In the morning, Grace and I went back to the fort early; before the ferry arrived with the crowds. This would enable us to have a peaceful tour of the fort on our own. It was a bit overcast, but cleared as the day went on.
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| Grace standing in front of one of the fort's cactus. This is a desert island! |
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| Looking down one side of the fort on the second level |
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| A Gunpowder magazine on the fort's parade grounds |
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| Grace at the end of a hallway on the inner second level |
From the top level of the fort, we had some great views to!
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| The same gunpowder magazine as seen from above |
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| A view of the interior wall from above |
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| A view of the north anchorage. Nobody ever uses this one. |
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| The nice thing about Japanese tourists... they will always take a picture for you |
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| Frigate Birds |
The day before, Ranger Hall suggested we take Distant Horizon over to Loggerhead Key to do some snorkeling. Today was the day we decided to take action. After lunch we would weigh anchor and depart Garden Key for the short three mile (as the crow flies) trip.
Once at Loggerhead we had to catch a mooring. Anchoring is prohibited. This rule is to protect the delicate coral in the area. Catching a mooring is something neither of has done before. I drove the boat close, and then gave the helm to Grace. From the bow, I directed her to the mooring ball. She brought us to within a couple feet. Even with the slight rolling, I had an easy time grabbing the pendant of the mooring ball with the boat hook; running my line through it; and then tying the other end of my line to the other side of the boat. After adjusting the length of my line so as not to put too much strain on the mooring we were ready to take the tender ashore.
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| Loggerhead Key |
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| Loggerhead Key Lighthouse |
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| Fort Jefferson as viewed from Loggerhead Key. The fort's big cannons could shoot this far. |
We loaded up our snorkeling gear and I rowed a short distance to shore. From there we walked across the island according to the ranger’s directions. Along the walk we passed the Loggerhead Key Lighthouse. I peaked in, but a sign prohibited entry. There were also two homes powered by a solar array.
We entered the water right where the ranger told us and snorkeled out. We were going through sea grass and a deep hole of sand…as the ranger said, “If you are in sea grass and sand, you haven’t gone far enough yet… keep going”. As we swam up out of the sand pit and over a little hill… is it a hill when it’s under water? We knew we had arrived. The directions we were given were to an old coral head for a look at how all the reefs used to look. It was amazing! More types of coral than I can remember, so many colorful fish, it was like living in a National Geographic movie. It was breath taking. We swam around and just drifted; watching the fish come and go in and out of the coal. Some just stay there waiting, supposedly for their next meal. We actually visited four of these coral heads, which were close in proximity to each other.
Eventually, I felt myself shaking and knew it was time to get out of the water. Grace seemed ok with that. We had agreed on the buddy system before entering the water.
After we were back at the beach we discussed how amazing the coral was. It was my first time snorkeling. Grace let me know it’s not always like that. In fact, she had never seen anything quite like that before either.
On our walk back to the tender we retraced our steps. Once by the homes again, a couple of rangers were walking by and we had a short chat with them. They told us about their duties and explained about the site. The newer of the two homes was for the island caretakers. The other older, smaller stucco home was for visiting rangers. They were indeed powered completely by the solar array. There was a watermaker, so they have an ample supply of fresh water.
We continued on back to the tender, rowed to Distant Horizon, dropped the mooring, and headed back to Garden Key. The mooring is for temporary use; limited to two hours so that others could use it. It is prohibited for overnight stays. But on that day, there was only us and the rangers.
We dropped anchor in the anchorage by the fort a little after 5:00pm. We hurried to the fort to catch Ranger Hall before he left for the day. We thanked him for the directions and told him how awesome the coral was. He asked about a few types of fish and seemed pleased we enjoyed it. He gave me the updated weather forecast and headed back to Distant Horizon for the night.
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