"bushman" wrote:

Leaving the first of the week from Tampa bay for Ft Jefferson. This is our
first time there, does anyone have any special information we should know?
- Allen
bushman (at) tampabay.rr.com

Check your charts. Garden Key has joined with Bush Key, so the north
channel is not open. You have to go around Garden Key to the west and
come up the south channel.

Ditto knowing where you can anchor and where you can't, and where you
can fish (if you are going to do that) and where you can dive.

Ditto that you have to bring every single solitary thing that you will
need, and you will need to take it all back with you also. There's no
trash disposal available.

There's no fresh water available. Bring all that you will need.

There's no fuel available. Bring all that you might use. Fill up in
Key West before you go - that's about the last place available. My
SIL has a power boat, and has to take a 55 gallon drum of fuel with
him for the run down there so that he can get back.

Ft. Jefferson is a National Park. There is a small fee for camping
there, and also a fee for visiting the fort. They may also charge the
fee for people to visit from the anchorage. Last time I was there I
went by sea plane and then had to come back by boat because the sea
plane had engine trouble. The seaplane people collected a fee for the
park from the passengers.

We were told that there were no sanitary facilities available for
day-trippers, that we should use the toilets on the boats. The
campers had permanent porta-potties. Originally they had salt water
toilets on the pier but I have been told that they are no longer
operational because of leaking contamination into the ground water.

The park rangers may padlock your holding tank so that you can't
discharge black water. They didn't with us the first time we came,
but I have heard that they will do that.

You can't go on some of the keys when the birds (sooty terns etc) are
nesting. That's usually in the spring. Check on whether you can
legally go to Loggerhead Key.

They used to make the daytrip catamarans go and anchor off, but they
do not seem to do that now. We followed one of their tours around and
no one seemed to mind.

http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/645f1/#TL and there are other
narratives with pictures at the same site.

grandma Rosalie