Hello from The Dry Tortugas, noon 24 Jan. 2003,

The front came through yesterday afternoon at 13:00. The wind gusted to 40 knots for about 10 minutes and it rained for about that long. Penny and I waited in the cockpit with our foul weather gear, ready to start the engine if we started to drag.

A look at the depth finder gave us quite a jolt. It was varying between 3 and 14 feet as we yawed left and right. Before we settled on the spot where we were anchored, I had sounded the area and had found no spot with less than 8 feet. I even walked up and down both sides of the boat, with a lead line, as we went back and forth and found no spot less than 8 feet. We had noticed earlier a large Jewfish (Goliath Grouper) hanging about beneath the boat. They are about 7 feet long and 2 feet wide. Maybe we were getting echoes from one of them. We never hit anything.

The wind settled into the North between 30 and 35 knots. We are in the lee of Fort Jefferson about 300 yards from land. The anchorage is open from 200 to 300 degrees and sheltered around the rest of the compass. Garden and Bush Keys protect 300 to 90 and a shallow reef protects the anchorage from 90 to 200 degrees.

With the wind blowing hard out of the North, a two foot swell bends around the island and comes in from the west rolling us about 15 degrees. We had planned to have spaghetti for dinner but the gimballed stove might not have been able to keep water in the pan. There is a door on the microwave. We settled for Lean Cuisine - Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce.

Penny and I spent a restless night, looking out every time a new noise joined the shrill of the wind and the slap of the waves.

For us the night was uneventful. Not so the sail boat anchored behind us. It went up on the reef a quarter mile behind us. We didn't know about it until we went on deck this morning. We called the rangers at Fort Jefferson and they had been out earlier. I don't know if anyone is still on the boat. It is high on the reef heeled at about 45 degrees.

The wind is down some this morning. If it goes down under 20, we'll head for the Marquesas tomorrow. That's about 45 miles toward Key West. And, if the waves go down enough for us to launch the dinghy and go the 300 yards to shore, we'll go to the fort and take a few more pictures.