Exploring New Waterways

Today was the perfect day to go boating, so we launched the powerboat on the north causeway in Fort Pierce to explore the area. Since we had only been kayaking near here, we were prepared and had both a chart in hand along with a GPS. We must have navigated pretty good since we never ran aground. Besides the backwaters, we also went through the port where mega yachts were docked. This area is supposed to eventually become a megayacht boatyard with a gigantic travel lift. Today there was 'only' the 236ft. Solo and the 144ft. sailing yacht Artemis.

There were also commercial fishing boats and tugs around...

We believe this is a submersible tender...

We can't resist checking out marinas and this one looked to have a sunken boat in the entrance, but it made a good breakwater.

This is the bascule bridge that our friend Di was dismasted under.

A billboard boat, an unusual sight...

Then it was on to find a lunch spot at an island between the Fort Pierce Inlet and the port. 

We were the only ones on the island, which is just how we like it. While exploring, we found this small amphitheatre, which made us wonder if it was for church services, private concerts, or perhaps even a wedding.

We also found a small tidal pond which attracted herons and egrets.

To our surprise, Dave found tons of baby conchs in the shallows at low tide. They are officially called 'rollers' because they roll in the surf without having grown their large outer bell yet.

One was the tiniest I had ever seen. It was almost out of the water, so after I took this photo I put it back in deeper water to grow up.

Dave summed up the day best when we were looking out towards the inlet and he exclaimed, "Look, we have a new horizon!"

Missing Them?

I have mentioned before that when we were in the Bahamas I missed seeing pelicans. Now that we are here in Florida, that certainly is not the case and I am making up for lost time. One of the popular spots for them to hang out is at fish cleaning stations, and I grabbed this shot as the fisherman was throwing a carcass at the launch ramp at Sandsprit Park...

The jetty in Fort Pierce is another fishermen's paradise and attracts pelicans waiting for a hand out. These two were preening on the rocks with one of the jetty's many memorial plaques in the foreground.

We sure look forward to our next encounter with these prehistoric looking birds and their fun antics!

Helping Hand

From past blog posts you may remember me mentioning our friend Diane who, at 90 years young, is still cruising on her Gemini Catamaran Caesar's Ghost (named after her black lab, not her husband 😉). She has a ladies Sunfish race named in her honor at the Hope Town Sailing Club, and until a few years ago, she still competed. I have worked with her on the race committee many times and she is amazing. However, she does need crew help moving her boat, and after it was stored in Indiantown for the summer, she arrived last week and needed help getting her boat to a marina in Stuart, up the north fork of the St. Lucie River. The Indiantown Marina is about 25 miles away from us, so Dave and I first headed out there to see her and her granddaughter who was there for a few days cleaning up the boat (ash from the sugar cane field fires was everywhere). We helped them put on her roller furling jib sail, so now she is set for sailing.

For the actual trip to Stuart, Dave and friend Walter volunteered and they had a great trip on the eastern section of the Okeechobee Waterway, including going through the lock that we visited awhile back that I posted about. They even saw horses at the water's edge, and we have seen cattle there before too.

Di hardly ever turns her helm over to others, especially since last year she did that and the man driving, ran it into a bridge without the bridge being open, causing the mast and rig to come down and much damage. She lost the whole winter on the boat while it was repaired. Dave was surprised when she trusted him enough to take over steering while she stood watch and relaxed behind him.

Di is now safely settled at the marina where many friends that are in this area this season can go visit her. It is an honor to keep her going!

Valentine's Day Cruise

A cold front was expected later in the day, but we really wanted to get out on the water for more explorations. We had it all planned to launch at Sandsprit Park and head south on the Intracoastal waterway to picnic at Peck Lake, explore the barrier island and be back home before the weather turned cool and rainy. Peck Lake is really just a wide spot in the ICW, but it is also an anchorage for cruising boats, and a party spot for day use people. 

The island is still part of the St. Lucie Inlet State Park, but there is no dock on this section, so everyone has to anchor out with either the bow or stern on shore. We opted for securing the bow onshore and a stern anchor out in the water. If you choose the right spot, it is almost 3ft deep all the way to the shoreline, so you don't have to worry about being aground as the tide goes out.

X marks the spot, or at least this old flag pole marks the spot of the short trail to the ocean beach.

Once again the beaches were pretty much empty except for the birds.

I walked the beach looking for treasure, but the only 'gold' I found were shells.

Why is it we find so many shoes that wash ashore? This one had been floating around for awhile and grew barnacles (and yes, that is a Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish next to it). 

Dave couldn't resist going swimming in the calm blue water. He turned the trailhead marker into a clothes tree. 😉

Exploring oceanside reminded us so much of our adventures in the Bahamas.

Our timing was perfect, as we arrived back at the launch ramp before all the fishermen hurried in from the inlet, and back in our driveway just as the cold front arrived. Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. We sure did! 

Every Forty Years

We are now rock concert groupies! Right after our fantastic Styx concert we happened to be talking about how it would be nice to see a Kansas tribute band. I searched the internet for concerts in the area and amazingly found out that the real Kansas group was going to be in Melbourne, FL that Friday night. Why see a tribute band when you can experience the real thing?! Tickets were still available and we drove to Melbourne last night and the concert was fantastic. The Maxwell King Performing Arts Center was the perfect place to hold this event and everyone was so friendly. The ushers were even taking photos for people...

The balcony was the place to be for seating, as it is steep so that every seat has a good view. As an added attraction, the balcony had screens on the side that showed the band up close. This was especially nice when there were instrumental solos (I was in awe of the keyboardist and violinist. It was like listening to an orchestra).

Once again we were seated next to very cordial people and we joked about our ages and band members ages being almost the same. One girl, about 16, had brought her father with her, who told her she was the youngest person there, and I think he was right. When the lead singer came on and looked at the audience, he said something like, "looks like we are playing for our peers tonight." However, age had nothing to do with the enthusiasm of the audience or the band performance. They played for over 2 hours without a break, playing new and old songs, including the entire Point Of No Return album. We had just been talking about how we had seen Kansas back when we were just married, which must have been about 40 years ago. That's when it was announced that this IS the 40 year anniversary of the Point of No Return tour!

Time sure does fly, but we are proud to say that we were there back then and now and so glad we went both times. I don't think we will make it to the next 40 year anniversary though. 😉  As the band left the stage at the end, they summed it up best, "I bet you didn't think we were going to be this good, did you?" 

Cars & More!

We discovered that the Lowe's in Stuart has a car show every Tuesday evening. We checked it out last night and were surprised to see how many people and cars were there. It was fun seeing different vehicles than we were used to seeing over and over again at the shows up north. This show is open to classic, antique, and unusual cars and trucks. There was even a PT Cruiser Convertible which made me miss mine. It would have looked really good under the lights, except Dave said our T-Bird would have looked better 😉 (It sure was a perfect convertible night).  Below are some of the cars and trucks we saw:

So, did you recognize any of these vehicles?