Touring With Friends

On a bit of a stormy day, we headed north to visit friends Bruce and Judy in Vero Beach. Bruce and Judy owned a house that was destroyed on Elbow Cay during Hurricane Dorian, so this winter they have rented a condo in Vero. Since we are not familiar with the area, they graciously gave us a fantastic tour, including Sebastian Inlet. This is a small inlet with a bridge that goes over it, so only small boats can transit from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway in the Indian River. It was pretty wild on the day that we were there, with wind and tide opposing, so the boat we saw come in had to really power through the waves.

Once they got through the waves at the mouth of the inlet, the water was much calmer. An interesting note is that the center section of this pier is a grate so you can hear and see the waves passing under you. It almost made me dizzy!

The four of us watched a pod of dolphins under the bridge for quite awhile. They kept going past the state park's swim area buoys and pushing fish up into the shallows. There were a few young dolphins too, including a new calf with its dorsal fin still curled over from being born.

The walkway out to the ocean fishing pier had a weather station and webcams set up.

The end of the pier was the hot spot for fishing. We saw the man on the right (in the beige shirt) wrestle with a very large fish that others had to come help him reel in, but then it threw the hook at the last minute. We would have loved to have seen what it was.

Bruce and I watched the surfers, although the ocean side was calm with a few big swells.

We had such a good time that we didn't make it to the gardens or educational center that Judy had planned for us to go to. That means we can look forward to returning to the area!

By Land & Sea

We have been out having fun by land and sea. If at all possible we take the Silverwing out to do errands and visit many of our friends that have relocated near here. We have found many back roads to take, and the goal is to stay off of US Route 1 with all its traffic.

Our 'new to us', yet unnamed, 20 ft. skiff has only been out once so far, but Jim joined us for its first trip to help if there were any issues (Dave and Jim also went sailing in the DC 15 a couple of days ago). The only little hiccup we had was that it steered hard to one side, so Dave put the bow of the boat up on a sandbar and got out to adjust the trim tab. First try he had adjusted it the wrong way, but after the second try it is much better. The boat is super fast, and on the day we did our inaugural trip, we flew out the St. Lucie inlet and the ocean was calm....except for the huge wakes from the Sportfisherman yachts.

The winter wind has been howling the past several days, but it has been warm out so we have enjoyed lots of pool time too. Now the breeze is easing and we are ready for more adventures, both on and off the water.

All It Takes Is Money

We went to the Stuart Boat Show today and had fun looking at all the expensive powerboats and engines. They just keep getting bigger and bigger with more and more outboards.

Even the inboard motors are huge that go in the gigantic (and fast!) Sportfisherman boats...

 And all it takes is money....

Lift Off

Last night we were able to see the Space X launch from Cape Canaveral, right in our own yard. When it came over the horizon it was a big orange glow and then changed colors, the further it got away from Earth.

This was the first launch we have witnessed from Jensen Beach, so we didn't know what to expect, although it sure looked bigger and closer than it did when we would see the rockets go overhead in the Northern Bahamas. My brother Rick, and his wife Eva, were outside watching from Daytona, and he said it looked larger than usual too. Must be all those 60 satellites they had on board. 😉

Belated Christmas Gift

Time to add another boat to the collection! We thought we would do okay down south without a power boat, but that was wishful thinking. There are so many places to go and explore that are too far to go in a small sailboat or the kayaks. Not to mention that Dave has fun looking for boats anyway 😉. So we ended up with a 1999 Sailfish, complete with trailer, Bimini top (dark green that just happens to match the van), and lots of boat cushions (oh yes, and a cassette tape deck. LOL). We really liked the dual seats and wrap around windshield for the chillier days, and the 150 Saltwater SeriesYamaha looks like new and was well maintained. The owners were great and the wife even cleaned everything before the guys got there to pick the boat up today. Jim, Scott, and Dave had a blast going to Vero Beach to get it, and were prepared with tools if anything should happen on the way home (like it did with the sailboat). Everyone and everything arrived safely and Scott rode in the boat from our place to the storage yard in the back of our park.

Now we just need less wind to go out and get the adventures started. We have sold all our boats in the Bahamas so it is time to press onward!

Backwaters Paddling

For the past two days we have been kayaking in some of the area's backwaters to stay away from the crowds. Yesterday we went up one of the back creeks of Manatee Pocket which opened up into a mangrove lined bay. There were so many mullets jumping and big fish swooshing, that we were sure they would end up in our boats. Thankfully they didn't but then again, at least these two iguanas didn't try to jump in either!

Today we went to explore the Savannah Preserve's lake and marshland. We were sure we would spot some alligators, but unfortunately none were around. We did see some waterbirds like anhingas, ducks, egrets, and ospreys, and the perimeter has lots of pretty little swamp flowers.

It was still a great way to exercise and both days were perfect getaways to stay away from the Christmas week madness at all the rest of the launch ramps.

And this post wraps up 2019! Thanks for following my blog and best wishes for 2020!

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...?"