by David Miner
Dry Tortugas: A Unique Diving Experience
Onboard the Ultimate Getaway for some truly ultimate diving!
What does a 100-foot live-aboard boat, big reefs, cavernous swim-throughs, big schools of fish, lots of corals and sponges, and awesome critters have in common…Dry Tortugas diving. Diving in the Dry Tortugas is much different than diving anywhere else in the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, the Florida Keys, or even areas of the Caribbean.
The Dry Tortugas are located approximately 70 miles west of Key West, Florida and are made up of a cluster of seven coral reefs. These reefs along with surrounding shoals and waters make up Dry Tortugas National Park. The area is known for its marine life and bird life and is home to one of the oldest and largest 19th century American coastal forts, named Fort Jefferson.
Team Divingindepth.com went aboard the Ultimate Getaway for a three-day and three-night diving adventure. There are only a few diving operators that take trips to the Tortugas due to its distance. The Ultimate Getaway out of Ft. Myers, Florida was our choice. The Ultimate Getaway is 100-foot converted crew-boat that sleeps 20. The crew prepares all of your meals, fills your tanks with air or nitrox after every dive, and takes care of your every need. You can’t go wrong with this outfit as their laid-back crew and unlimited dive sites fill your days with a lot of fun and excitement. You can expect to dive anywhere from 5 to 7 times a day, so you better make sure you have a dive computer for this live-aboard (they have them for rent if you don’t). The meals are great and the snacks in between dives are just what you need to keep diving. There are four complete heads (bathrooms), five hot water showers, two bunkhouses with a total of 20 bunks, a TV and DVD player, 120 VAC outlets to charge your camera batteries or run your laptop, and the boat is air conditioned to keep you cool and comfortable. A big diving platform and two large ladders make getting back on the boat easy, even if it’s a little rough. Whether you’re interested in underwater photography, spearfishing, or just want to go sight seeing, the Ultimate Getaway has you covered. Trips are typically planned over a three-day and three-night itinerary making it a great way to escape for a long weekend for some fantastic diving.
We departed the dock at 7 PM Thursday evening for the 10-12 hour trip to the Tortugas. It’s a great way to sleep…underway to a great diving location, knowing that when you woke in the morning, you’d be onsite for the first dive of the trip. The hum of the engines and the slow rocking of the boat make for a great night sleep…not to mention that you’re on vacation so you can just relax!
Friday morning we awoke to Captain Rick announcing over the PA system our arrival to the first dive site, the Avanti wreck. Everyone scampered out of their bunks and made their way to dive deck anticipating the dive and dives to come. The plan was for two dives BEFORE breakfast, with snacks in between to hold us over. The day was starting out right!
With half-awake look on our faces, everyone suited up while the crew explained the dive site. The Avanti wreck (also known as the French wreck) is in a shallow 10 to 20 feet of water but is spread out over fairly large area allowing everyone to spread out and enjoy. This is considered the shakedown dive to get everyone warmed up and for the crew to evaluate all divers before heading to the deeper and bigger sites. The wreck is shallow and an easy dive, but there is a lot to see. Large schools of chubs, yellow tail snapper, and grunts cover the area. Huge brain corals, sea fans, and other soft and hard corals grow throughout. We spent an hour scouring the area making sure we didn’t miss anything. It was great way to start the day and the trip. We knew the diving would only get better from here.
All aboard, Captain Rick steered the boat towards the next dive site while we all polished off some snacks and the crew filled our tanks for the next dive. Within 30 minutes, we were moored to our next dive site named Oops and were ready for some more diving. Oops gets its name from Captain accidentally finding the site while trying to go to another. It was a great find and perfect addition to the dive site list.
Oops is a pinnacle (very large mounds and spires of coral jetting from the sandy bottom) starting at 40 feet and dropping to 65 feet deep. Almost all of the dives we did were on these pinnacle coral reefs, which are truly amazing and what makes the Dry Tortugas so unique from the other reefs and dive sites in and around Florida and parts of the Caribbean. The mooring lines are typically anchored on top of the reef. Upon swimming out in almost any direction from the mooring, the reef drops away to the sandy ocean bottom creating wall-like structure, huge overhangs, ledges, cavernous swim-throughs into and out of the pinnacles, and awesome structure providing homes to hundreds of species of fish, corals, sponges, and larger critters. Oops had it all with sittings of king mackerel, a nurse shark, large corals and sponges, and schooling fish. With more great pinnacle dives to come, this was only our warm up.
With breakfast consumed, two dives under our belt, and the clock reading only 10:00 AM, we new this live-aboard was all about diving…just to our liking.
The trip we joined for our adventure was geared towards the underwater photographer or videographer or for those who just wanted to sightsee. There was no spearfishing allowed because we were diving in the park’s sanctuary boundaries, where everything is protected. It was great to see larger grouper, snapper, and hogfish cruising about…something that is seen much less outside the sanctuary. For Ultimate Getaway’s spearfishing trips, the dives are all conducted outside the sanctuary and Captain Rick has some great spots.
We made four more dives on Friday on other great pinnacles. Dive sites like 1AXXX, Awesome, and 2BPINN are some of the greatest spots in the Dry Tortugas to dive. Big overhangs, ledges, walls, and swim-throughs create the spectacular topography with visibility of 50 to 80 feet, and with the plentiful and beautiful reef life that covers the amazing structure, you don’t want the dives to end. With each tank we were stretching our bottom times to the max trying to get as many extra minutes as possible to explore and not miss a thing. Each dive was averaging 45 to 60 minutes with depths ranging from 45 to 85 feet. By diving nitrox and a dive computer, we were able to take advantage of every available minute of our dive. By the end of the day we had completed six dives and had been underwater for about five hours… a truly great day!
With dinner in our bellies and after a great dessert, everyone enjoyed the evening by relaxing on deck with a beer or glass of wine or watched a movie in the salon. The sun set over this truly beautiful area closing out our first great day of the trip, and before long everyone had retired to his or her bunks to get some much-needed sleep.
On Saturday morning we awoke to another Captain’s call stating that we were dockside at Fort Jefferson. With a couple hours to check out the Fort, we stepped on terra firma for at look into the past. Fort Jefferson construction began in 1846 and continued for 30 years, but the Fort was never completed. During the Civil War, the fort was used to house Union prisoners and was abandoned by the army in 1874. Fort Jefferson was named a national monument in 1935. The Fort encircles the entire island and is impressive in its size and scale, considering it was built so long ago on an island 70 miles for the nearest shoreline. The Fort is under renovation today in hopes to preserve this piece of history and is a must-see on any trip to the Dry Tortugas. It’s a beautiful area with some spectacular views from the top of the Fort walls. Don’t forget your camera on this one.
Saturday’s dives didn’t begin until around 10 AM, so we figured another day of six dives was probably out of the question, although, a night dive was planned still making it possible.
Our first dive site was OZ. OZ is appropriately named because it was a truly amazing dive site and was one of the top two dives of the trip. OZ was another pinnacle dive, but on a larger scale than what we’d seen so far. Giant coral mounds, incredible and extremely fun cavernous swim-throughs, Goliath grouper, spotted moray, tropical fish of every shape, color, and size, and visibility of 60+ feet held our attention for another 60-minute dive. Make sure you ask for this dive on your trip.
Our diving continued throughout the day with 45 to 60 minute dives and 45 to 60 minute surface intervals keeping us on track to get another six dives in for the day, especially since a night dive was planned. Dive sites like Bat Cave, Alice, and Ultimate Pinnacle were on the days order.
Bat Cave was another “OZ” dive and also landed in the top-two dives. It was hard to decide which one was better. More awesome swim-throughs, a nurse shark, anemones, and beautiful corals and sponges kept our heads below water racking up more and more bottom time.
Alice was a drift dive. There was little current so groups went in several different directions, but we all ended up back on the boat safely. Alice is a very unique dive as the bottom is basically a carpet of corals that goes on and on. It’s pretty flat in most places but offers many holes and nooks for critters of all kinds. Alice is dive like no other on the trip.
Ultimate Pinnacle was just that, ultimate, and was the deepest dive we did in the Tortugas. The top of the reef was at 65 feet and dropped to 90 feet. Our bottom was much shorter due to the depth and amount of residual nitrogen already in our bodies, but that didn’t stop us from having a great dive and seeing the reef. Permit, goliath grouper, king mackerel, jack crevalle, and a very large and beautiful spotted drum were just some of the many fish making this reef their home. A massive school of rainbow runners encircled us on two separate occasions making for a truly memorable experience. They whirled around us like a tornado and then swam off as if they were greeting us on their reef, saying Hi, and then moving on.
By dinner we had five dives under our belts and were moored back at OZ for the night dive. This would be the last dive in the Tortugas, as when we surfaced, Captain Rick would be steering the boat towards home, although there were still two dives planned in the morning on our way back.
The night dive on OZ was very cool. The reef looked a lot different at night, but a good different, as it offered a view of the reef only via our lights. Staying more on top of the reef, it was easy to spot the many lobster popping from their holes. In just a small area, there were around six lobsters of various sizes, one being rather large.
With the Tortugas part of the diving over, there was one last night to enjoy. The boat got underway for a six-hour journey towards home and our morning dive sites, the shipwreck of the Baja California and a military tower. Each of these dives is planned for the final morning of the trip and is a great way to finish out a dive packed weekend. From there, it was another 5 to 6 hours back to the dock, where we arrived around 5 PM, Sunday afternoon. Three full days, 14 great dives in a beautiful area, a great crew, good food, and most of all, a lot fun, sum up this trip.
If you’re interested in diving a very unique and exciting area and enjoy live-aboard diving, then the Dry Tortugas and the Ultimate Getaway are a must. For more information about the Ultimate Getaway, go to www.ultimategetaway.net, or call them at 1-866-474-2069, or email them at rick@ultimategetaway.net.
For more information about the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson go to:
http://www.drytortugasinfo.com/
http://www.nps.gov/drto/
