Monday April 4: Serenity Island

We are continuing to move up the coast of Florida. Seems like we've gone a long way already - and then I made the mistake of pulling up a map of the entire eastern coast of the US.

I think I'm remembering why it is that we decided bringing this boat north during the summers is such a long way!!

But we're not really in a rush and we're looking forward to re-seeing many of the places we've been and other places that we had to bypass the last time north due to lack of time.

The morning we left Delray was really enjoyable - we decided to be smart and get up and ride to the beach while it was still a decent temperature: 75 degrees and sunny.

It was such a nice day! Off to the only "waterside" place that served breakfast and opened at 7 am.

Ok - so it was located within sight of the ocean - if you looked really hard! But closer than any other place so it worked for us.

Steve was very happy with his corned beef/pastrami omelet :-) Turned out to be his lunch as well - crazy huge.

Walked across the street to a very nice beach area.Very typical Florida beach: sand and waves for as far as you could see.



The beach was FULL of these jellyfish that the lifeguard told Steve are called 'sailors of the sea'. Not dangerous so it was ok to touch and pick them up. millions of them!

The ones that will sting you - even if they are on the beach and appear to be 'dead' are the Portuguese man o'war. Saw some of them as well.

Apparently it's something that happens every three years or so. Weird.

Anyway, we headed back to the boat - passing through what Delray has named their historic Marina District (click on the picture to see a larger version).

The homes were interesting - definitely reminiscent of what Florida used to be like, I'm sure.

Kind of nice that the city has made an effort to maintain this little area.

That was Saturday morning. The  day turned out to be pretty pleasant but it was a long day. More bridges. Plenty of company on the waterways.

Saw this old wooden boat in really great shape. Again an effort by someone to maintain and keep what is quickly becoming a relic.

And I have to say, these Florida cities do like their bridges to look cool as well as being functional!

Love the one over Ocean Blvd - not only because it's fun looking but we can fit under it! If you look closely you can see a number on what is called the water board.

It is reading '23 feet' - which is the distance from the water level to the lowest part of the steel on the bridge. It is usually the case that there is 3 or 4 additional feet of clearance when the bridge has a slight arch to it. This one did not!

We just fit with a requirement of 21.3 feet for our mast to clear.

Peanut Island

We passed Peanut Island near Lake Worth. It's always a popular spot on a nice weekend day.

Anchorage at the north end of Lake Worth

After spending the night anchored on Lake Worth, we woke to north winds and much cooler temperatures - which was fine with us! The clouds stayed most of the day - along with winds of 15 - 20 mph. I really do like that flybridge plastic. Add 8 mph boat moving north to 15 - 20 mph winds blowing south and it adds up to NO FUN!.

It was another long day but we made it to Ft. Pierce for the night on Sunday.

The city has really made an effort to have a great space by the marina. Saturdays are a farmer's market. Other days are music gatherings - seems to always be something.

We met some friends there - Kathy and Werner from It's About Time. We hadn't seen then for a couple of years so it was fun going to breakfast and catching up.

Later today Banana Bay friends Paul and Collen from Gra Mor caught up to us. We left Banana Bay on Monday, they left Friday.

We must be travel wimps :-) Took us 7 1/2 days to travel the distance they traveled in 3 1/2 days!

In all fairness, their cruising speed is 10 mph and we only go 8 mph .... and we don't travel as far in a day ...... and they don't stay for more than one night. At least not yet - who knows maybe we'll catch back up!

Anchored on a beautiful evening at Serenity Island - one of our usual stops.

Fishing pole in the water - two seconds later; a catfish.

Away went the fishing pole. Don't think that was what Steve had in mind :-)