As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve been traveling (by car) the last couple of weeks and now coming up this weekend, we leave for the Dry Torugas. So this week, we are working with laser-sharp focus trying to tie up loose ends with work, plan our trip and provision the boat for anchoring out most of the 3 weeks we’ll be away.

Our current plan (weather permitting) is to leave the dock Friday afternoon/evening and anchor out near the Matanzas Bridge (if windy) or right on the Gulf by The Lani Kai (if flat calm) saving us a little time in the early a.m. when Randy pulls up anchor and sets us on our course to the Dry Tortugas. Once Corey and I wake up, we’ll relieve Randy and let him sleep a bit. The trip should take around 18 hours and put us arriving in the Dry Tortugas sometime in the evening. Last year, we took 3 long days to get to the DTs, stopping in Marco and then Jewfish Basin. We decided this year to steam overnight (or wee hours of the morning) and save the 2 extra days so we could have more time in the DTs. We plan to spend a week in the DTs then head on to Key West for week of work and play. We’ll spend a couple days in the city marina filling our water tanks and recharging, then move to a mooring ball for the rest of the week. After that week, we plan to head to our Looe Key anchorage for a week of diving.

All this planning, of course, is contingent on the weather and any unforeseen mechanical issues we might run into. If all goes well, this blog will be full of snorkel and scuba adventures. We’ve already tested our dive gear in the pool to avoid any equipment failures. We learned the hard way with that last year.  I also have on order (to be delivered this week) a shiny new GoPro camera with Flip3.1 Snorkel and Dive filters that I can’t wait to try out and fill the blog with videos and images. So stay tuned for more on our trip!