Dry Tortugas

We were so lucky today.  We went to the Dry Tortugas National Park and had great weather.  The predicted high was 79 degrees.  It was sunny and calm all day.  We took the Yankee Freedom ferry trip over there.  We did see about four sailboats in the harbor and kinda wished we'd brought our boat too.  Of course, that's because the weather was perfect.  There were lots of campers too, out on the grounds of the fort.

We walked around the fort on our own and then had lunch on the ferry.  The ferry is headquarters for visitors since there are no toilets or fresh water on the island.  After lunch we got our snorkel equipment (included in the price) and went snorkeling.  We were on a different schedule than the other folks we had traveled with, so our snorkeling was just George and me.  I like to be with a big group, so sharks see some other tasty person before they see me.  I usually hang back a bit in the snorkeling group.  This time it was just us, and we saw lots of beautiful fish.  The largest was a barracuda.  The smallest was a tiny blue and yellow hiding in some grass.  The coral was beautiful too.  It looked healthy.  Coral is growing on abandoned pilings in two areas out from the fort.  We swam to these pilings and through them and saw many types and colors of fish.  I was in the aquarium.  I was looking for Nemo.  We did not see him, but we saw his buddies.  We were not cold, and we were swimming in January!  Amazing.  After snorkeling for about an hour and a half, we were wrinkled, so we lay out on the beach.

Here's Ft. Jefferson as we approach on the ferry.

Here's the beach curve from the third story of the fort.

The ferry loaded around 2:30 and returned at 3:00 to Key West, docking at sundown near Mallory Square.  We were part of the evening's show there.

Now we are waiting for Nannette, Jenny, and Donny to arrive.  We unloaded our stuff, turned on the air conditioning to cool off the boat, and put on a load of laundry to care for our wet beach towels.  We have the wine and beer and cheese ready.  They're here!