Meandering thoughts of a sailor, traveler and foodie.: Trip to Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas

We've been wanting to go out to Fort Jeff again for a while, it hasn't worked out. Mainly, we never made reservations.

There is only two ways to get to Fort Jeff if you are not travelling by your own boat (or seaplane).
Why is Fort Jefferson so special: I'll let the fine folk at the NPS tell you. It's 70 miles west of KeyWest, virtually the middle of nowhere.
Fort Jefferson National Park

The high speed ferry or seaplane. We've done both, but I told Tim I wanted to do the water approach this time since we've become such big sailors :-).

There used to be two ferries, but one must have went out of business. It is a chunk of change to go out there. However, they do include breakfast/lunch/snorkel equipment.

The remaining company just recently built a new cat and put it into service in 2012. She may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but she is smooth. Although I was prepared for sea sickness, it never happened. That there is good boat building. They are also very proud of their boat. See here.

I highly recommend this trip to anyone and everyone.

The rest will be a pictorial with commentary.


Getting buzzed by the seaplane going back to get more guests. Our boat captain also flies the seaplanes. I really don't think this would be approved of.

Approaching the Dry Tortugas.
Fort Jeff in front. The light house on Loggerhead in the background

Walking along the moat wall. Really good snorkeling in these waters.
However, we weenied out with the cooler water.

One of the bricks from the fort worn down by the waves.
That there be a 170 year old brick!

More of the bricks worn down to almost nothing.

Further along the beach we found a area of washed up 'people trash.' We were told we can't take the bricks or any sealife off the island, but they didn't say anything about 'people' trash. So I loaded up on a stellar load of sea glass. Hey, didn't take the historical stuff, cleaned up. Right? And no, we didn't find a washed up Garmin.

Yes, it really is as cool as it looks.

The Tortugas are really good for bird watching also. But, this time, I noticed a lot of dead birds, including three pelicans. I thought, oh, great, what kind of killer virus is on this island.