Key West to Dry Tortugas
 

Doing key west poker run for the first time this year. Plan on doing a day trip to the Dry Tortugas one day and do some snorkeling. Has anyone done this in the past? Best place to take boats and anchor? Any other tips?

70 miles each way, make sure your boat is full on fuel. There is NOTHING out there, no electricity, no services of any kind so bring whatever you need. The weather that day will surely dictate how good of a time it will be.

Sweet! We're from Northern Jersey. Lake Hopatcong area.

Yes, definitely going to fuel up and keep an eye on weather.

I've never made the trip, but from what I've researched, you MUST have accurate charting on your GPS. The coral featherbeds and other shallow areas dictate that you know EXACTLY where to be in the channel markers at all times. I've considered the trip in the past, and planned on following the ferry.

We made the trip this summer. A lot of good information on thehulltruth.com and where I did most of my research. A north route and a south route you can take depending on wind/ conditions. Once you get there you wrap around the north side of the fort and pick up the channel markers, they have limited docking but you can pull up and the park ranger will give you a run down of where you can go and not go, what you can do and cant etc. (if docks are not available you can hail the ranger on a VHF radio). We were able to use the docks/ slips while we were there. There is no anchoring in the park, so you can either use the docks if available, the mooring balls and you can beach up in the areas that the ranger will tell you. It is a awesome experience for sure. Like others have said, fuel, water, etc.

Another option is taking the Seaplane, Saves time, 1/2 day trip vs full day trip by Ferry. We had a blast!