Even though we are south of the usual frost line of Vero Beach, and it was 41 degrees at 7 AM, this is what we woke up to this morning!
I never thought we would have to scrape the car's windshield here on the Treasure Coast. Thankfully, as soon as the sun hit it, everything melted.
At least in a few days we will be back to mid to upper 70 degrees. That is winter in Florida.
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It was 38 degrees out when we woke up this morning. Below is a photo proving our low temps. At 9:45 A.M. there was only one vehicle and boat trailer at the launch ramp at Sandsprit Park in Manatee Pocket. This parking lot is usually jammed packed, especially on a weekend. Hopefully warmer days are coming! 🌞
We are in the midst of what the media calls the coldest temps in four years. 50 degrees daytime, and 35 tonight, plus the wind is blowing 20-25 mph. Looking for ideas to keep busy, I suggested a short land trip out to the Port Mayaca lock to see Lake Okeechobee. It is about 20 miles out there, following the Okeechobee Waterway, through lots of low flatlands, and past many ranches and farms. We saw cattle and sod farms, a bamboo nursery, and the whole lake area is known for its sugarcane fields. Besides the sugarcane plants blowing in the wind, we also saw truck after truck of the harvested product being transported.
We arrived at the lock and traveled up the narrow drive to the top of the levy for a view. This part of the road becomes a bike path that I believe goes around the lake (there is another path on the other side of the lock going the other way).
The wind was howling, and we could barely get out of the car to take photos. We quickly took some shots and laughed at ourselves as we ran back to the warmth of the car sitting in the sun.
We did get to see a pair of white pelicans hiding out of the wind in the protection of the levy.
Entering the lock today would be challenging for boaters, with the whitecaps and waves reflecting off the dam.
We have been through this lock many times, and the rise and fall of the water is only about 6" to two feet, depending on the level of the lake. One time the conditions were like this with the waves breaking over the bow of our Bayliner power boat. Going west, it is always an amazing view when they open up the lock doors and you look out onto the huge lake, and you can't see the other side. On our first trip across in our Rhodes 22 ft. sailboat, we spent the night in the pond on the south side of the lock, listening and seeing the orange eyes of alligators swimming around us all night. Dave insisted on sleeping with our boathook at the ready next to the bed, in case one tried to climb aboard. What an introduction to cruising! 😂
Heading east from the lake, the waterway is narrow and the old (probably built in the early 1900s) lift railroad bridge (past the new bridge) is what determines what height sailboat masts can traverse the waterway. Sometimes, boaters make the boat heel over to be able to get under the bridge.
It was a great nostalgic trip, but at this point in our lives, we were glad to have done it by car. By boat it would have taken a couple of days for this section, but by car we left at 9 AM and were home for lunch!
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Not much exciting has been happening with us lately, just normal everyday occurrences during the chilly winter weather. Yesterday we did go kayaking in Manatee Pocket in Port Salerno and it sure felt good to be out on the water again. In the afternoon, Dave won some RC sailboat races (he is getting good!) and I got to see a sight that doesn't happen very often here in our park...a house going by! It must have been interesting watching it go around the traffic circle at the entrance and then taking a sharp turn into the park. The two halves are now sitting in the parking lot by the clubhouse awaiting site prep.
Really cold weather is in store for us this weekend, but hopefully next week we can back on track and have more adventures.
We received a very encouraging email about 'Dandy', the Abaco dinghy that used to be ours back in Hope Town. After almost three years of sitting in a container that the roof blew off of during Hurricane Dorian, the new owners were able to get it brought over to the settlement from the marina where it was stored. Amazingly, all it took was a good cleaning and they were out sailing it a couple of days later.
Keep on sailing, 'Dandy', and thanks for the memories!
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Good friend Jim Ryan made it here to Jensen Beach just in time for the guys to go to the Flywheelers swap meet in Fort Meade. This was a huge show with row after row of vendors and all sorts of tractors, engines, and vehicles on display. There were tractor pulls, a 'build a Model T in 5 minutes show, and even a 1920s village to explore. Since this venue covers 374 acres, there were all sorts of golf carts for rent, along with privately owned ATVs and side-by-sides to cover the property. It was like the Gallupville Gas-Up and Daytona Turkey Run all rolled into one.
Tractor pulls for both large and small (but modified) tractors...
I know it is all relative since last night Ticonderoga was -8 degrees, but it was also quite cold here on the Treasure Coast at 47 degrees. These chilly temps are when the iguanas come out and their systems can't handle the cold, so they become temporarily paralyzed and fall from the trees. Once the temps warmed up this morning, we went kayaking along the St. Lucie River and came across two large blue-green iguanas trying to soak up the heat of the sun in the mangroves. My photo below only shows one, and it was sleeping with its feet hanging over the branch and its tail hanging almost to the water, looking like a mangrove root (look for the stripes). We didn't disturb them and moseyed on our way.
More cold weather is expected early next week so they need that sunshine...just like us!
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Recently we did a kayak exploration of the Fort Pierce port and points north. This was another new adventure for us, with quite the sights. The port itself was quiet, except for dredge barges and tugs anchored out and awaiting good weather to get back out into the inlet to dredge more sand. There was one 230 ft. mega-yacht at Derecktor Shipyard called 'Freedom'. There was also a ship called 'Angel' in the world's largest travel lift (we believe this ship brought supplies to Abaco following Dorian). It looked tiny compared to 'Freedom'.
As we paddled north along the shore, we came across the tug 'Dawn Star' that does youth training.
We also got a chance to see this old Trumpy motoryacht that we view in the distance when we cross the north bridge each time. Although it was probably gorgeous back in its heyday, it is now almost a derelict with water being pumped out of one of the ports in the side (look closely and you can see the water coming out by the rust spot in the back).
One of the small commercial marinas had what looked to be a Mark 5 Navy Seal special operations vessel, which was similar to the one we visited on land at the Seal Museum a couple of years ago.
Between marinas, there were quite a few older houses and this one even had palm trees growing out of it!
We made it has far as Riverside Marina and this boatyard has lots of hurricane damaged boats in it. Look at this poor trimaran...
These were Sunsail and Moorings Charter catamarans that were damaged. We didn't recognize any of the names from pre-Dorian charter boats in Abaco, so they were most likely from the last hurricane in the Virgin Islands.
This trawler was down to the hull.
The most interesting part of our trip was when we came across this huge dismasted sailboat anchored just off the Derecktor Shipyard. It had brand new docklines on it and towing plates welded on the bow, so it most likely had just been towed in from afar and was perhaps awaiting haul out for repairs. Later Dave did some online research and discovered that this 165 ft. yacht had quite a history. Back in Hurricane Wilma, 'Legacy' dragged anchor in Key West and ended up aground in the shallows of a marine sanctuary (there were millions of dollars of lawsuits for this). It sat there for quite some time since it was in 3 ft. of water and needs 11 ft. to float. Eventually a trench was dredged to get it free, and it ended up in Key West and then went to a boatyard in Freeport, Bahamas. After that no one had heard anything about it for years. Hopefully it will get refurbished to its former glory.
We never know what we are going to come across when we are exploring, and this was one trip we can do again and again and see different things each time. One of the fun things about kayaking is all the tight places we can get into to see everything up close.
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