The Sea 'Gaveth'!

We finally made it to Peck Lake by kayak today. After walking on the path from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean, we only encountered one person sunning themselves on the beach. It was a perfect time to go treasure hunting! The sea 'gaveth' quite a few unusual items, none of which were worth anything though...except to us of course. We couldn't wait to see what that boxy looking thing was in the distance and were sure we had finally come across a bale of marijuana or a treasure chest.

It looked more like a 'square grouper' (bale of pot) when we got closer...

Unfortunately, our imaginations had run wild, and it was just a piece of timber that had washed ashore. We did however find a few nice shells. 

Strangely, we also found fruit and vegetables including an apple (no photo), a watermelon and a whole white onion, mixed in with the seaweed. We could have made a salad! 😉

Watch out for the crab! 

Or at least what was left of the poor crab (I think the birds had gotten the rest of it) ...

Our best find was a 40 ft. long dock line from a yacht. When I first saw it, I thought it was a line from a crab trap, then I realized it was much nicer than that. We stretched it out and couldn't believe how long it was. Even though it had frayed and split on one end, the other end had a loop, and it hadn't been rolling around in the surf very long, so it is perfectly fine. Not surprisingly, Dave already has an idea where he can use it.

Lunch in the shade overlooking the anchored boats in Peck Lake rounded out the morning.

The dunes were flowering despite the recent hurricane...

As we paddled back to the Jimmy Graham boat launch ramp in Hobe Sound, we took a side trip up into one of the bays to check out this floating fish camp someone had made. It was nicely anchored, complete with mooring whips so the owner's boat doesn't bang against the barge when there are wakes. 

To top off our excellent adventure, not only did we see lots of herons, ibis, egrets, ospreys, and even a downy woodpecker, we also were lucky enough to see several dolphins herding fish into the bay. On a scale of 1 to 10, this was a 12 day!

"The Sea Giveth & The Sea Taketh Away"

One of my last posts was about kayaking to the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park and how the beach looked so much wider. Today we saw where a lot of that sand must have come from, when we took a motorcycle ride down to Hutchinson Island and Chastain Beach. This beach is the next one to the north of Bathtub Reef Beach, which is closed while they rebuild the beach and dunes with more sand. We thought we could walk from Chastain down to Bathtub but that was not meant to be, as the tide was high and we could really see the erosion. Bathtub Beach is just around the corner of this house which is now really in the water at this stage of the tide.

Here are some other houses that look to be getting close to being in danger of washing away during one of these more frequent storms we seem to be having.

Last year when we were at this beach, the sand covered quite a bit of these rocks. It was fun watching the surf break and send up spumes of water (and even some seaweed) from blowholes in the rocks. It must be wild on a windy day.

As a plus, we found some pretty nice shells, so the sea did giveth and taketh away with Hurricanes Ian & Nicole. Next time we decide to take a beach walk, we will make sure to check the tide tables. 

Back To Peanut Island

Yesterday was probably our last hot day of the fall, so it was a perfect time to bring the kayaks down to Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and paddle over to see what was new at Peanut Island and the Port of Palm Beach. We certainly weren't disappointed, especially since there were still signs of the aftermath of Hurricane Nicole. The island itself is in good shape, but there were quite a few sunken boats surrounding it that did not survive the storm.

This is what is left of a houseboat. That white thing in the water is the toilet!

Several of these boats had junk filled barges next to them, which they must have used as their 'garages'.

Then there were these boats that must have broken loose and ended up on the north side of the island. We were just in time to watch them try and lift the houseboat up and get it off the beach. 

It took a while, but it did end up back in the water next to these other boats that were barely floating at high tide.

The port didn't have quite as many commercial ships and freighters in it, but there were still quite a few mega yachts, and we got to see some of them go out the inlet. The cruise ship had Margaritaville written on it, along with other Jimmy Buffett themed sayings.

While waiting for the tide to be high, we took a walk around the island and saw lots of iguanas of all sizes, foraging in the grass and basking in the sun.

We also watched the Palm Beach County Fire & Rescue practicing their water rescues with personal watercraft and equipment.

Unfortunately, even though there was an incoming tide, the water was not as clear as other times we have been there. This was most likely still due to the hurricane stirring up the water, and the Gulf Stream being over 20 miles offshore. Dave said he couldn't see much while snorkeling, but the water was so warm (air and water about 85 degrees) that he had a hard time getting out. I started getting overheated too as we circumnavigated the island in the kayaks. I suddenly decided I had to jump in the water, so I beached my kayak and floated around, knowing that the temps would not be like this for very much longer. The water may not have been clear, but it was still great to back!

Treasure Hunting

This weekend we launched the kayaks at the end of Cove Road and kayaked over to the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park to see if there were any treasures washed up on the beach after the hurricane. We were ready for crowds, since it was the weekend, but what a surprise we had!

People? What people? Treasures? What treasures? 

There was not a soul in sight in either direction, and the beach was wiped clean of everything but some broken shells. In fact the beach looked bigger than last year, and I asked Ranger Ted if all the sand that eroded elsewhere ended up there. He said that this summer they renourished the beach with more sand and planted sea oats to help with erosion. Some of the sand had started to erode, but then with Nicole, it ended up being deposited back. Except for the fact we found no treasures, it was spectacular! We walked all the way up to the inlet to see if any of the improvements that were proposed last year had been done, but everything remained the same. The water is still quite brown and stirred up from the storm, plus the Gulf Stream is over 20 miles offshore at the moment, so the water isn't as clear as normal on an incoming tide.

This reddish egret was hanging out on the jetty rocks, along with several pelicans, and I caught him mid-flight taking off. Its pink and black beak really stood out.

We normally enjoy the 3/4 mile hike (each way) to the beach on the boardwalk, but we knew we would be wiped out with the sun and walking in soft sand on the beach, so we accepted a ride from Ranger Ted in his extended golf cart tram that runs on weekends. Thankfully, he just happened to be waiting at the beach on our way back too. Our water and lunch were in the kayaks, and we were ready for them when we got back. We sure are glad we didn't let the threat of crowds keep us away.

Hurricane!

Nicole became a hurricane before it made landfall just north of us in Vero Beach early Thursday morning. Some of our neighbors said that the eye went right over our heads in the Jensen Beach/Port St. Lucie area. I can't attest to that because we slept through it, thanks to Barb and Barry, where we spent the day and night in their wonderfully quiet and secure concrete block house. We had a great time binge watching new episodes of Seal Team, between eating 😉 and updates on the weather channel (so much beach erosion, especially in places north, like Daytona where some buildings were falling into the water and others condemned). We never lost power, which was good too. In the morning the sun came out and we helped take down their storm shutters and pick up some of the tree branches that fell down. Then it was back to our place to take down our shutters and there were only a few small branches to deal with. As we drove into the park, amazingly everything looked like there had been no storm at all! Here we are all tied down and shuttered up, including the doors:

The wind had been howling from the northeast for days before the storm arrived and with the full moon, there were king high tides flooding roadways along with gigantic waves from the storm. This is a snapshot of the entrance to the House of Refuge beach on Hutchinson Island. That is such a narrow piece of land that the ocean flooded right to the Indian River.

After we bid good luck to our mobile home and headed to Barb and Barry's house on Wednesday, we stopped to see how high the water was along the western shore of the Indian River in Riverside Park. This is definitely not a normal occurrence and eventually the sidewalk broke up with the pounding waves.

The water was already up to the building at the US Sailing Center as members scrambled to move and secure boats and dinghies to higher ground in the parking lot.

Everywhere, the winds were pushing the tides even higher causing stationary docks to be underwater. As the conditions deteriorated even more, someone posted these photos on Facebook of the waves breaking under the Jensen Beach Causeway. The north side boat launch ramp docks were destroyed, and someone abandoned a derelict power boat on the seawall, which broke apart (not to mention that a lot of the paved parking lot is filled with piles of gravel and rocks that washed in. 

There is lots of clean up to be done around the county, but the workers are already on it. We definitely lucked out this time with this unusual late season hurricane. Now things are getting back to normal, and we are anxious to get our kayaks out on the water and over to Peck Lake, with its ocean beach, to see what kind of treasures have washed ashore. Who knows, we could find something really rare from an historical shipwreck that Nicole may have uncovered. This is the Treasure Coast after all. You know that if we do, you will see it here on the blog!

Waiting For Nicole

While we take a break from putting our hurricane shutters back on due a possible direct hit from Tropical Storm or Hurricane Nicole, I thought I would give a quick update. We THOUGHT we were all settled in from our arrival, although we haven't been out in the kayaks yet. Dave even flew back north last week to drive Mustang Sally back down here. While he was there, he noticed that most of our leaves were finally down and he power blew the entire property, making our return in the spring even easier. He winterized the house and had an uneventful trip back down to Florida. We have taken one trip with the top down and now we will secure it under our tied down carport. 

Hopefully, once the storm has passed and we hopefully have no damage, we will be able to get back into the swing of things and get back out onto the water, along with some road trips. Now it is time to bring in the porch furniture and everything we had put outside only about 10 days ago. I will post when I can, as long as we still have power. No one here seems to be concerned about the storm, but we make up for it with paranoia, since it is a single wide trailer after all. Stay tuned!