But for my philosophical musings yesterday, I haven't provided a real update in several days.
Last Wednesday, we traveled from Daytona to Cocoa Village. We are now in Manatee country and there were numerous Slow Speed, Minimum Wake zones where they particularly hangout. We honored these religiously but fear that we may have had a Manatee strike in one of the unrestricted areas. At high speed, the boat had a thump--could have been a submerged log but more likely a Manatee. If so, we feel sick about it. We stopped immediately and looked back but there was nothing we could see. The day also offered lots of dolphins, royal terns, brown and white pelicans, and ubiquitous cormorants.
Along the way we saw a wide variety of socioeconomic development--truck campgrounds and fish camps, trailer parks, mobile home parks, average homes, and huge McMansions. Sadly, there's not a lot of the Florida coast that's not developed.
Spectacular views of Cape Kennedy highlighted the trip. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the eighth largest building in the world by volume) stood out from dozens of miles away as did NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System Rocket standing on launch pad 39B. We had hoped to see the Artemis launch but it's now been delayed so long that that's unlikely.
Also, the weather's warmed up a bit and Wednesday saw me in shorts and no socks for the first time but still wanting a sweatshirt. That didn't last long. I was back to bluejeans, socks, fleece and rain jacket the next day.
We spent a couple of days in Cocoa Village where we enjoyed walking through its historic district. One night, we sought out Oyster Shooters Raw Bar where we loved the Oysters Rockefeller, CharBroiled Oysters, and Oysters Casino. Yum. Another night, Thai Thai happily delivered a delicious Thai dinner to the boat. Jackie's pad thai burned her mouth; my duck curry was perfect. And French Delights bakery enabled us to stock up with croissants for the Admiral's breakfast along with cookies and brownies for our lunches. We cut all into small portions and froze them.
After a couple of nights at Cocoa Village Marina, we moved on to Safe Harbor Harborside in Fort Pierce. Dolphins, Osprey and Royal Terns graced that day's trip and relatively few no wake zones enabled us to traverse the 68 miles at an average speed of 15 knots which is quite good along the ICW. A brand new, not yet opened, 65' high ICW bridge confused us as we arrived in Fort Pierce. Our Aqua Maps chart was not
sufficiently up to date to have it charted. Our berth in Fort Pierce was immediately adjacent to Skipper's Cove Restaurant--convenient for a late lunch but awful for loud, horrible, live music which pounded all afternoon and evening. Mercifully, Skipper's Cove caters to an older crowd and the music stopped at 9:00. Sweet Heaven.
Fortunately, we only spent one night in Fort Pierce and moved on on Saturday to Riviera Beach where we are staging for our run across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Riveria Beach City Marina is situated at the City's Marina Park, a pleasant setting but one that is surrounded by the Port of Palm Beach and other industrial facilities. There's not much within walking distance so we headed off to rent a car this morning.
Yesterday, we took a ferry from the marina to Peanut Island and enjoyed walking around its circumference. Beaches and a manatee lagoon line its shores and the island hosted the Kennedy Bunker in the early 60s when the cold war worried us all. It looks like they're
trying to raise the funds to restore it. It will be something for history buffs to see when they're done.
The island lies across a busy channel from the Port of Palm Beach which has a cruise ship terminal, a container port, and bulk cargo facilities. Nonetheless, the recreational use of the channel and the waters on the other three sides of the island ran from paddle boards and kayaks to megayachts and included most everything in between.
On the first somewhat warm Sunday in weeks, everyone sought fun and sun on the water. In addition to beaches, manatees, and views of the Port, Peanut Island also offered quiet mangrove lagoons which always strike a note with us.
After renting the car this morning and giving the Admiral some time to do some shopping, we ate a late brunch at the Southern Kitchen and then headed to Grassy Waters, a nature reserve we frequented when visiting the Admiral's parents in Palm Beach Gardens years ago. Our alligator pals we used to see there had hidden themselves away, perhaps waiting for a truly warm day to come back out. We did, however, enjoy siting great blue herons, a tricolor heron, a great egret, a northern harrier, cardinal, grackle, red-winged black birds, yellow-rumped warblers and a variety of other species. I took pleasure in learning about cypress domes, one of which you can see in the far background of the picture below. These domes typically form when water creates a depression in limestone. As the depression expands, more and more nutrient-rich organic material builds up in the deeper center with less toward the more shallow edges. This difference allows the cypress that get established in the center of the depression to grow faster and taller than those on the edges causing the dome-like height of the trees to mirror the depth of the depression they have rooted in.
After Grassy Waters, we traveled to the manatee lagoon just south of the Port of Palm Beach. Here, at a power plant outfall that warms the water to 84 degrees (ambient nearby was 72 degrees) nearly 250 manatees have found their little piece of heaven in
South Florida. We took pleasure in seeing dozens of adults and a number of moms and babies lolling back and forth in what for them must be the equivalent of a hot tub. The adjacent interpretive center offered lots of manatee info but for us was much too loud and crowded. We beat a retreat back to the boat.
We are carefully watching the weather, killing time, and hoping for a smooth day to cross the Gulf Stream to either the West End or Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island. It looks like Friday may be the day. The Admiral, especially, is growing just a bit stir crazy but not enough that she wants to risk a rough ride. Wish us luck!