Boating — The Dry Tortugas
The ‘Dead End Canal Yacht Club’ used to be far roamers. Not anymore, I’m afraid. Our big time cruising rendezvous’ are now short trips to Sarasota, La Belle, Naples, and once in a great while the Floirda Keys. More of us go on the fast catamaran to Key West rather on our own boats. There is one distant destination that is nearer and dearer to our hearts, the Dry Tortugas.
The next few columns will be a compilation of this years trip along with a few stories from recent trips. I will try to tell them straight so not to humiliate those who participated.
First a little background. The Dry Tortugas (‘the turtles’) so named by by Spanish explorer Ponce De Leon because of the bounty of turtles found there. The Spanish navigators liked the name because their low profile resembled the backs of turtles.
Two hundred years later the Americans called it the ‘Gibraltar of the Gulf’ after Fort Jefferson was built on Garden Key. The United States War Department intended that the fort’s presence, 68 miles west of Key West, would control the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The forts construction was hurried as the outbreak of the American Civil War seemed imminent.
The fort was was poorly engineered. Two events doomed the 77 million brick structure. First it was too heavy for the small sand island and the fort began sinking shortly after the first brick was laid. Secondly the invention the rifled cannon meant that stonework and iron facade was inadequate.
Although the fort was designed with many cisterns to catch fresh water, the chart designation ‘dry’ is a fact. As the fort settled the huge cisterns cracked. Today there is just one water fountain near the ranger’s office supplied by cisterns.
A few years ago ‘Run-aground Ralph’ was apprehended filling up water jugs despite a BIG sign that warned the fountain was for drinking water only.
He shrugged off the warning although most of the members wanted him hung from one of the gun ports at the top of the fort. Boston Bob sneaked into the into the gift shop area and stole the picture of Ralph’s boat posted by some devious cruiser with “warning water thief” scrawled on it.
In the early days of the yacht club many of the original members of the DECYC had larger cruising boats capable of going to the Bahamas or Cuba or the windward islands. Most of these were sailboats because they are so economical for extended cruises.
“Northwest Neil” was a far roamer who loved to travel to the Bahamas aboard his 39′ sailboat. He especially loved sailing at night when the sky was clear and the moon was bright. For many years he led novice boaters on far flung cruising rendezvous without any compensation except the hardy thanks of his grateful brood. He never lost one, although we don’t think it was for the lack of trying. Neil bought a trawler and gave up leading cruises a few years ago.
Anyway, it was because of him and other intrepid adventurers, that made the club. Our present membership didn’t catch the long term cruising bug. Today’s club has many lake boat transplants and running shoe boaters who plunked down their hard earned money to buy a boat and move onto the Dead End Canal.
Don’t get me wrong I have very good friends who once boated on small inland lakes. Several are in our Celestial Navigation Group or the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a few are graduates of the Chapman’s School of Seamanship. I would go with any of the to Dry Tortugas. But because this isn’t a club sanctioned trip the novices still tag along.
“Loose lips sink ships,” is the catch word or words as the time for the annual May departure approaches. We go to great lengths to disguise our intentions. Stealthy trips to the local West Marine, Winn Dixie, Home Depot and Publix supermarket/liquor store are all for naught because some of the gals can’t help telling their friends about our secret plans.
This years group included three sport fishing boats, three trawlers and two sailboats. One member missed the cruise because of financial problems, go figure? Naturally, we couldn’t all leave at the same time and arrive at the same time because of the difference in speed and ability to navigate the weather.
The sailboats left late on Thursday, the Trawlers left midday on Friday and the Sport Fishing boats left early on Saturday. Six tag-along boats followed their respective groups.
Boston Bob lead the sailboats in their informal race to see who would get to the Fort first. Unfortunately Bob was taken out of the race by a tag-along who blew out a head sail during a mini-squall just off Marco Island. The novice dropped anchor and then couldn’t retrieve it. ‘SeaTow’ was called but Bob stayed anyway and lost the race. See what I mean?
A novice tag-along trawler disappeared during the night without telling anyone. We didn’t know his fate until one of our wives flew into the park on the Seaplane Service out of Key West. She gleefully informed us that they had an engine problem and were safe in Marathon.
The rest made it without serious incident except one of the novice Sport Fishing boats missed the park entirely because of an error entering the numbers into the Global Positioning System (GPS) but he was talked in by fellow members. Stay tuned for next week’s fun and games in the Dry Tortugas.
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