Dry Tortugas National Park

Sue and I wrapped up everything we needed to do in the Florida panhandle and decided it was time to head south. The evenings were getting cold and I was tired of slipping on ice/frost in the morning on the boat and docks. We do keep up with the Looper community and they were having issues with marinas along the Western Florida cost. The hurricanes this year and last damaged many of marinas and few have slips available to rent out to transients. Fuel stops were also an issue. Because of all the cold and the marina issues, we decided to make a long passage from Panama City to the Dry Tortugas National Park.

For those not familiar, Key West is not the end of the Florida Keys, it’s only the end of the road. The Keys continue on. Loggerhead Key, which is the western most part of the National Park is actually the end of the keys. The only way to get to the park is by boat or seaplane.

Depending on the winds, it could take anywhere from 2 to 3 days. I use an app that calculates my passage time based on my boat and the predicted winds. It also gives sea states as well as the amount of time I’d need to motor. Leaving Wednesday morning showed that we’d be in less than 1 meter of waves the entire trip, but it was going to take 2.5 days. Leaving later allowed us to shorten the trip and motor less, but we’d be facing larger waves and higher winds most of the trip. Since this was going to be our first big sail in a while, we opted for the easier conditions. But there is a catch, there always is… 2.5 days implies arriving in the evening in dark. Can’t do that since there is shoaling, coral, and other dangers in the park. So we sailed slower and tried to draw it out to a 3 day sail knowing that we were going to get hit with the higher winds and waves at the end. And we did. No surprise, when the front came through early Friday evening. The wind picked up to over 25 knots and the waves built to 6-8 foot.

Of course, the boat started picking up too much speed. I brought both of my head sails in and put 2 reefs into the main trying to slow down. I eventually got the right speed to time our arrival at an hour after sunrise. Another down side to this approach is the sails help buffer the effects of the waves and smooths the ride out. With most of my sails down, we didn’t have that luxury and it was a rough ride and a long night. We were both happy to see the Loggerhead Key lighthouse and Ft Jefferson in the morning. Surprisingly, the park was pretty empty. Only one other boat. I’m not sure if the weather cleared them out or if its that time of year, but I’ll take it.

Our plan is to spend a few days here at the National Park and then start heading to Key West on Tuesday before another front brings even heavier winds. Hopefully Key West will be just as empty and we’ll get a mooring ball in the city mooring field. Marina prices in the Keys are outrageous and the anchoring is bad. We’ll see….