We finally made it to the Dry Tortugas!

[Gene Neill]

Share my joy!!

It only took five years of me whining about wanting to go, and weather windows that always seemed to close on the very day we would have left. But it finally happened!! The whole trip seemed to be blessed, the worst weather was when it went calm, and my greatest fear along the way was that the autopilot might break down. LOL ... If I ever did it again (which I probably won't!) I would take two of those wonderful, wonderful things.

Trying to sleep in shifts was certainly a whole new challenge. I could hear every sound the boat was making, even while dreaming ... that is, for the one hour or so I actually "slept" each night while under sail. But what a great boat the Catalina 22 is! During the heaviest air and biggest seas we encountered (on this or any other trip), she just skipped along like a schoolgirl with a new boyfriend!

I can't stop grinning!

 

[Gene Neill]

 

[shemandr]

Great! The grins say it all.

 

[Gene Neill]

Sorry for the large pics ... new software issues. @justsomeguy is gonna yell at me.

 

[Michael Davis]

Great trip Gene. Good to see it while it's still "dry". I understand that 1/2 the land area is now underwater due to sea level rise .

 

[Hardhead]

Congratulations Gene!

Last night I was just sitting watching TV, and the video came up as "Recommended" out of the blue on youtube. Great to see it --- and that voyage struck a proud blow for the venerable C22. That many open sea miles took some guts, but able seamanship saw it through. Now I won't feel complete without a 24 hour passage... gotta plan that one out someday. Great way to start 2019--

 

[T_Cat]

WOW!! That's great....
I'm on my way to watch the vid.

Congratz!

 

[Ward H]

Very nice! Congratulations!

 

[Will Gilmore]

Big congrats and much envy aimed at you. That's the big trip I have planned for Dragonfly some day.
Spent many days there in my youth. Swam in the moat with nurse sharks. It's beautiful and the fort is wondrous.

I understand that 1/2 the land area is now underwater due to sea level rise .

There use to be a lot of Australian pine trees there and on spoil islands around there. In an effort to clean the preserve up and return it to a more natural state, the pines were removed because they were an alien species. The result was a loss of soil and a number of the smaller islands washed away. The land isn't being flooded, it's being eroded.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Michael Davis]

There use to be a lot of Australian pine trees there and on spoil islands around there. In an effort to clean the preserve up and return it to a more natural state, the pines were removed because they were an alien species. The result was a loss of soil and a number of the smaller islands washed away. The land isn't being flooded, it's being eroded.

Proof that Australians are good for something! Should bring some back before the whole place washes away.

 

[Gene Neill]

Spent many days there in my youth. Swam in the moat with nurse sharks.
-Will (Dragonfly)

They won't let you swim in the moat anymore. Too bad, because the water in there is really warm (or, uh ... so I've heard).

We did snorkel all the way around Garden Key on December 30th. Lots of beautiful fan corals, encrusting scleractinian corals, and man - lobster in sizes I never even knew existed!! (They are protected there.) I was really looking forward to throwing some fresh grouper or snapper fillets on the grill, but there just wasn't any time for fishing. I really wish we could have stayed another day or two.

But, weather windows for returning from the Tortugas would be better described as "arrowslits".

 

[Kings Gambit]

Gene,
Awesome! Congratulations.
KG

 

[Stu Jackson]

Congratulations. It's so much more fun to tell friends what you've done rather than boring anyone with future plans. Our C22 was 1981, #10496. Well done.

 

[justsomeguy]

Sorry for the large pics ... new software issues. @justsomeguy is gonna yell at me.

Only if I'm in the states. Congratulations on the passage!

 

[rpludwig]

Congrats!!!! Dream passage, great video, and wonderful Admiral...check that off the bucket list!

 

[Sailm8]

Excellent video! I'm interested in what you shot it with. I saw you were using a selfie slick but what camera and mount?

 

[Hydro Therapy]

Awesome, I’ve watched various videos over the last few years regarding journeys to the Dry Tortugas. It’s definately on my bucket list.

 

[kloudie1]

Well done, Gene ! Congratulations! A cool accomplishment !

 

[Gunni]

Small boat adventures are some of the best! What a great start to voyaging in the keys and beyond. Just go.

 

[Gene Neill]

Excellent video! I'm interested in what you shot it with. I saw you were using a selfie slick but what camera and mount?

Funny story.

It was shot on my ancient, 16GB iPhone 6s. I've had it at least three years, and shot several long-ish videos on it without a problem. But this time, we weren't even halfway to the Tortugas yet when the phone stopped me cold in the middle of a video and said "YOU ARE OUT OF MEMORY"! Turns out I had to delete some apps off the phone to clear up sufficient space to keep going.

So yesterday, I picked up a new 64GB iPhone 8. Waterproof to one meter for 30 minutes. (I never buy the latest model of anything tech-y, so the iPhone X was not gonna happen.) Supposedly this new iPhone 8 has a substantially better camera than the 7 did, which I presume was better than my 6 ... so it's a shame all this didn't happen before this Tortugas cruise! Oh well, it all came out fairly well. I added a little saturation to the still shots, which helped, but I lack the software (and more importantly the know-how) to do that with the video.