Tortuga Tour Day 36: Loggerhead Key

5/25/21

The plan for today is snorkeling at Loggerhead Key. Betty Lou rocked all night long and the waves knocked loudly on the hull.  The rocking was not aggressive/not gentle, but not disturbing.  When you are lying down, your body rocks with the boat which can be quite restful.  The knocking eventually becomes white noise, so we did sleep.  We have not been using the AC when we are anchored.  Instead, we open the windows, hatches, and portholes, which with the current conditions has made for comfortable temperatures at night.  The Captain turns most everything off at night except essential lights and the refrigerator.  This conserves the batteries.  We could run the generator, but it is noisy and not necessary for nighttime when we sleep with a cooling breeze.  Morning arrives and we do need the generator to charge our phones and computers and more importantly, make coffee!

The Captain turned on the generator this morning, plugged everything in and the Admiral made the coffee.  No sooner was the coffee made and the generator cut off – not good!  Being the true captain he is, he got down in the machinery space to find and fix the problem.  When you are in a place like the Dry Tortugas, if the Captain doesn’t have the necessary repair skills, you are stuck!

We always have spare parts and a large selection of tools.  There is also an unwritten checklist of what could be the problem.  He quickly decided it was a clogged strainer.  Indeed, the strainer was clogged with seagrass, seaweed, and stuff!

He cleaned it out and restarted the generator.  We always check the water flow out from the port side of the boat.  It was inadequate and the generator began to overheat again.  This meant there was debris in the line going to the strainer.  This required blowing the line out.  The Captain did this by hooking up the hose to our water supply and to the hose of the strainer.  I turned the water supply on for just long enough to do this.  Success!  The generator started up and the water gushed out from the side of the boat.  The Captain decided to check the main engine cooling water strainer.  It was clogged as well but not as badly.  It was a quicker job from start to finish.

Dinghy to Loggerhead Key

Now it was time to do some exploring.  The wind seemed to have calmed some, so we made plans to explore Loggerhead today.  We could only get there by dinghy and it was further away than the fort.  Calmer wind and water would be a more comfortable ride.  We changed into swimsuits, bagged up the snorkeling gear, packed the dinghy bag including some snacks, put on sunscreen and life jackets and we were ready for our adventure.  The dinghy ride took about 15 to 20 minutes and was wavy but not uncomfortable.

We had been informed by the park ranger that the dinghy dock was condemned, but we could pull up onto the beach.  As we approached, we noticed a larger dinghy tied up at the dock.  It was doing a lot of rocking and Fred did not want to tie up there.  We continued toward the beach.  It drops off quickly so we needed to get closer so I or Adriane could jump out and pull us in.  We had the anchor ready.  Once the water was light enough indicating it would be shallower, Adriane jumped in with the line – oops! Not so shallow!  She adjusted quickly and Fred continued motoring in until she could touch bottom.  We all managed to get out.  I am not sure I can describe all that transpired next and do it justice.  Keep in mind this is a 500-pound dinghy.  The waves are coming onto the beach with gusto and splashing into the dinghy depositing seaweed and grass along with plenty of water, adding to the 500 pounds.  The three of us are trying to pull the dingy up onto the beach at the same time.  The Captain had instructed me to take the anchor up to a spot on the beach and plant it.  Something boaters who anchor really don’t like is when your anchor drags.  It was apparent in no time the anchor was not going to hold.  Now what? 

We attempted to pull the boat higher on the beach.  The physical strength to pull the heavy dinghy filling with water uphill onto the beach was not available!  In the meantime, whitecaps are forming, and it feels like the wind is picking up.  The folks from the other dinghy are now returning, loading onto the dinghy, (with some difficulty) and preparing to leave.  Maybe we should tie up there after all.  Maybe we should think about returning to Betty Lou and trying again tomorrow.  There was also the issue of getting back into the dinghy under these conditions.  We discussed who should get in first which was much more complicated than just stepping in.  You had to be there!  We finally made the decision that the Captain should get in first and motor over to the dock to pick me and Adriane up.  We would then return to Betty Lou.  We threw Fred lines which happened to be on the dock.  This dock was also much higher than the dinghy!  You had to be there!!  The Admiral is not a tall person!  My first attempt failed.  With assistance, a racing heart and blood pressure no doubt high, my second attempt was successful!  I really didn’t want to test the life jacket!!  The dinghy ride back to Betty Lou was longer but fine.  The spray actually felt good.

Our experience on Loggerhead is not included in any of the photos.  It was too difficult to safely take pictures.  Safety is always number one over photography.

We were back and tied to Betty Lou before 1:00pm.  Now we had to get sand out of our shoes, grass, and water out of the dinghy and bags unpacked.  Unfortunately, the bag with towels, phones, and wallet got wet.  That could have been disastrous, but the towels and wallet were just damp, and phones were fine.  Whew!!  It took a while to clean up, especially all the sand.  Finally, the Captain and Cruise Director were ready for another swim off the boat. 

The Admiral was perfectly happy (depth of the water was 28 feet – over my head), taking pictures. 

We took cockpit showers and then hung all the wet things on a line in the cockpit.  What a day!  The rest of the afternoon we relaxed and recovered from our adventurous morning.  Teatime today was rum tonics on the flybridge.  It was incredibly beautiful and so much calmer than the morning.

What will tomorrow provide for us in the way of adventure?  It will be awesome, no doubt.

Captain’s Comments

This was the first time I’ve ever had a boat engine (generator or propulsion) trip on high temperature, and I’m pleased that the protective trip worked effectively.  After only needing to clean the strainers every month or so in South Carolina, I’ve had to clean them every other day for the last week.  The water is clear here, but when a patch of seaweed goes by, it is not just at the surface.  I checked the generator strainer this morning before starting it, and it wasn’t bad, but seaweed had plugged the hose leading to the strainer.  Fortunately, some previous troubleshooting and advice in my favorite boating magazine had led me to have on hand the fittings needed to backflush the strainer inlet hose with pressurized water from the domestic water system.

The trip to Loggerhead Key qualified as “sporty.”  There is no place in our dinghy that stayed dry during the above adventure.  We’ll get dry bags to take along before the next trip. 

Swimming and floating off the swim platform of Betty Lou in the warm gulf water got us back to relaxation level 4, and the cockpit shower finished us off back to 5 for 5 on the relaxation scale.  Even though the water was deeper than we normally anchor in at 28 feet, we could still see individual shells on the bottom while floating at the surface.

Peace  fks