Dry Tortugas

It was an early morning around our camper (4:30am). We headed back to Key West to catch the ferry to the Dry Tortugas National Park!!! I have wanted to visit this place for many years. Now we were on the way. The boat served breakfast and lunch so we didn't need to worry about packing food and we took along our snorkel gear. Fort Jefferson was built to guard the entry into the Gulf of Mexico and was built before and during the civil war. The fort was never actually completed or fully armed as it was obsolete before it was finished. Another wasteful government project!
The fort served as a prison for many years and the most famous prisoner was Samuel Mudd, the doctor who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth after he shot President Lincoln.
Fort Jefferson rises from the sea. As you can tell from all the pictures that this was one of our favorite days in the Keys. We were sufficiently wore out the next day. So much so that we were supposed to move and stayed an extra day to rest up.

From the NPS website

from the NPS website

This is a fifteen inch cannon left over from when this was an active fort. The rest of the cannons were sold for scrap and these were too heavy to move.

Old coaling docks where we snorkeled around those things sticking out of the water on the far side.

After we viewed the fort and ate some lunch, we got our snorkel gear out and took to the water around the coaling docks. Patrick received a camera as a trip present that is capable of going to 33 feet. He snapped some really nice critter pics.

A massive conch shell the size of your dinner plate. (the large brown object)

Sargent Major fish were abundant

Becky loved the purple sea fans

A spiny lobster hides under this rock. You can see his antenna sticking out.