We left the Dry Tortugas and headed back to the Key West mooring field, an 80-mile trip that took us about 7.5hours at our comfortable cruising speed. The trip home was pretty smooth. Other than the fact that we broke a few things.

Broken this trip:

• Isinglass strap holders
• Swim platform – lost bolt
• Dinghy battery box straps & top – lost at sea
• Fly bridge light fixture cover

Overall, not too bad – though the swim platform bolt did take four of us to fix (thanks Kája & TJ!)

A Global Pandemic

What we weren’t expecting was to return home to a world-wide pandemic with COVID-19. 😳 When we left, it was a developing story. When we returned the store shelves were starting to empty and people starting to panic.

Naturally, we had planned to start provisioning for the Bahamas a little at a time. When we saw the emptying shelves at the commissary, we too loaded our basket with whatever dry foods were left so that we’d have some sort of provisions.

The Shutdowns Began

As the date grew nearer for us to leave for the Bahamas, everything started shutting down. Countries closed borders, and the U.S urged citizens to return home immediately or be prepared to stay put for months. With this information, we decided it was best to stay put in Key West until COVID “blew over.” Little did we know, it wouldn’t.

The Video

In the video below, we return from the Dry Tortugas, which we thought would be our shake-down cruise for the Bahamas, but ended up being our last “hoorah” in the Keys. We explain the route we had planned for the Bahamas and our troubles with provisioning.