My Dry Tortugas Adventure

We went to Dry Tortugas on a nice and sunny November day, leaving the dock at 9am sharp.

Our captain, a gentle mannered Aussie, took his boat straight to the west, flying at a speed that had most people hide inside the cabin.

We passed south of Marquess Key, the westernmost of the Florida Keys, maintaining the same westerly direction, over the seas marked as far as eye can see with buoys spaced in regular intervals.

The Dry Tortugas are so low and flat that if not for the Fort it would be easy to miss them on the shiny surface of the ocean. Finally, we landed on a small but a beautiful island. There were already a couple of the groups brought by sea plains, which were "parked" on the water.

Once on dry land, you are left to yourself. Most people took a tour of the fort first, which, as we learned has never seen battle. Today the fort and island no longer belong to the military, and they are under protection as a Dry Tortugas National Park.

There are a few people who live there today, but other than that the island belongs to visitors. After everybody had a chance to look around, most people ended up on one of the two beaches.

The one to the right had a nice swath of white sand and relatively shallow water with some vegetation on the bottom. The beach on the other side was smaller, but nicely shaded by coconut palms, and the water was very deep and turquoise color.

On the ocean side of the fort was a wide wall build directly in the water. I decided to try my snorkeling skills swimming along the wall, which as I soon found, was colonized by many underwater creatures, that turned it into an artificial reef.

I was almost shocked by the variety of tropical fish, clearly visible in absolutely clear water. 

It was my best snorkeling experience, better then rather murky waters of the Keys or Hawaii. Closer to the bottom, at about 10-12 feet, were hiding bigger specimens of fish, while near the surface fish of fantastic colors and patterns were minding their own business, paying little attention to the intruder.When I finally emerged from the water on the nice beach I was tired but satisfied.

After this snorkeling experience it was time for lunch, brought in and served by the crews of our boat. We found an unoccupied place in a shade of a palm tree and over our lunch, made plans for the next two hours of our stay.

We noticed there was another island next to ours, separated only by a narrow channel of water. The only problem was that the water in the channel was flowing. A strong current caused most likely by a tide was a challenge to all people who tried to cross the narrows.

While we were standing in the water near the shore, we saw a group of string rays swimming through the channel. They were about 2 feet wide and seamed flying in the water.

Those who manage to cross the channel could take a long walk along the beach of the elongated neighboring island, but our stay in this beautiful place was coming to the end. We boarded our boat and headed east. Yes it was one of those trips that you would like make again.