Mangrove Adventure

After leaving Saint Augustine we spotted this very old looking stone structure tucked up into the marsh.

Fort Matanzas was a Spanish fort built in 1740.  The fort and 100 acres of marsh was designated a national monument in 1924.

This has been a banner week for bird watching.  I need to invest in a set of guide materials to help me identify all of the new species I’m not used to seeing.

Clearly this Blue Heron picture deserves the ‘picture of the week’ award!

Did you see that Blue Heron, the two Eagles, and the whole flock of those long legged, skinny necked, funny shaped beak birds??  I love this place!

We have traveled under numerous bridges in the past 6 months, but this bridge definitely wins the ‘Most Artistic’ award.  The International Speedway Blvd Bridge in Daytona has 10 foot high tiled mosaic pictures on all of the concrete piers, as well as, 18 glass tile mosaic panels along the pedestrian walkways.  These artistic design features were added at a cost of $950,000.

Very cool!

We have been blessed with many beautiful anchorages along the route.  This one was called ‘Hole in the Wall Island’.  I’m not sure how it got it’s name, but surrounded by mangrove islands it was a fabulous place to anchor!

We anchored early enough to go on an adventure...let’s explore these mangrove islands.

Keith saw a tiny opening and suggested we follow the tunnel to see where it takes us.  Stay low, watch the branches, oops...a few spider webs across the face never hurt anyone😳

It actually opened into an interior lagoon totally enclosed by thick, dense mangroves.  An eagle kept his eye on us while fish jumped all around.  It felt like we were trespassing on the eagle’s top secret fishing grounds.

Are you sure this is the way out??  Thank goodness the paddle board allows me to manouver while flat on my belly!

And we still made it back in time to enjoy the sunset!

We had plenty of company from Fort Pierce to Peck’s Lake.  These two adults kept this juvenile tightly wedged between them while playing in the wave created on the side of the boat.  Most dolphins play at the bow, but I think this youngster was getting a lesson.

Dolphins frequently seem to turn on one side to look up at us.  You might think I’m crazy, but this dolphin was definitely looking and smiling at me!

We have been traveling for 5 consecutive days, I think it is time to schedule a beach day!  Our friends Gail and Eddie told us to anchor in Peck’s Lake for easy access to the beach.  This body of water is only separated from the Atlantic by a thin strip of barrier island.  I probably never would have considered this spot since the chart shows a depth of 2 ft (we need 4.5 ft to float), but we were willing to give it a try, and as we arrived we were shocked at the number of boats there.  We anchored at the pink star (which had a depth of 8.5 ft at low tide) and took our kayaks (with all of our beach equipment strapped on) to the shore, then took a short footpath through beautiful green vegetation to emerge on an awesome beach!

Let’s just relax with the coconuts on the beach.

Jupiter island is 14 miles long, but the northern 6 miles of the island has no roads or buildings.

Sadly, when venturing to the wrack line (the line of debris left at high tide) we found huge amounts of plastic!  Everyone reads about the problem, and watches reports on the news, but it really doesn’t hit home until you see it in person of this beautiful stretch of uninhabited beach.  Keith spent time cleaning up the plastic in a small area, but the attempt seemed futile with so much around and no place for us to properly dispose of it.

At least this tree was very happy!  I counted 25 coconuts, but Keith was too tired from picking up all of that plastic to shimmy up there and get any for us.