Monday January 25 and Tuesday January 26, 2016
We woke up on Monday morning, and the wind was forecast to be 10-15 knots from the East thru Tuesday, then clicking around to the Southwest. The wind from the East was a sign, we should sail West to the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles from Key West.
Monday was a beautiful day. We motor / sailed about 25 miles to the West side of Marquesas Key. We anchored, and were soon joined by two crab boats. I guess they must like the spot, even though it is a military strafing zone according to our chart.
On Tuesday we continued East. The wind kept increasing, and the waves were building. By the time we had the Dry Tortugas is sight, it was much rougher than we had expected. We were surfing down 5 foot waves. Our Genoa helped stabilize us, a good thing.
We had to follow the channel, winding our way around Fort Jefferson. The anchorage had no protection from the howling wind, but the reefs kept the waves out.
We had just pulled into the spot we had determined would be a good place to anchor when our engine shut off. Drop the anchor, I yelled to Jim over the wind, before we were blown into the area reserved for seaplane taxiing. The starboard Genoa sheet had wrapped around our propeller. Lesson learned. Jim put on his wet suit, climbed down the swim ladder, and unwrapped the sheet.
Very windy night at anchor plus a squall in the middle of the night. Our anchor held! Good anchor!