Wednesday - June 28 ~ June 30 Key West to The Dry Tortugas

First, let me apologize for the delay in updating the blog on our latest trip.  As you will read in the following blogs of the last two weeks, things have been interesting, unavailable internet, and higher priority things to take care of.
Beth and I have kept journals of some of the details and lots of pictures.

We left Key West at 8am, over to the fuel dock to top off all the tanks and pump out as there are no provisions (fuel, water, food ) until we would get to Mexico.  The sky was clear, the seas calm, it looked like a nice day to sail to Marquesas Key where we planned to spend the first night.

Leaving Key West, FL

We sailed toward Sand Key and then toward Marquesas Key.

Mahalo Nui under full sail leading the way

It was a pleasant day sail to Marquesas Key, arriving around 4 pm.

The interior or the key was too shallow for Mahalo Nui and wasn't within my comfort margin.  We chose to anchor on the northwest side of the key in about 15 ft of crystal clear water.

The entrance to the interior of the Key, about 1 ~ 5 ft deep

We took the dinghy out with the dogs to explore the island.  Catie and Cocoa love riding in the dinghy and love playing on the beach even more.  Catie has no problem running in the water and attempting to retrieve things floating around.  We returned to the boat, had dinner and prepared for the next day sail to The Dry Tortugas.  We woke up in the morning about 500 yards from where we had anchored.  During the night, the wind and tide had shifted and the anchor had dragged.  We motored back next to Mahalo Nui and reset the anchor.  We climbed into the dinghy and took the dogs ashore for one last visit.  While we were motoring to the island, the anchor again dragged and Second Chance was slowly drifting out to sea.  J & J saw what was happening and started toward Second Chance while we stood on the island watching it drift.  We got back in the dinghy and headed back to the boat.  We got there about the same time J &  J reached it so it was a non issue.  We raised the anchor and hoisted the sails and we set off toward the Dry Tortugas.

Approaching the Dry Tortugas National Park, Ft. Jefferson

We saw the fort from about 7 miles out and as we got closer it began to take shape and is really huge.  The approach is well marked and we made it to the anchorage without issue. 

We arrived about 4 pm and there were numerous boats from all over in the anchorage so we rafted together initially to allow me to change the primary anchor to one that would hold the boat better given the bottom surface.  While rafted, we took the dinghy and dogs ashore to check in.  The fee was $5.00 per person for a week which gave us dinghy access to the park which is the fort and facilities.

After changing the anchor we split from Mahalo Nui and chose and anchor spot where we should be set and IF we dragged anchor, we wouldn't drift into any other boats.  While we had dinner, we kept a close eye on our position, set the anchor drag alarm, and had a good nights sleep.