[Journal entry for November 29, 2009] Dry Tortugas Islands, Florida. Dallas and I take a ferry, the Yankee Freedom II, from the pier at the end of Margaret Street in Key West to Garden Key, one of a group of small islands called the Dry Tortugas, about seventy miles west of Key West. The ferry is a large catamaran with a capacity of two hundred people, though only about fifty were aboard today. The naturalist, a guy named Rick, said that the ship’s normal speed was twenty-six knots, and that it burned about two hundred fifty gallons of diesel fuel per round trip. I spent most of the both legs of the trip standing on the deck near the bow, watching for wildlife. Given the speed of the boat, I got only momentary glimpses of animals, yet I saw quite a bit: two bottlenose porpoises, seven sea turtles, two medium sized fish, many large jellyfish and numerous clumps of shaggy brown seaweed. The turtles interested me the most, for I had never seen them before in the wild. They ranged in size from a dinner plate to about a yard across. Mostly, they were diving at the moment I saw them – a very sensible reaction when a fast boat is barreling towards you – but one small turtle skittered across the waves as the boat approached, giving me a great view of its long, slender flippers. We reached Ft. Jefferson, said to be the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere, in two and a half hours. It’s hexagonal in outline, and consists of the outer wall and adjacent hollow fortification, surrounding an open, grassy parade ground. The fort has three levels and is more-or-less intact though in some places layers of brick have fallen off. Rock took us on a tour. We climbed a spiral staircase up to the top, or roof. It afforded both great view of the parade ground and neighboring Bush Key (a low-lying spit of land whose vegetation suffered greatly during Hurricane Wilma in 2006). We also examined the Roman arches that support the interior of the fortifications, and several types of canon. After the tour, Dallas and I had lunch on the Yankee Freedom II and then went snorkeling. We swam around the shallow area to the south of the fort, through beds of sea grass and by occasional heads of coral. Fish were quite plentiful. I especially liked the Box Fish, It has a stiff – armored, I guess – body and propels itself along with motions of fins and tail, reminiscent of the motion of a sea horse. I also examined several large jellyfish or medusa, bright pink in color and with many long thin tentacles (which I was extremely careful to avoid!). I also snorkeled around the ruins of the South Coaling Dock, a grid of ancient iron pillars, now encrusted with seaweed and hosting numerous fish. I encountered several schools of thousands of silvery fish, each four to five inches long. I also sighted a small barracuda, perhaps three feet long. After snorkeling, Dallas and I walked around the interior of the fort. We went inside the main magazine, a free-standing building with a cylindrical arch built on the parade ground. An owl was sleeping in a cubby there. At the very end of our time there, I walked the sea wall completely around the fort. I could see several tiny sandy keys in the distance, as well as a larger one, Loggerhead Key, which sports a lighthouse. I stood again on the bow of the ferry on the way back. We reached Key West as the sun was beginning to set, and walked back though the town to the place where we were staying. About nine hours, all together.