Ft. Jefferson - The Dry Tortugas National Park

Fort Jefferson

If you look at a map, about 70 miles west of Key West Florida, in the middle of nowhere, you will find The Dry Tortugas National Park. The park consists of 7 small islands and is the southernmost tip of South Florida’s coral reef tract. This represents the third-largest barrier reef system in the world spanning from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas (the largest is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia followed by Belize’s Barrier reef). The islands were discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. He originally named the islands Las Tortugas for the abundance of turtles residing there. Charts later reflected the name Dry Tortugas to warn mariners no water was available. Once charted, they became of great importance to mariners. The islands offered two resources; a safe natural deep water harbor for ships seeking shelter and turtles. At the time, turtles were a favorite food of sailors. They are delicious to eat and can be kept alive for weeks on the deck of a boat by splashing them occasionally with salt water ensuring fresh meat for weeks aboard a ship.

The isles remained under Spanish rule providing merchant ships a landmark into the Gulf of Mexico. Once Florida was acquisitioned in 1822, the United States began planning the creation of a large fort in the Dry Tortugas. The United States believed the 75-mile-wide straits connecting the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Ocean were critical to protect as any forces who tried to occupy the area could gain control over Gulf Coast trading. Extensive surveying and planning continued until construction of Fort Jefferson began in 1847 on Garden Key Island. Although the fort was never fully finished, Fort Jefferson is one of the largest 19th century American masonry coastal forts. By 1860, over $250,000 had been spent and the fort was only halfway completed. Work continued during the Civil War but soon stopped after the war ended. During the Civil War it was used as a military prison, and was used in this way until 1874.

Entrance – One way in and out

Looking inside

Over 16 million bricks were used in the fort’s construction. Everything had to be brought in by ship. Imagine that for just a second. Everything! The concrete, bricks, water, huge stone slabs for staircases and cannons had to be loaded on ships and sailed 500 miles from Pensacola to the Dry Tortugas where the construction materials were offloaded into smaller dinghies and rowed ashore. The darker upper brick of the fort’s third tier are bricks made in Boston. The fort remained under union control during the US Civil War as construction continued. However, the materials now had to be shipped from the upper east coast making the progress harder and slower.

Entrance – One way in and out

Huge stones slabs stacked to make up spiral staircases

Cannon Rooms

The design of the fort allows for defense from all sides. At any approach around the fort, 125 cannons can point at a single target. The cannons had a range of about 3 miles and could reload in about a minute. An attacking ship would find themselves with 125 cannon balls a minute raining down upon them.  The cannon balls weighed about 300 pounds and were launched with such thrust they were capable of piercing even iron clad armor of war ships. The outer walls of the fort are 8 feet thick. This made the fort virtually impenetrable by ship cannon fire since it would take about 50 shots to the same part of the wall to make a hole; from a moving ship with limited cannons, an impossibility. The mere power of the fort served as a deterrent and was never attacked making it the thermal nuclear weapon of it time. For the 1800’s this was the ultimate defense technology in practice.

Harbor Light

Eras of technology on the roof top – Satellite dish on left and Cannon on right

Despite over 30 years of construction, the fort was never truly completed. Advances in weapon technology made the fort obsolete by 1862. Fort Jefferson served for a time as a remote prison facility. One of its most famous inmates was Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of President Lincoln. Mudd was incarcerated on the Dry Tortugas for four years, from 1865 to 1869. He was released on March 11^th, 1869 following a pardon from President Andrew Johnson in part because of his work and research with yellow fever. Yellow fever outbreaks were a common occurrence at the fort and killed many of the guards and medical staff as well as prisoners. The saying, “Your name is Mudd” is attributed to the distrust of Samuel Mudd for his unbeknown role in the treatment of a criminal. Regardless of the Presidential pardon, the saying stuck.

Entrance to Dr. Mudd’s cell

Mudd Plaque

Mudd’s Cell

Ft. Jefferson - The Dry Tortugas National Park

The Dry Tortugas

About 10 years ago, Cindy and I came to the Dry Tortugas during a long weekend in Key West. A friend suggested we take the high speed ferry from Key West to Garden Key which is the location of Ft Jefferson. During the tour of the fort, I remember looking out one of the windows at the boats anchored in the beautiful turquoise water of the harbor below and thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be great to have a boat and sail here one day.

Cream Puff through the fort window

We arrived pretty late in the day. We found a prime spot and set the anchor. We settled in for the night. I’m embarrassed to say we slept from 9pm to 8am. Yep. 11 hours! I awoke and made a pot of tea. As I normally do on the boat, I took my tea to the cockpit and sat up top in the fresh morning air. Today the view was a little different. I guess I will have to get use to the view being different from now on. Normally, I do the morning crossword. However, The Dry Tortugas has no internet or cell phone coverage. We were completely unplugged and off the grid. The islands making up The Dry Tortugas is a national park. This means it is pretty much the same today as it was when Ponce de Leon first set foot on the isles in 1513 by Juan Ponce de Leon (with the exception of the fort). Nothing to do but take in the view.

View while sippng morning tea

This spot is a little bit of paradise. The waters are warm, clear and shallow. Snorkeling is a must. We snorkeled the exterior of the fort along the outer wall. Even with plenty of other people on the island, we had no trouble finding some space to ourselves. We saw plenty of fish. But, best of all, it gave Cindy and I a chance to dust off our diving equipment. It’s been years since we SCUBA dove and way too long since we snorkeled. This was a great spot to kick off our cruising adventure; lots to look at and great visibility.

Snorkelers

Since there are no roads to the Torgugas, people have to travel by boat or sea plane to get there. This is the first time I have seen a sea plane. Very cool. It’s a little scary that the plane’s landing area is the same channel as a boat uses to enter the harbor.

Da plane boss, da plane!

A fishing boat near us make the mistake of feeding some pelicans. After this, they had a hard time getting rid of them.

Hand feeding pelicans

The “DRY” Tortugas?

They say, it is called the Dry Tortugas since there are a lot of turtles and it does not rain much. We will vouch for the turtles. However, we think it is called Dry because they don’t serve liquor there.

The Dry Tortugas

Sailing South

Ouch!!!!

Our first stop after leaving the marina was top off the fuel tanks. Cream Puff holds 158 gallons (US) of diesel fuel. This is used to power the engine and generator. The engine is used in cases where wind is nowhere to be found or for tight controlled maneuvering. The generator gives us all the electrical comforts of home such as air conditioning, microwave, washer/almost-dryer etc. Running the generator is an expensive luxury. If we ran it all day every day, this would equate to an electric bill of about $2,000 per month (not including the price of a new generator every couple of years due to wearing out). We typically do not use the generator while sailing except to charge the house batteries from which all of our lights, pumps, refrigeration and navigational systems work. However, while at anchor, using the generator to crank up the air conditioner is a luxury second to none. It is always a good idea to leave port with full fuel tanks. Fill her up please.  Ouch!   The sad part is this is probably the cheapest diesel we will purchase on our travels. From here on, we can expect to pay more.

We took a couple of days to chill and settled into one of our favorite anchorages in Tampa Bay. It is the Manatee River at the mouth of Tampa Bay. The river has scenic state parks on either side. Our intent was to make sure all of our gear was working prior to setting off for the Dry Tortugas about 2 days away. We experienced a small problem with the generator and needed to swap the water pump for the spare in our parts inventory. I will rebuild the old pump and place it back into the inventory. Other than this, all went well.

Boats Anchored – Manatee River

The flies started to drive us crazy. Cindy put up our screens and armed each of us with a swatter. We, meaning Mark, Cindy and our abundance of fly carcasses decided to set sail and head south. I am starting to think the previous post entitled Gone Sailin’ should have been called Gone Motorin’. We had so little wind that sailing the entire way would have taken a 2 day trip and turned it into 10 days. We motored all but 4 hours of the 30 hour trip. We are not fond of motoring. It is noisy and makes it hard to sleep when not on watch. But on the bright side of motoring, at least we make headway, have calm seas and the dolphins come and play in our propeller wash.

We always get excited when dolphins come to play

Make yourself at home

We seem to be prone to picking up feathered stowaways. This little fellow joined us about 50 miles west of Florida. He hopped about on the deck and feasted on dead flies. After which, he nested into a coil of rope and nodded off to sleep. I’m almost certain that one day, many years from now, in bird folklore there will be a tale of a lone bird flying wearily over the ocean only to find a secret island in abundance of plump delicious flies. This little fellow hit scrumptious pay dirt when landing on Cream Puff.

The following day we made our first port of call as full time cruisers in the Dry Tortugas.

Land Ahoy – Arriving in the Dry Tortugas

Sailing South

Gone Sailin'

Early this morning, Cream Puff slipped her mooring lines as we embarked upon our new life as full time cruisers. What is a cruiser? There are many definitions of a cruiser; see Cindy’s post for her explanation about the different ways people can travel by boat. For me, a cruiser has always been a sailor who sets off and takes their dock lines with them (instead of leaving them on the dock for the return tie up) because they know they are not coming back.  I think of cruisers as people whose home is their boat. They have no homeports and travel in only one direction, away from where they have just been. They are nomads on the oceans. Our cruising travels have just begun.

Our departure from St. Petersburg was very unceremonious and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Our friends knew we were waiting for a weather window to head safely south so it will not surprise them when they next walk our dock and find us gone. We hope they pause and take a minute to reflect on good times spent with us and smile. We hope they can share in the joy that Mark and Cindy are out doing what they have dreamed about doing for so many years.

Friends in the marina have offered words of wisdom and wished us well in our future travels. As they came to the marina to visit their own boats, they’d take a minute and knock on Cream Puff’s hull. Once we popped up out of the hatch like eager inquisitive prairie dogs, we got the dreaded question, “When are you guys leaving?” We were busy working our way through a long list of chores since moving full time aboard Cream Puff and really had no set date as we readied our new home. We’ll be ready when we’re ready was our attitude. We would very politely reply, “Soon”. But, as the list got shorter we found ourselves answering, “In a couple of weeks”. Most recently, we answered, “Next week” and then, “Tomorrow”.

It feels like we have be saying good-bye to people for eons. Before our farewells in St Petersburg we departed Atlanta.  We don’t like to say good-bye. We already know for us this is going to be the hardest part of the cruising lifestyle. We know we will meet many wonderful people in our travels, enjoy their company and learn their cultures. Does knowing we will meet new friends help soften the sadness of parting with old friends? Not really, but it helps, a little bit. We will miss St. Petersburg and its people. It is a city for which we have developed a distinct fondness. The downtown area offers a casual lifestyle with every amenity within walking distance of the marina.  We will relish the memories here. But for now, it is time to move on. Where? To wherever the wind take us.

Mahaffey Basin – St. Petersburg

Central Yacht Basin – St. Petersburg

Vinoy Basin – St. Petersburg

Bye Bye St. Pete

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

Gone Sailin'

St Petersburg – The Arts

One of the things we’ve noticed during our stent in St Petersburg, FL is art. No we are not talking Garfunkel. St. Petersburg has built into the cityscape wonderful murals and statues. Taking a short break from readying Cream Puff for our escapades, we took a walk about the city armed with cameras. We have about one more week in St Petersburg. We are now provisioning. Some might call it stockpiling food. We have read on many cruisers blogs the one thing they all seem to buy too much of is food. I am pleased to announce we are not exceptions to this. One thing is for sure, we will not be hungry. We have food and wine. Notice I did not write that we have too much wine. Can a person ever have too much wine? I think not.

Enjoy the pictures (click any picture to start a slide show)

 

The Murals

Fun with statues

On the side-walk

The Museums

Museum of Fine Arts

 

Salvador Dalí Museum

 

 

 

St Petersburg – The Arts

Fifty Shades of Gray ….. but not What You are Thinking

 

It is nice that in these days and times people have more options when it comes to hairstyles. I would have loved to have had the blue or pink streaks added to my hair when I was young. Much to my family’s delight this idea was not invented until I was too old to do so, or at least, felt I was.  It is nice to see some women let their hair be their natural gray at earlier ages as well. It is nice that we have choices and I applaud choices. In the spring of 2013 I decided that I would let my hair go completely natural which for me would be several shades of gray. Not 50 shades of gray-just regular salt and pepper gray.

There were many reasons for the decision to go natural.  Over the years I started to develop an allergic reaction to the chemicals. Different stylist tried different methods that worked for awhile but I always seemed to become sensitive again. People have asked me if I decide to go gray because we are going cruising. I have heard and read that people find ways to continue hair treatments and haircuts while cruising so this did not worry me. I’m sure if I really wanted to continue coloring my hair I would find a way to do it. I guess in all honesty I simply felt that for me, it was time.

Anyone who knows me will attest that I research things before I leap. I found that salt and pepper are actually various shades of charcoal gray and gray to light gray and white. I read about the various ways to let your hair be natural and how best to get there. I was intrigued.

The most common recommendation is to cut your hair as short as you can stand it in order to cut the processed color out and have the natural gray grow.  I really do not look good with short hair and I prefer to put my hair up in the summer. Actually, it is almost a necessity due to heat and humidity. Rather than go the short hairccut route my plan was to gradually go lighter in color with each visit to the salon.  The idea was to have my hair go through a progression from dark brown to blond and then let the gray grow out and cut out the blond over time. That way there would not be a stark difference.  Yep, everything looks and sounds good on paper. Let’s see how fate and life tests the theory.

When I informed my former stylist of my plan she told me I would look washed out, old and would have stark white hair if I let my hair go natural. Note the word “former” in that sentence. This upset me because even I could see what she was saying was not true. I searched and found a stylist who said she understood what I wanted to do and was happy to help. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the salon the stylist with whom I had the appointment had left early unexpectedly. A different stylist was set up to see me instead. Unfortunately, her English was about as good as my Russian so somewhere along the way the communication became mixed up and the plan on paper went awry. Or, got shredded, however you want to look at it.

The foils were removed, the hair was washed and I was pointed toward the chair and the mirror. I am very familiar with the workings of a mirror but surely there was something wrong with this one. I could see someone sitting there but where was I? Oh, crap, that big blond blob is me. Crap.

The new, substitute stylist changed my very dark brunette hair to very blond. The best way to describe it was Barbie Doll Blond. Yeah, so much for the slow progression that no one will notice. More like gasps from friends and, “What the heck happened to your hair.”  Did I mention some started falling out? My well researched plan of not having to explain to everyone what I was doing was now the topic of most conversations. Customers did not recognize me, friends did not recognize me, and my friend’s dog who loves me ran the opposite direction. In the end it went like this, “Ok, when you look for me in the restaurant you will not recognize me. My hair is now very blond. Don’t ask.” …Ugh….

Besides having to go into a long, “Why my hair looks like a Barbie doll” and answer, “No, Mark did not change his name to Ken” explanations to friends, co-workers and customers, I had to decide what to do next. So maybe this was not the natural progression I had envisioned but there we were and time to make the best of it. So, like anything else in life, plan B was formed.

The new plan was to start letting the salt and pepper take over while cutting out the blond at each salon visit. Lots of layers were added to get there faster. Yeah, I counted those days and looked forward to those appointments like they were the ice cream sundae at the end of a long diet. On a positive note, no more coloring and highlights just haircuts. YEA! And no more 4 hour visits to the salon, just a quick wash, trim, blow dry and I was done. Not to mention the money I was saving. After 5 months my hair was its natural colors. An array of shades of grays from dark to light and some white as well.  I guess it goes along with all the other changes in life that come after 50. Just another one of the many life changes and decisions we make as we age.

So, long story short, for someone who claims to be low maintenance, this was a very long process (pun intended) but in the end I am happy with all my shades of gray and how much easier it is to care for. If any of this helps anyone else go through the process more successfully it will make me very happy.

PS: Mark said I needed to add a picture so I have added a chart of the different  shades of gray….I am pretty sure this is not what he meant.

Fifty Shades of Gray ….. but not What You are Thinking

Under 30 Days

We gave our marina office the required 30 days notice we will be vacating our slip and applied our security deposit to our last month’s rent. Our list of “must do’s” is shortening daily. We have a list of tasks that must be done and a second list of things we would really like to get done while we still have an address and a car.

Cindy and I were joking we haven’t worked harder in our lives. We are busy prepping Cream Puff with last minute projects to prepare her for our voyages. The list was longer than we thought it would be. And, in true boat-life actuality, everything takes about three times longer than we expect it will. Since we will no longer have an address, this is our last chance to have shipments of boat parts delivered for a few months. This is also our last few days with a vehicle. We are running our last errands. Once we sell the car, shopping becomes a little harder. We are trying hard to get as much checked off both list as we can. Hence, the blog has been a little quiet. Sorry about that.

We split up the to-do list. I have taken on most of the mechanical stuff ensuring all of our systems are operational. Cindy has taken the role of chief safety officer and organizational extraordinaire. Our time in St. Petersburg is getting short. So excited! Time is flying by and we can’t believe we are now inside 30 days for our departure to a cruising life on the waves.

Our life raft passes inspection. We hope we ever have to use it!

 

Under 30 Days