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| The ICW south of Titusville is a dredged and marked channel. The spoils removed when they dredge are put along the sides of the channel and eventually may turn into islands as shown in these photos. Grand Farm Island is the only inhabited spoil island with about 30 houses on it accessible only by boat. Other smaller islands serve as picnic spots for small powerboats or overnight campers. We anchored behind one spoil island near MM 925 below Melbourne on Wed. night for protection from the returning north winds. |
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| We celebrated our Thanksgiving anchored here south of Causeway Island in Ft. Pierce, FL. It was an Italian sort of Thanksgiving for us with homemade pizza and salad - not turkey but tasted good. The anchorage was quiet with two other anchored boats and this boat which was aground. It is a reminder that we need to stay alert and watch the charts to avoid the shallow waters. |
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| Caught this interesting photo of the morning sun through the clouds as we traveled to Manatee Pocket off the St. Lucie River. We did not see any manatees but did enjoy a long walk to explore Port Salerno and south Stuart, FL on Friday. |
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| Saturday was a short travel day as we stopped at Peck Lake at MM 992, a saltwater anchorage off the ICW that gave us access to St. Lucie National Seashore Park. We anchored Priority and dinghied ashore. We like to put a small anchor off the stern of the dinghy to hold the stern out in the water rather than dragging the dinghy up on the beach. Since the dinghy has a soft inflatable bottom, this will hopefully keep it hole-free. |
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| It is a short 50 yard walk across the dune from the dinghy to the ocean. The 20 knot southeast winds were blowing as we explored the ocean beach. We found coconuts on the beach and on some trees ashore. Also found some bean like pods that were green and brownish red reminding us of string beans. |
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| Jay is enjoying a beach walk with the breaking waves. St. Lucie Inlet is behind him a few miles. |
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| Back on board Priority after showering and hanging up our laundry towels to dry, Jay reads to plan the the next leg of our journey. |
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| As the bright sun fell lower toward sunset, we tried out our back sunshade. We made it to keep the sun from blinding us as the sun shone under the bimini. The two panels zip onto the edge of the bimini and tie to the stainless steel stern rail. Jay thinks we could have made it from an even finer screen but it was very helpful. |
