredible stay in the Dry Tortugas. We would go back in a heartbeat! Go Freya!