Sailing to the Dry Tortugas, Day 2

After a french toast and bacon breakfast, we weighed anchor and
set sail for the Dry Tortugas, about another 45-50 miles further west. 
It was a gorgeous sunny day for a sail.  Look at the bow babe! 
Mamaw saw this picture and said,
 "Good Lord, I'm almost naked!"  I think Paps rather enjoyed it :)

By far, the highlight of the day was the dolphins.  Three separate times
they came to greet us and play in our bow wake.  It was so awesome.

Here I was leaning over the bowpulpit chittering
with one. He surface just a few feet below me and
blew dolphin buggars on me out of his blow hole.
I LOVED IT!!!

It got to where it seemed I was actually communicating with them.
I would chitter in a high pitched squeal, and they would
surface and answer me back.  When they surfaced, they looked
 you straight in the eye...it was so very cool.

It's hard to see in this picture, but this guy's dorsal fin
was jacked up...it looked like he had been bitten by
a shark.  There's a dolphin that looks like that at the
DRC in Marathon.  Poor fella...stupid sharks.

At one time, we were in a pod of six dolphins, all swimming and playing
around Marquesa...while we were sailing along at 6+knots!  One dolphin
breeched completely out of the water next to the cockpit.  Donnie was
yelling, "Oh my God, Oh, my God, Did you see that?!"
Stephanie, you would have loved it, like I did.

Willis was unimpressed by it all.  Fish scare him...especially big ones. 

Mamaw and Paps had a bawl dolphin hunting! The water was such a gorgeous blue...

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.  Occasionally
you would see a boat pass a mile or two away.  So beautiful.  It was so hot;
we stopped the boat for a dip in the ocean.  Out in the Atlantic, no land
in sight, we just jumped in for a swim...the old folks, too :)  You should have
seen us all working to get Mamaw back up the ladder and on the boat.
A sailboat that had been following us about a mile back saw us, and
thought we were in some sort of trouble.  No trouble; just pulling and
pushing Mamaw back up!  By golly she did it- and the water felt great!

After an eight hour sail, land ho!  Ft. Jefferson was dead ahead :)
FOUND IT!!!  A GPS is a wonderful thing...seems like 'magic' to Paps.

We anchored in the little harbor at about 5:00pm.  Since we had a few hours
of daylight, we decided to go ashore to see the moat, beach, and campground
on Ft. Jefferson.  We met a very nice officer, John, that works in law
enforcement for the Dept. of Natural Resources.  I thought of Emily's
boyfriend, Cody, who would love a gig like this.  The guys go fishing
and diving in the evenings and days off.  They even built a four hole
golf course inside the fort- now that's resourceful!  They work two weeks
on and two weeks off.  He was very interesting to talk to.

A view of the moat that completely surrounds the fort.  It is fed by the ocean
and contains corals and fish in about 5-8 ft. of depth.  No swimming allowed.
Oh, that reminds me, as soon as we anchored, we had two HUGE
400 lb. jewfish (grouper) swimming under our boat in about nine feet of
water.  You could see them plain as day!  Mamaw got all excited, and
Donnie, of course, threw on his snorkel gear for a closer look.
John told us that there are four of these big boys that live in the harbor.

"Bird Island" surrounds one end of the harbor.  It has THOUSANDS
of birds on it; mostly terns and frigates.  They squawk and screech all
night long.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing the stench away from the harbor!
Girls, do you remember when we passed "Gull Island" on Lake Michigan?!
Yeah, like that, only worse!!!  Willis was on top of the boat all night
long; looking and listening to them.  Such a curious cat.

This was a frigate bird, soaring high over head.  Their wing span is
at least 5-6 feet long, and they glide on the updrafts.  Often that is the
only bird you will see on the ocean...it was my first look at one.
William, look 'em up and tell me about them!

We saw the sea plane from Key West make their final landing of the
day to pick up passengers before the fort closed for the day.  It
carries 10 passengers a trip, up to six times a day. What took the pilot a
mere 35 minutes, took us nearly two days!  See Marquesa in the background?
Mamaw did not come ashore, as she had her one trip off the
 boat today in that mid-ocean swim :)

After pasta, garlic bread and fruit salad for dinner, we played a game of dominoes before turning in for bed.
Tomorrow, we're all going ashore to explore the fort, yay! G'night, all.