Helicopter rescue

We had a bit of excitement yesterday. About 6PM a dive boat called the fort, said it was coming in with a diver who had decompression sickness. They asked for assistance calling the Coast Guard to send a helicopter. The boat arrived about 15 minutes later and we went to tell the campers to expect the helicopter for the landing pad is near the campsite. This area was later illuminated with temporary spotlights to identify the area for the chopper. Of course all campers were to stay away. Well, many radio calls later we realized there was not a helicopter available; the one for the Keys was tied up a trauma scene. D.A.N. the diver's alert network was also involved trying to get transport. Nightfall came and the dive boat left. We then realized the diver was here with the EMT-law enforcement folks. Finally about 12:15 this morning a chopper arrived and flew the patient, who was said to have been improving on the oxygen being given, to Marathon decompression chamber. The last we heard he was improving.

The daily grind

Some of you may think, from earlier posts, that all we do is play. Not true. We work HARD! Here's a typical day...
First things - put up the flag (on top of the fort), record weather from previous day. Prepare visitor's center - sweep, clean display cases. On the dock, sweep out the changing rooms (for ferry visitors, a place to change clothes & bathing suits). Inspect the campground, remove ashes from BBQ grills. Pickup any trash (usually not much) from campground & beach. All these very difficult tasks take about an hour.
At 10:30 we're on the dock to greet the ferry. We give a short talk to the incoming campers about the campground rules & procedures. There have been new campers every day except yesterday. In case you're interested in camping here - well, it's sort of primitive. Campers have to bring all their food and water for their stay and take away all their trash. But, they all seem to love it.
At noon we open the bookstore. We keep it open until 2:30 when we go back to the dock to see the ferry off. The bookstore only takes one person, so the other is free for - whatever. Usually during this time one of us cleans (sweeps) the campground bathrooms.
We also help with some light maintenance as needed. We've done painting, removing a sign, helping people move, building shelves, & more. A bigger project in process is cutting up a chug boat - more on that later.
Last things - close the visitor's center & take down the flag. The next day we start all over again. They don't want us to work more than 40 hours a week, so that's all we do (0fficially).

Fins & Feathers

We have told you about the tarpon here. Yesterday we saw more tarpon, snook, a huge barracuda, along with some tiny ones. Some campers caught a 10' nurse shark.

Contrasting with these large fish are lovely tropicals - angel fish, butterflys, blue surgeon fish, and beau gregories. Between are the large parrot fish, 14" or more longer. Tropicals are not as numerous as we'd like, but here. We're seeing more live conchs than last time, and lots of sea fans and sponges. Starfish are not plentiful but here; about 6" or so.

The air has its own spectacles. Tens of thousands of Sooty Terns are nesting on Bird Key, continually making themselves heard as they fly around the key. Their darker chicks sometimes line the beach flapping their wings and occasionally take flight. When they do leave, they spend up to 5 years off west Africa before returning.

Brown Noddys frequent the north coal dock area. There are lots of warblers migrating through now. We love the colorful American Redstarts and male Common Yellowthroat warblers. Crowning the sky are the magnificant frigatebirds nesting on Long Key.

The picture is a sunrise with a few Sooty Terns.

The ravages of time

The fort has six sides, numbered, amazingly, 1-6. (Our awesome federal government at work.) This is a picture of side 3. A lot of the brick on the face has fallen off, but this is not new. It was like this our last visit in 2009, and according to long-time employees, for much longer than that. The walls are still 8 ft. thick. Nothing really new here.

This side is not open to the public. It's used for employee housing, work shops, supply storage, laundry room - all things critical to the operation of the park. But now, someone, somewhere (not here, for sure) has decided that this side is unsafe. That means everything has to be moved - people, shops, supplies - all of it. This is a major upheaval here. There's not really any unused space, so some people are being reassigned to Key West and at least one will now be resident on Loggerhead Key. The good news is that the park will still be serving the public; they won't notice any difference.

Swimming with the tarpon

We went snorkeling again yesterday around the fort. Our first day using an underwater camera. Most of the usual tropical fish, but we also saw several tarpon and a big barracuda.

Dry Tortugas by ferry

Most of you know we take the ferry to the park. It's about a 2 1/2 hour trip each way. Mostly just a lot of water to see, but the last 15-20 minutes you begin to see the fort. Here are some videos of the approach. You may wonder how we took the last video. The camera was on a really loooooong pole!

First day at the park

Caught the ferry early this morning (6:30 AM to check in, left the dock at 8:00 AM). Pretty good breeze today, but the ferry is big enough not to be affected. The fort is about the same (what can happen to 16 million bricks in a year, anyway?) Lots more campers this time of year, so we'll be busy with that. Part of our job now is to run the bookstore 2-3 hours a day - air conditioned there, so NOOO problem! They are adding a couple of docks, so there is a big barge parked out front. more later...