The BIG Catch

Leg 6: Dry Tortugas to Key West, FL

We left the Dry Tortugas around 7am on December 22nd with the goal of making to Marquesas Keys, just 15 miles West of Key West, to anchor and sleep. We sailed downwind with a double reefed main in 20 knots of wind, averaging around 6.5 knots, reaching 8 knots as we surfed down some waves. A giant thank you to Freya for taking pictures of Josephine while we were underway.

About thirty minutes in, I suggested to Blake that he catch us a fish for dinner so he trolled the line and in less than ten minutes, we had a two-foot Cero on the line. A Cero is a type of Mackerel that is common to the Keys. I had just made the best green curry of my life the night before and decided it would be a perfect pairing!

At this point we were feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves. I made the greedy comment, “I wonder what else we could catch!?” Oh we caught something else…a crab trap line on our rudder. How did we know? We didn’t at first. Our speed reduced by half and the elements had not changed. In the clear turquoise water we saw a line connected to our rudder. Blake grabbed the boat hook to see if he could even reach it; this was achieved by Blake hanging off the stern with me holding onto his safety harness so he could “reach further.” How I don’t pass out from overwhelm in these moments is beyond me. So he had the line and then was asking me to gather supplies: a broom handle, painters tape, zip ties, and the filet knife. Within seconds, we had made some kind of sword looking thing. More unnerving than Blake hanging off the stern ladder is me with an extremely sharp object on a moving boat. Then the line snapped and we were free. Much like Fort Jefferson, we never had to use our weapon.

Not to play the blame game but I would like to know what sadistic crabbers decided on light turquoise Styrofoam balls to mark their traps. It’s nearly impossible to see in turquoise water. Despite that, it made us incredibly vigilant moving forward which resulted in seeing three sea turtles along the way. I suppose that’s a fair trade off.

Once we were loose, we sailed along with Freya to Marquesas Keys. We each tried three times to drop anchor but no. It just bounced and bounced…and bounced some more. That would make it a combined six unsuccessful attempts to set the anchor which meant, we were going to continue on to Boca Grande Key. On our way to Boca Grande we saw the most beautiful rainbow that hung out until sunset. Freya decided to anchor on the west side of Boca Grande Key while we decided to anchor on the south side. We both had success and woke up the next morning to continue onto Key West.

Example of a derelict boat off Wisteria Island. Someone lives on this.

We entered into the Key West channel and were mesmerized by the amount of boats and the condition of boats anchored as we passed Wisteria Island. We also saw floating cabins that we later learned are AirBnBs. Around this time we called Garrison Bight Marina to see if any mooring balls were available and they said they were full. They don’t take reservations or have a waiting list; it’s just first come first serve. We decided to try our luck and continue to the mooring field. It was around 11:30am and we spot an empty mooring with nothing tied onto it indicating that it’s taken. We quickly tied onto it and called the marina. They called the folks that were supposed to be there and they said they decided to leave a day early and left that morning. Y’all the chances of us getting a mooring ball during this time of year was slim to none.

E36 mooring ball was ours until we didn’t want it anymore. So that you understand, when you anchor, you have to purchase a dinghy pass to be able to dock our dinghy to get access to land, which is about $8 per day, if available. A mooring ball is $20 per day and includes the peace of mind of knowing you won’t drag (your anchor), fresh water, a weekly pumpout, a dinghy pass, hot showers, and laundry. We hit the jackpot!