Key West 2021 (page 4 of 8)

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Greta's blog, Day 4 (Tuesday March 9th):

We got up at 5:45 am to try get on the standby list for the Dry Tortugas tour. It's 70 miles from Key West, and therefore you have to take a Ferry or SeaPlane out to get there. The Ferry was booked until mid-July and the Sea Plane booked until mid-April, but we were told because of the winds, that cancellations were likely and we try the standby list. Due to parking issues (Key West parking is limited and not free), Mike dropped Greta off at the Ferry Terminal and she went to find the list. She waited with 4 other people for about 15 minutes and then the guy with the list showed up. We all signed up and were told to be back by 7:30 am. There was a good chance we'd get on the boat as there were 94 cancellations the day before. We were also told there was no snorkeling due to the high winds. We drove back to the condo and made a quick breakfast of eggs, bacon, OJ & toast. We took some Bonine (anti-nausea) for the boat ride and packed a few things (books, sunblock) but left the snorkel gear at home. We walked back to the Ferry Terminal (about 1 mile) and were told we'd get on the boat.

Once we boarded, they offered a quick breakfast of yogurt & a bagel but since we'd already eaten, we passed on that. We sat on the ride out with Scott & Sharon from Texas (who'd been in the standby line as well, and had originally booked the seaplane for the day before but it was cancelled due to wind/surf) and visited with them on the ride out, which was about 2.5 hours on a high-speed catamaran called the Yankee Freedom III. It was a bit bumpy on the ride over but we got there just fine.

We stayed with the group for a 20 minute intro tour speech by our guide, and then we wandered off by ourselves for a couple of hours to Explore Fort Jefferson. The Dry Tortugas are a set of 7 islands/keys, with Garden Key (where were docked) being the largest. Ponce De Leon, when he discovered it, named it "Las Tortugas" which is Spanish for "The Turtles" due large number of sea turtles in the area, which fed the local sailors. The name was later changed to Dry Tortugas to indicate to others that the island was arid; it had no fresh water source whatsoever and very little grew there. They built the Massive Fort Jefferson there in the 1800s to keep American shipping lanes open. It was common way to travel past due to the safe harbors nearby, and the coral reefs further out. Many people and supplies were shipped out there over the years to build the massive fort. This included all of the heavy stone used for the floors (to hold cannons), the ingredients for mortar, bricks, wood, food, water, etc. Entire families lived there as well. We did see how they'd collect/filter/store rainwater for a freshwater source but most of the collection areas/cisterns were collapsed by now. It really was amazing to imagine all this was done so long ago. Many of the supplies had to be shipped from areas like Massachusetts because Florida was not part of the US when they started to build there.

We walked back to the boat after a couple of hours and got our box lunch (turkey sandwich, chips/pretzels, cookies and a drink). Then we had about another 90 minutes to wander. We checked out the various beaches - there were some people snorkeling at the most protected beach - not a lot, but it was a nice sandy area. The fort was originally surrounded by a moat and a moat wall, but the moat at been broken in one area, and a recent hurricane had washed the beach up over the moat walls in two places, effectively cutting off the moat itself. You could see in those two areas where they were working to clear it, and that day a few Park employees were shoveling the sand away - it looks like an almost impossible job. There is also restoration construction going on within the fort interior, on the brick walls. There are people who live there within the walls - probably the park rangers and some of the park employees doing work on the island. There are also groups of people who are camping there. They can either come over on the Ferry like we did, or some people will either take their own boat out or have someone else take them out on a boat. We overheard one family who was exhausted and coming home a day early. It had been so windy the first night there, they had to try tie down their tent to anything rooted into the ground (tree, picnic table, etc).

We wandered the moat walls and the beach a bit, and then went back to the interior of the fort. We found an ammunition storage building with a rounded roof, a boat that had landed nearly 20 years ago with Cuban Refugees, a memorial to doctor and his young son who'd died from Yellow Fever, as well as other things. The grass inside is a wiry type of grass that was good groundcover but not necessarily something you'd want to walk on barefoot. There were some trees growing there, but nothing much else. We had a good day of walking and picture taking, although Mike had a smudge on the camera interior that ended up on a lot of the pictures.

We got on the boat again for the trip back, which was pretty rough for the first hour. Greta got seasick but got a can of free ginger ale. An ice pack on her neck helped a lot too. She felt somewhat better as the trip progressed and the waves weren't quite as wild but the first hour of the trip definitely was a lot of rocking back & forth, up and down. Back at Key West, we stopped and got ice cream, which was a great end to a long day. We ate the ice cream as we walked back to the condo for a little R&R.

We tried to stop for dinner at Blue Heaven but it was an hour wait again, so we walked over to Firefly. We were seated at the bar. Mike got bison short ribs and Greta got gumbo. The food was quite good. No fancy drinks as they only had a wine/beer license, but Mike tried an apple ginger mule, and Greta had a Hazy IPA and then a glass of wine with dinner.

We headed back to the condo, relaxed a bit more, and then off to sleep.

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