A Little Piece of Heaven

On April 15, we picked up my friend Ruth and her two twin boys, Alex and Zach at the dock by Key Bight Marina. We had Sankaty at a slip there for one night as our friends were expected in the afternoon. Ruth and boys had a great sail with us, but it was pretty windy and there were some waves, which crashed over the bow. With a little help from Dramamine and my wristbands we managed to not get too seasick. Ruth treated us to lunch (Grilled Dolphin and Salmon Burrito) and bought a beautiful sea fan print set of cards for me. Thank you Ruth. She also gave us a ride to the airport to meet our friends. We were a little late to the airport and were worried that our friends might wonder where we were.

We arrived at the airport and no friends. We were about 15 minutes late, but even after an hour, no friends. I finally started asking some questions and finally we found out that they had been kicked off a flight due to overbooking. They were on standby for the next flight and for sure would be on the flight at 5:30 PM. They were on the next flight, but by then we couldn't find their bags. I saw two new looking large duffel bags earlier going around the luggage carousal and when they described their bags, I was pretty sure that they were the right ones. We asked at the desk if the bags had come on the first flight and were told that they would have to put a trace on them, as they weren't around. I knew that I had seen them so I asked at another airline desk if maybe they had gotten there by mistake and could they look for them, but the lady said that they never make that mistake and she wouldn't even look for them. So I went to the next desk and asked, I explained that the other lady wouldn't even look for me and the nice lady behind the desk said that she would look for me. I knew they were the ones I saw, and also knew that they had to be somewhere around that airport, and Key West International Airport is not that big. There is only one luggage carousal. After about five minutes she said that she had found them, and that she put them back on the luggage carousal. I thanked her sincerely and picked them up and marched proudly into the bar, where our friends and Mark were having a drink. Our friends were pleasantly surprised that I found the luggage.

The first night of our vacation, we went to the sunset celebration on the waterfront and watched the sidewalk artisan show, especially Dominique and his cats. Mark and I had seen his act before, but this night they were excellent. All the cats performed beautifully, no goof ups like we had seen before. Afterwards we had dinner at the Conch Seafood Restaurant, and thoroughly enjoyed conch fritters, fried shrimp, and crab cakes. We walked back to the boat and got to bed fairly early as we were leaving for the Dry Tortugas in the morning.

We decided to break the trip to the Dry Tortugas into two days out and two days back. We would still have two days to snorkel and see the fort. We stopped at the Marquesas Key and stayed in the harbor there. There were no other boats parked with us and the area was very isolated. As we were watching the sun set, and sitting in the cockpit having a drink, I saw an object floating toward the boat. After it got close, I said that I hate to say this, but it looks like a hand. The edges were all shredded and looked like tendons. It was pretty spooky, all alone in the cove. As it floated closer, we could see that it was a glove and we were all relieved.

Next morning we left for the Dry Tortugas. After about 8 hours of sailing west, we could see Fort Jefferson in the far distance. It was exciting to see it become larger and larger as we sailed closer. Once we had anchored and watched the sunset set's green flash, it was time to make dinner. We had Cornish game hens, stuffed with a crab dressing and broccoli risotto. Later we watched a DVD movie, The Runaway Bride and then we went to bed, as we wanted to go snorkeling the next day on Loggerhead Key.

We motored the Sankaty to a place off Loggerhead Key and anchored. We were going to snorkel around the boat but spotted a large barracuda under our boat and decided against it. Lone barracuda can be dangerous. Mark had forgotten to take his watch off and the barracuda was probably attracted by it. So we all got into the dinghy and rode to the shore about 100 yards away.

Loggerhead Key has crystal clear water of a deep turquoise hue and we could sit in the sand on the shore and immerse our heads with snorkeling gear on, and watch the fish and coral heads not more than 7 feet off shore. I have never seen a better place to learn how to snorkel and I couldn't help but wish that Ilie and Kelsey were here to snorkel with us here. After a while we headed out further off shore to snorkel the coral heads. We found a grotto filled with a variety of fish, large yellow-tailed snappers enticed me to hit them on the head and drag them to my boat for dinner, but that is entirely illegal, even if I could manage it. There were groupers, and parrotfish, as well as, small yellow and blue juveniles darting about. The corals were mostly star coral and large boulder corals. I saw a few brain corals, but they were fairly small. After an afternoon of snorkeling we dinghied back to the large boat and motored back to bay outside of Fort Jefferson. We watched and took pictures of the sunset and enjoyed talking until dinner was ready. We had stuffed green peppers with Mexican rice and turkey Italian sausage. We started to watch another movie, but everyone feel asleep, so I turned it off and went to bed. The sailing in the fresh air and sunshine is the best sleeping pill.

You won't find any commercialism on Garden Key, just a few dedicated rangers and some volunteer lighthouse keepers who maintain the massive Fort Jefferson and neighboring islands that make up Dry Tortugas National Park. Isolated from civilization by 60 miles of deep blue water, this area was first explored by Ponce de Leon in 1513.

The Spaniards found the region rich with turtles, thus the name Tortugas. Since there was no fresh water on the islands, the term "dry" was added to the charts. Soon after the U.S. acquired Florida from Spain in 1819 Garden Key became a target for military buildup to protect the shipping lanes between the Gulf of Mexico and Europe. Construction of the immense fort began in 1846, but was never completed.

The next morning, we explored Fort Jefferson. We were very impressed with the fort. Fort Jefferson is built of 16 million bricks surrounded by a moat. It has 4,000 arches could hold 450 cannons. During the Civil War, this Union outpost served as a jail for deserters and other criminals. Its most famous prisoner, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, the man who set the broken leg of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, arrived in 1865, but was later exonerated and released in 1869 after finding the cure for Malaria.

When we got back to the boat, Mark took some beer out looking for a trade from the fisherman anchored around us in the bay. I had told him to see if he could find some shrimp, but he came back with one huge yellow-tailed snapper and two littler ones. I fillet, and cooked them in a lemon butter sauce with a little Bay seasoning sprinkled over the top to add a little spice. After dinner, we all watched Good Will Hunting and this time we all stayed awake. We then went to bed, Mark and I slept out in the cockpit. The next day we had to leave for the Marquesas Key and back to Key West after that.

We went wildlife watching the next day in the Marquesas Key. The Key is a circular slab of land with a large fairly shallow lagoon in the center. We took the dinghy and went into the lagoon. Pelicans were sitting in the trees, and all were asleep except for one that was already diving for his breakfast. As we watched, more and more Pelicans woke up and began joining the first one in diving for breakfast. We turned of the motor and just floated over the flats and observed the sea life. We saw some fish, a couple of rays, and a baby bull shark. We kept saying, I hope his mama isn't around here. After we started the motor and were headed out back out of the lagoon, we saw a big track of dirt where something had been disturbed by our presence. It turned out to be a 5-foot nurse shark that had swam to get out of our way. When we got back to Sankaty, we headed for Key West in the gulf stream.

We moored in the Key West Harbor mooring field and took our dinghy to Banana Bay Motel. We walked over to TGI Fridays to have our last meal with our friends. I had a delicious fillet with au gratin potatoes and green beans, carrots, and sautéed mushrooms. Mark had JD salmon. We all had a wonderful time. In the morning, Mark and I left early, as we were anxious to get to Marathon so that we could meet Mark's sister and our niece Heidi Ho.

The contrast between the Dry Tortugas and Key West is remarkable. Where Key West is all fake and illusion, the Dry Tortugas are wonderfully natural. Key West always seems to have its hand out for money, while Dry Tortugas is totally free. We didn't pay a penny to anchor, or snorkel or visit Fort Jefferson. Key West can become entirely too populated by tourist and big fufu ships that come to port, the Dry Tortugas were populated by only a few day tourist that visit from Key West by the Fast Cat and Sea Plane. There were also a few boy scouts from North of Miami that camped for a week. They came via a Coast Guard boat that makes regular weekly trips to supply the Dry Tortugas. All in all, I feel at home in the Dry Tortugas and was glad that we didn't have to stay long in Key West before heading back to Marathon. The Dry Tortugas are named for the turtles that come there to lay eggs, and the fact that the island has no fresh water. The name does not reflect the beauty that awaits a visitor. To me, it was a little piece of heaven, and I will definitely visit again.