Dry Tortugas

We had a great 6 day escape to the Dry Tortugas.

After attending an SSCA breakfast at the Burnt Store Cafe Saturday morning we purchased final supplies and got underway. Spent Saturday night anchored at Pelican Bay. Had dinner on the boat with Clay & Jeanne Griswold Saturday night.

After a brisk walk around Caya Costa island Sunday morning we headed to sea. The weather could not have been much better. Winds were from the west and off the beam for the better part of Sunday and into Sunday night. Monday morning the winds slowly shifted to from the North and finally from the East and again on our beam. We (mostly) sailed at around 5.5 knots the entire way. The trip was about 28 hours, and we motor sailed for about 8 hours in the early hours of Monday morning as the wind died.

The anchorage was kind of rough. It took us three tries to set the anchor in about a 20 mph breeze. Our 50' of chain really needs to be upgraded, but once the anchor set we held for the duration.

The fort was great. We spent our time walking the fort, snorkeling off the beach, and enjoying our boat. The wind never died, but we were able to cook some great meals on the grill.

We left for home around 10:00 on Thursday. The trip home was even better than down. It took us 25 hours including a side trip to Loggerhead key. We made over 6 knots for most of the trip. We finally lost our wind around 2:00 AM and motored for about four hours. At 6:00 it picked up again and we sailed between 6.5 and 7.5 knots the rest of the way. The sailing was so nice we took advantage and cooked a full meal at sea. Good times.