We continued south from Fort Pierce, and officially entered South Florida. Our plan was to do a short four hour day, and anchor in the Manatee Pocket. In 2009, Scott took a two month class, to certify for being a marine surveyor. They only teach the class in Port Salerno, Florida, so we cruised south in our previous boat and spent the time at a marina there, just off of the St. Lucie Inlet.

Port Salerno is ten minutes or so south of Stuart, Florida, and about 45 minutes north of West Palm Beach. The Manatee Pocket is lined with homes, marinas, bars and restaurants, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. However, anchoring there wasn’t possible, due to the amount of derelict boats taking up all of the space. We need too much water depth to squeeze in close to shore, so we had to abandon ship, so to speak. We were so, so disappointed!

Plan B was to continue south, about 30 minutes or so, and anchor in Peck Lake. It’s a scenic, quiet anchorage. The only thing separating us from the ocean was a short spit of land. We had a 60 second dingy ride to shore, and then a two minute walk through a tree lined “tunnel,” and voila!…private beach!

We enjoyed a happy hour cocktail, and then made our way back to the boat for sunset.

Today was another short day, so we went back to the beach. Along the short walk, an armadillo was rooting around for food. I tried to wait for a head shot, but only got his back half.

We enjoyed some beach time and Scott even took a dip. His first warm water swim!

We continued south to Lake Worth. The scenery has gone from being somewhat boring, to us not being able to turn our heads fast enough, trying to see all of the ridiculously big houses!

And….big boats…private big boats!

It took the both of us to handle the navigating, bridge schedules and the camera! We came into some rain, which was actually a welcome break from neck-craning and photo-taking.

Lake Worth is full of marine industry, as well as large private boats and homes. We were happy to find a place for the night, away from the sea of derelicts on the other end of the anchorage. Boating traffic here is a constant in and out, even after dark. Tomorrow am, we’ll go out of the inlet here, and travel eight or so hours off shore to Ft. Lauderdale….our last stop before the Bahamas!

Some photos of big houses and boats!

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”