Young Adventures: Dry Tortugas Day 7 (Night at the Fort)

After a little rest and some dinner we decided to go into the fort to watch the sun set from the top wall. We hopped in the dinghy and headed to shore, sore from all the swimming and sun earlier in the day. Colby tied up the dinghy after a successful beaching and we made our way to the docks. Earlier that day the park rangers said they would download, print and post an updated weather forecast for us and post it in the dockhouse. There is nothing in the Dry Tortugas, no cell phones, no radio, no contact. You can't get water, dispose of trash, take or leave anything. Needless to say we were thankful the rangers were willing to help us out finding a weather window. Now we didn't have a really tight schedule, but we had one. Jessica had to be back to work on Wednesday and it was Friday evening, plenty of time, or so I thought. When I looked at the forecast I let out an audible sigh. The only day in the 7 day forecast that didn't look bad was the next morning. After that it was a week of low pressure and strong headwinds with high seas and almost non stop storms, it was either leave in the morning or say another week. We did have our satellite communicator and were having such a good time we thought about sending a sat message to try and get Jessica's shift covered but decided it would be best to leave while the getting was good. With that sobering news, we headed into the fort to enjoy what would be our last night.

Touring the fort at night is a unique experience, the entire place takes on a new feel and even though we had spent countless hours here during the day it was a whole new experience at night. We made sure we were at the top of the fort wall as that big orange ball bounced over the horizon. There was a lot to do when we got back to the boat and time was ticking, none of us wanted to leave.