Heading to Key West / Dry Torgugas from St. Pete in Feb 2014

I haven't done this trip before so if any of you have any pointers (Nav, anchorage, mooring, dockage, etc) please let me know. Thanks!

Okay great! Assuming the weather is good, we'll have to see about which day/option to make a direct run from one of the anchorages/moorings you mentioned. I just received my Fiorentino para-anchor and we're going to be testing it out along with some other goodies. I'd like to get away from light pollution on at least one of the nights so we may be making a passage during one of the nights. It will be a nice "shake-down" cruise. If you are bored when we actually get underway, perhaps you could meet us down there!

Our very first offshore (and overnight ) passage was from Tampa Bay direct to Key West in our IP-31. It took 33 hours. It was a great experience. I suggest you try this at least once. If you hop down on day trips it takes a week. Depends on the weather window. It's pretty easy to get a nice 48 hour period of favorable weather but hoping for a week straight of good sailing conditions is unlikely.
We will try to go to the Dry Tortugas this Winter from Key West. My concern is that there are only 10 hours if daylight to cover about 70 miles! Can do it from Key West if you leave in the dark but the return against the prevailing Easterly wind seems intimidating with no good anchorages enroute. We'll set aside a full week for the round trip. See you there?? Mike&Carol "Nomad"

thanks raceboat! I'm thinking we are going to make a direct go at it. Possibly divert to Key West instead in the event we change our mind enroute. Regardless of our destination, we are going to spend probably two days there and head back to Tampa Bay. Are you in Key West now?

We're on the road back to Anna Maria Is. After holidays with th family. Am installing solar next week, and will head to Key West when fitted out......probably last week of January. Stay in touch

will do...thanks

Zorya, have you tried the Flir yet?

I haven't received it yet. They are backordered or something, but it's supposed to be in within the next week or so. Off the top of my head I forgot which model I bought, but it's made by FLIR and it's thermal so we'll see.

Well, we just arrived here in Key West yesterday. We left Anna Maria Island at the mouth of Tampa Bay at 1630 and sailed/motored non-stop for about 40 hours. We wanted to get to the NW marker for our approach to Key West in daylight so we wouldn't struggle with the backlights of the city masking the channel buoy lighting. Good choice! We had to slow up a bit but that was fine I wanted to troll for a couple of hours anyway ( but, no fish this time). This is a great introductory offshore sail for those who haven't tested themselves or their boats and it is much less demanding than trying to cross the Gulf Stream for your first offshore navigation exercise. It is a confidence booster. The only "gotcha" besides the weather is the unfortunate positioning of the 80' foot steel towers scattered along the way as much as 60 miles offshore. These are air combat range sensing platforms the Navy and Air Force use for 3D telemetry to electronically recreate multi-plane engagements that take place every day overhead. They are charted and lit, but stay awake! if you are lucky in the daytime you may see some really good fights above you. NAS Key West is the home of the East Coast Adversary Fighter Squadron. Dozens of units visit here to fight and train in the good weather. See you here in paradise. "Nomad"

Nice! How long are you going to be down there? I think we are going to be making that run in late Feb or early March, from Tampa Bay as well.

Don't have a clue at this point how long we will be here. We have so many options...but we are thinking of returning to the Bahamas again in the coming weeks. I'm not particularly interested in visiting Georgetown but the Exumas have many attractions that we missed last season. See you soon?! Mike&Carol "Nomad"

We were in the Abacos on a different boat this summer. It was cool, but the sailing distances were short and the ports were very close together. I could only take so much of the "sail, anchor, eat fried foods, drink overpriced rum drinks, repeat" Haha, maybe I'm just spoiled living in Florida

Definitely...the mighty Zorya will shed her refit dust soon and be swiftly sailing to an anchorage near you!