Raymarine Pro Ambassador Capt. Eddie Muñiz recently fished the waters near Fort Jefferson National Park. Thank you to Capt. Eddie for supplying us with the following account of his trip.

We all have certain places in this beautiful world of ours that we have been to, or would love to go to, that have an aura that is beyond explanation or description. I think that fisherman specially have some or a lot of these places. Some may say the remote locations of the eastern Bahamas, while others will talk about the deep waters of the pacific or perhaps even the tranquil backcountry of the everglades and flamingo. For me though there is no other place that personifies this more than the amazing waters, and islands, of our Fort Jefferson National park and the waters of the Dry Tortugas.
The sheer amazement and awestruck emotion that one experiences when first approaching Garden Key (Island where the Fort Jefferson is built on) is indescribable. One can only imagine the emotion that Ponce De Leon experienced when he approached these seemingly OASIS like islands as he approached them from a wide open ocean in 1513. He saw the abundance of sea turtles that provisioned meats for his crew but unfortunately no fresh water, hence the Dry Tortugas (Tortugas meaning Turtles in Spanish).
The islands are surrounded by a vast collection of shoals and reefs in all sorts of depths which have claimed hundreds of victim ships to its watery graveyard. Here is where my amazing Raymarine equipment comes to the rescue. My first trip to the islands was about 4 years ago. I had never been out there and was going with only the blind faith in my equipment to get me there and back safely. I had just installed my new E-120 on my new SEA VEE 310b and without the information and detail for navigating the near 70 mile run from Key West, I would have never made it safely to and from this 3 day adventure. Now we are making this trip on average of two times per year, multiple boats make the trip, and I confidently lead them to and from the islands with the use of my E-120.
Navigation is only the beginning, with my powerful 1KW transducer and DSM-300 Hi Def fish finder I have been able to spot the proverbial needles in a haystack out on these islands and now have many “Honey Holes” that I can call my own out there. Lets not mention how my 4KW open array has allowed me to navigate around storms being more than 100 miles from the nearest civilization at times. I also use my Sirius satellite weather for weather reports and to forecast what’s coming that is not otherwise visible with radar.
To make it simple, this bi-annual fulfillment of my dream to fish these remote waters, would not be possible if not for my Raymarine equipment.