Wild Inlet

Our weather has been windy and unsettled lately, but this was the perfect opportunity to head down to Jupiter Inlet and Dubois Park to see what the conditions were. The tidal current screams through this area and we knew with the tide going out and the east wind blowing in, the place would be in a turmoil. We weren't disappointed!

Several small boats looked like they were going to go out, but turned back at the last moment, giving the passengers quite a ride...smart idea.

Just to the south of the jetty, there were many surfers and even a couple of windsurfers and kiteboarders (one time Dave even tried surfing here...when he was much younger of course 😉 ).

One of the kiteboarders was really good and was catching a lot of air, jumping off the waves, then coming about and heading the other way.

If anyone had gotten in trouble though, there was a Yamaha Waverunner PWC at the ready for lifeguards to go out on rescue missions with.

We had brought a picnic lunch with us, thanks to Ann and Paul who had us for Christmas dinner and sent us home with delicious turkey! We found a nice spot under the casuarina pines and out of the wind. It has been many years since we have been to this park and since then they have made this little creek entrance off the inlet, into an official swim area. We remember when it was an unimproved swimming hole and we would jump in to cool off.

There was also a second swim area with outlying rocks to cut down on the current from the fast flowing inlet and provided some snorkeling opportunities, although the water looked pretty stirred up and cloudy from the turbulence. There were very convenient concrete ramps to get into the water, instead of climbing over the rocks. That is the Jupiter Lighthouse in the background.

We took a walk around and rediscovered the Dubois Pioneer Home which is built on an old Indian shell mound. We remembered from days gone by, all the yellow and black butterflies that would frequent the flowers on the mound (we named them sergeant major butterflies because they look like the fish with that name...photo from the US Forest Service website).

In 1987, two cannons from an old shipwreck were found just outside the mouth of the inlet, which were quite interesting (and the lizard on the one thinks so too).

This was another one of those fantastic "blast from the past" trips when we kept saying, "remember when...?"