If I Were Going...: Dry Tortugas

A pretty place on a pretty day

Now for one of the main reasons we chose to come to Florida: Dry Tortugas National Park. Neither Caty nor I had been there and I thought it might take me years to get around to it.

There are two ways to get to Dry Tortugas (well, four if you have your own boat or seaplane): on the Yankee Freedom ferry or by small floatplane from Key West. The Yankee Freedom trip is $175 per person/$165 for seniors with a $10 per ticket refund if you have a National Park Pass.

View from the ferry

The plane costs $317 for a half day and $555 for a full day. We opted to go by ferry, thinking we could always add a plane trip the next day if we really wanted to. The ferry takes over two hours each way to travel the 68 miles to Dry Tortugas and back. You leave at 8:00 a.m. and return around 5:15 p.m., so time on the island is about five hours.

Park Ferry

It would be nice if you could go by boat one way and fly the other (which is actually what happened for some people on the day we went because the plane broke down and the passengers returned to Key West via ferry).

Grounded plane

The ferry serves breakfast and lunch and has a bar on the way back. It travels at about 35 mph, so it is quite windy on the bow.

We had heard that there is great snorkeling at Dry Tortugas, so we decided that would be an important part of the trip. I contacted Yankee Freedom in advance to see about prescription masks and they informed me they had none, but I could rent them from a local dive shop. I tried a few with no luck, so Caty and I took the plunge and purchased custom masks and snorkels with valves that prevent the mouth full of water you normally get if you dive with a snorkel. It was a significant investment, but well worth it. Now, we need to take some more snorkeling trips.

Snorkeling

The ferry was full. Breakfast was adequate, but nothing to write home about.

Quite a bit of the trip is through the waters of the park, so there aren’t a lot of boats. The park covers 100 square miles of open water and seven keys (Garden, Loggerhead, Bush, Long, East, Hospital, and Middle).

Middle Key

The name Dry Tortugas derives from two things: the fact that there is no water on the island and the sea turtles (tortugas) that can be found in the area. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any. In fact, we had also hoped to see dolphins, flying fish or something on the trip out, but we saw nothing but blue sky and sea.

The Dry Tortugas' strategic location made it a shipping channel for Spanish explorers and merchants traveling along the Gulf Coast. But, the low, flat islands and reefs are a serious navigation hazard and have been the site of hundreds of shipwrecks. As we approached our ferry destination, Fort Jefferson, we saw Loggerhead Light (constructed in 1858), one of the three lighthouses in the area, in the distance.

Loggerhead Light

As we approached, the fort appeared in the distance, in the midst of open ocean.

I see it!

As we got closer, we could see the red brick walls and brilliant turquoise water around it.

Very cool

As soon as we landed, we were told we had to take all our gear off the boat so they could prepare lunch. That’s a bit of a pain because we had to lug our change of clothing, etc., with us. It would be nice if there were a place on board just to stow stuff. We also found it a bit odd that lunch was going to be served about a half an hour after landing and for just about a two-hour period. After two hours transit, why stay on the boat?

We wanted to snorkel right away, so we decided to do lunch as late as possible and not to sweat it if we were to miss it. The Yankee Freedom has a snack bar that opens for the trip back.

A note about lunch and the boat – Fort Jefferson has no facilities for day visitors – no snack bars and no rest rooms. The only toilets on the island are for campers (there is a very, very small camping area) and a private area for park rangers. So, the ferry becomes our hospitality center.

The National Park Service offers multiple tours of the fort, but we opted to snorkel first.

Another National park to check off

Well, almost first.

First, we photographed the Magnificent Frigatebirds (that's the name - Magnificent Frigatebird) circling over the fort.

A female and a juvenile above us

With a wingspan of 35-45 inches, Magnificent Frigatebirds are among the largest of seabirds. Occurring over tropical and subtropical American waters, the Magnificent Frigatebird has brownish-black plumage, long narrow wings and a deeply forked tail.

The male has a red sac that it inflates to attract a mate

The female is slightly larger and has a black head and white breast

Juveniles have white heads and breasts

Magnificent Frigatebirds never land on water, feeding on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (often flying fish). They sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food. They spend days and nights on the wing, with an average ground speed of 6.2 mph, covering up to 139 miles before landing. They often climb in thermals to altitudes as high as 8,200 feet and they can sleep while they soar.

Huge wingspan

Next, we got our National Park Passports stamped. That brings me to 52 National Parks – just seven more to go.

Working on the full list

And, then, we snorkeled.

The temperature was perfect – hot with water so comfortable that you could walk in and out without even a shiver. You can enter the water via a small beach near the boat (there is another beach of the other side).

Snorkeling by the fort

It was a sandy/murky where we entered and clearer as we ventured along the fort wall (it encloses a moat on the other side). There was a lot of sea grass and a good variety of tropical fish – Sergeant Majors, Parrotfish, Trumpetfish, Blue Tangs and more – and some different types of Coral. The whole area seemed to be covered with a thin layer of sand/mud, dimming the colors of everything. So, even though it was good, it wasn’t fabulous snorkeling. I suspect it would be better out of reefs without sand beaches. I briefly saw a small Nurse Shark that swam right under me, but nothing else large.

We heard that snorkeling by the old dock pilings was interesting, but it seemed a bit rough in that direction.

Good for the birds

Caty had trouble with her mask leaking, but mine worked great. She took it back to where we bought them and it turned out there was a flaw in the lens. They are fixing it.

IF VIDEO DOESN'T APPEAR, CLICK HERE

It was fun and piqued my interest in more snorkeling trips.

After an hour or so, we grabbed lunch (really good tuna salad!) with just a few minutes to spare, showered in the warm fresh water rinse station on the boat, changed in the dressing rooms provided on the island and did a quick walk around the fort.

The fort

Fort Jefferson, built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the lucrative shipping channel, is the largest all-masonry fort in the United States. Supply and subsidence problems and the Civil War delayed construction and it was never completed because of fears that additional bricks and cannon would cause further settling and place more stress on the structure and the cistern system. Distinguishing features include decorative brickwork and 2,000 arches. Time, weather, and water continue to take their toll, necessitating ongoing stabilization and restoration projects.

Repeating arches

Fort Jefferson served after the Civil War as the prison for Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, convicted of conspiracy for setting the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. While there, he treated malaria patients, earning him a pardon from President Andrew Johnson.

The area around the fort has gorgeous turquoise and blue water and I think an airplane tour would be fantastic, although pricey. The fort is very pretty, with ...

... trees and grass in the center ...

... walls you can walk around ...

... and a lighthouse at the top of the wall

The humidity gave some of my photos an eerie look ...

A downside of Florida

The fort is surrounded by a moat that has a resident American Crocodile that we heard about but never saw.

We looked, but didn't find it

I don't supposed the brown Cuban Anole counts

We also walked around the beach areas of the island.

That's what sand should look like!

The water is such a gorgeous turquoise

And, even though the vegetation is a bit prickly ...

... it makes for a beautiful and peaceful stroll

As we were getting ready to leave, we photographed some of the hundreds of Hermit Crabs we saw all over the island ...

This was a treat

.... and we grabbed a few more photos of the Magnificent Frigatebirds ...

And, I loved these guys

Then, it was time to go. As we pulled out ...

... we had great views of Fort Jefferson ...

... as it disappeared ...

... into the distance

The trip back on the ferry was uneventful (unless you count the crew handing out seasickness bags and the few “mishaps” onboard). The direction of the wind and currents creates a lot more chop and it was worse than the crew had expected. They had to close the bow, so we rode inside. It made for a bit of a boring trip home. Once again, we wished we could have flown back.

The ferry has a bar and we found it amusing/alarming when we overheard people wondering if getting drunk would relieve seasickness. I highly doubt it.

We really enjoyed the trip, but decided it wouldn’t be worth the expense to go back the next day.