It's Tues, 2/17; and I'm back in Va. Beach, looking at the snow, wondering why I'm here and not still in Margaritaville. Went down last Thursday, KW weather was looking great for the next few days: low 80's, sunny... Girlfriend/boatsitter wanted to sail out to Fort Jefferson/ Dry Tortugas.... Winds on Fri & Sat were supposed to be SE in advance of a cold front scheduled to come thru Sat. night/Sun. We left about noon Fri... winds SE 15-20; broad reached from Guiger Key (8 mi E of KW) to Marquesas Keys (about 30 mi) and anchored at 5PM in 10' of water in the lee (NE) of the island... not far from the spot where Mel Fischer's group found the motherload of the Atocha. Fog rolled in about 6PM as we were cooking steaks. Sat AM, UW at 06:30... Red skies to the East; winds SE 20+; broad reached the remaining 40 miles to Garden Key. Tied up at the Fort's dock at 12:30 and spent the afternoon exploring. The northern part of the channel on the East side of the Fort; shown on the chart as having 25+ ft. of water, has, for the past 3 years, been completely closed and a land bridge (with vegetation) now extends across this (former)channel from Garden Key to Bush Key... where thousand of sooty terns are loudly nesting. Left the pier about 3:30. (Tying-up overnight is prohibited)... The anchorage immediatly East of the Fort was rather full, the wind was blowing SE 20+kts, and it took several attempts to get a good anchor-set in 25' of water (125' of chain). The anchorage is protected by Keys to the W & N... and by a reef to the E... S & SW are relatively open. Despite the wind, dinner was grilled lobster over wild rice with a tossed salad. Overnight, the winds clocked to the SW (in advance of the same cold front that brought snow to the mid-Atlantic), and increased to 25-30kts in rain and thunderstorms by 02:00. Anchor held well, but the our H-420 sailed around its anchor chain excessively... at times comming interesting close to the boat off our port beam... By 07:00 Sunday, in heavy overcast, we were UW for home... a 70mi run to the East; downwind (again) behind SW winds of 20-25kts, which by noon clocked to the NW 20+kts. As the day wore on, the skies began to clear to the West and we arrived back at Guiger Key at 16:30... 9.5hrs. Anyway.... what are the odds of a cold front comming thru the Keys on a Sat. night (of Valentines weekend) so that a guy from Va. can make a run like this... downwind both ways.... go figure...