Dry Tortugas

September 29, 2011









Dry Tortugas

Arriving at the Tortugas is a pretty awesome experience. The azure waters that surround the small islands, the majesty of the imposing and beautiful Fort Jefferson, still the largest brick structure in the Western Hemisphere, the huge frigate birds circling overhead and the beautiful lighthouse on Loggerhead Key all make for a wonderful experience, especially under a beautiful sunny day like the day that I heeded out to meet Kathy.







She had already broken down her campsite when I arrived and so we had the entire four and a half hour stay to take full advantage of all that the Fort has to offer. Kathy had spent the previous two days and nights camping under the amazing starry skies just off the beautiful soft white sand beach. She had spent her days snorkeling the amazing reefs that are just off shore as well as kayaking to some of the smaller out islands which are only reachable by water such as Loggerhead Key.





It is a pretty magical experience being at the Fort when hardly anyone else is around. The beauty and sense of isolation can be intoxicating and Kathy took full advantage of her time, including watching both sunrise and sunset from the ramparts of the fort overlooking the beautiful islands. It is one of our most favorite spots in all of the Keys and one of the more beautiful and photogenic areas as well.







Upon arrival, I took a quick walk around the Fort itself, I have been many times before but it is such an impressive structure, that you almost always notice something new. The views from the upper ramparts and the lighthouse are spectacular and the place just has a historic feel about it. From my lofty vantage point, I could see the boat we arrived on , the fort tour with about a third of the passengers and the birding tour with another third.







The rest of the passengers just went off on their own like I did. Eventually I joined Kathy in the water snorkeling in the amazing near shore reefs from the white sandy beach. There are a number of huge fish and other sea creatures because the area has been under protection for so long and is still very healthy and filled with amazingly vibrant large corals. There were a large number of very large moon jellyfish present as well and you had to be on constant alert not to swim in to their tentacles. They are beautiful and only mildly stingy, but I choose to dodge them regardless.



Kathy







Our friend Carla and her son George Robert joined us in snorkeling as well while big George was participating in the birding tour. There were apparently a good number of sightings while we were there including a somewhat rare bird called a whimbrel. But young George Robert stole the show and upstaged all of the more professional birders when borrowing his father’s camera, snapped a shot that turned out to be a really rare Townsend’s Warbler.







Not only did he spot it and photograph it, but he was the only one who saw it. On the boat ride back to Key West, the birders were all a twitter about the photo- arguing over what it might be. Once home the photo was sent off to a bird expert and the identity of the rare creature was confirmed. Young George’s sighting got a listing on the International database of birding and garnered him recognition in the form of a front page story in the local paper, The Key West Citizen.







All in all, it was another great day and a great visit to one of the true gems of the Florida Keys, such days make us appreciate the wonderful place that we live and the good friends who also help make this such a special community.





Key West Citizen story

Indian Summer

September 26, 2011









Indian Summer

The last week of September brings on the fall season which in many parts of the country means cooler temperatures, shorter days and the changing leaf colors that marks the new season. Most of that doesn’t happen here; in fact it can be at times almost impossible to determine that a change has occurred at all. This week has been no exception as what would be known in much of the country as Indian summer is in reality just more summer.





Kris, Howard & Najada

It has been hot and sunny, with only the occasional drenching rain to break up the monotony of beautiful weather here. We had intended to spend a few days camping this week in the beautiful Dry Tortugas National park, but I had a minor issue arise that kept me from spending the entire weekend there. Kathy, having made all the arrangements already, decided to go out on her own for a couple of nights and I would go out for the day on Sunday to join her.







It allowed me to stay in Key West and be able to join my co-workers Kris & Howard on Friday afternoon at Ft. Zachary Taylor state park to watch the arrival of the newest warship in the US Navy fleet, the USS Spruance.DDG-111. The 510 ft. guided missile destroyer was built in Bath, Maine and is here in Key West to be officially commissioned next week before heading to her home port in San Diego.





It is a rare and pretty cool experience for a Navy vessel to be commissioned here and hundreds of Key West locals headed out to watch her arrival at the Navy Mole downtown. Ft. Taylor offered the best viewing location and crowds lined the shore to watch the vessel make its way in to the harbor with great fanfare.





It was the second kinda cool thing to happen in the past couple of days, the other being the uncommon visit of a manatee to our office on Stock Island. I regularly take for granite the amazing view that I have from my desk, but then the appearance of something like a dolphin or manatee in the marina reminds me of the rare gift I have to have such an awesome view each day at work.







I dropped Kathy and her camping gear off early Friday morning at the Yankee Freedom II, which is docked at Lands End marina at the foot of Margaret Street. She took everything she needed including one of our kayaks so that she could explore the out islands at the Tortugas. She spent two days and nights camping before I was able to head out and join her on Sunday.





George, George & Carla



The Tortugas are only accessible by boat or seaplane and is located about 70 miles west of Key West. September is a great month to go as it is generally the slowest month as far as tourist activity and the summer-like calm weather is still really great to be out there. There were more locals than tourists when I headed out including a large number of people that I knew, including a group from the Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival led by Dr. Mark Whiteside. Our friends George and Carla and their son George and our friends Karen & Mike were also on board. It made for a fun trip out.

Dr. Whiteside

George

Karen & Mike

The boat trip takes about 2.5 hours and is really smooth and quick thanks to the fastcat boat that is the Yankee Freedom II. It is easily an hour faster each way than the old vessel that I rode out on many times when I first moved to the Keys. It was a beautiful sunny day for a ride out and the trip passed quickly. Kathy was waiting for me on the dock when the boat arrived.