Sun, Feb 21, 2010 - Dry Tortugas, FL

We woke to the sounds of the thousands of birds nesting on Bush Key, the island very near to our anchoring site. About 80,000 Sooty Terns nest annually on Bush Key and it is the only important breeding colony for this species in the continental U.S. About 4,500 Brown Noddies also breed on Bush Key where they place their bulky nests of seaweed and sticks in the bushes and mangrove trees. Long Key contains the only current nesting colony for the Magnificent Frigatebird in the continental U.S. They first nested in this area in 1988, and may be the same population that nested for 25 years at the Marquesas Keys until driven away by human disturbance. The Frigatebird spends 90 percent of its life in the air.

Our plan for the day included joining up with one of the guided tours given by the crew of either of the two excursion boats arriving daily from Key West. The Dry Tortugas are a cluster of seven islands located almost 70 miles west of Key West. With the surrounding shoals and water, they make up Dry Tortugas National Park, an area noted for bird and marine life and shipwrecks. Fort Jefferson, its central cultural feature, is the nation’s largest 1800’s masonry fort.











By 10 am we had dinghied to shore and watched the tour boats arrive. We joined up with the group from the first tour boat and listened to the guide give the history of the Fort as we walked through the structure and grounds. It was interesting to hear about all of the great ideas gone wrong during its construction which began on Garden Key in 1846, went on for thirty years, but was never finished. During the Civil War the Fort served as a Union military prison for captured deserters. It’s most famous prisoner, Dr. Samuel Mudd, was convicted for conspiracy after he treated President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin’s leg when he broke it trying to escape after the shooting. The Army abandoned the Fort in 1874 and in 1935 it became a National Park.

We found out why the emergency lights had been flashing out in the channel last night. A man and a woman who were camping at Dry Tortugas had taken their kayak out in the afternoon and not returned. The only facts given were that the man was rescued but the woman was not. Her body was found today. Very sad.

The skies clouded up around noon and we experienced some light sprinkles. The four of us headed back to the boat for lunch. The men put on their rain gear to fish in the dinghy for the afternoon but they didn’t have much luck catching anything. We shared some snacks of Wisconsin cheese, crackers and sauce for happy hour. Maureen made a tuna casserole for dinner since we didn’t quite have enough fish.


During the evening hours the wind started blowing 25 to 30 knots out of the east northeast. Myeerah, the big motor yacht anchored near us, began swinging around in a very wide arc.