Great Loop: Cruising up the Treasure Coast

Day 20-22: February 6-8, 2023

Back in 1961, the area of Florida encompassing the Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties needed a name to distinguish themselves from the Gold Coast to the south. At the same salvagers found a Spanish shipwreck off the coast and a newspaper published the location as the Treasure Coast. It seems to have stuck!

Fort Pierce

Our first stop was Fort Pierce and we dinghied over to the city marina to find a spot on their dinghy dock. We poked around the town area for a while and popped into a shop called Africa, which featured art and artifacts from Africa and a shopkeeper who called out “Welcome to Africa!” Neat to see. After a bit more walking, we happened upon some peacock crossing signs and some trash cans painted with peacocks. We figured it was a joke or town gimmick. But no, their gimmick was the real thing. There is a house called the Peacock House and around it was a lot of peacocks. Boris referred to them as effing peacocks!

After the peacocks it was time for dinner, and we headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us by a group at our last stop. The restaurant was 12A Buoy and it was a pretty happening place. The food was wonderful! We even had one of the resident kitties join us.

On the 7^th we had a big day planned. A short dinghy ride took us over to the St. Lucie aquarium. The aquarium was having their monthly free day, so it was pretty busy. It’s a small place but had a lot of tanks that displayed the sea life from the local area. They have a touch tank, which is always a big hit with the kids.

Here are a couple videos showing the movement of starfish, or sea stars as we were corrected by the docent because they are not technically fish.

After a quick stop for lunch at a hot dog stand, we got back in the dinghy and headed over to the Navy Seal Museum. As you expect from the name, the museum is dedicated to the history and workings of the Navy Seals. It has everything from underwater delivery vehicles to interactive consoles that let you plan equipment on missions. There are a lot of displays of historic missions they have undertook. It even has the safety boat from the pirate attack. On the outside they have an actual obstacle course for people to try out. Or, in my case, hurt yourself on.

Vero Beach

We got up bright and early on the 8^th to continue the voyage north. The next stop was Vero Beach. They have a great city marina that is well protected. We arrived just as some boats were departing and that allowed us to snag a mooring ball. The cool thing for this specific marina is they allow rafting for boats under 50 feet on the mooring balls and thus we could stay together.

The day in Vero Beach was chill. We walked over to the beach and watched the kids play in the waves while making sand creations. We ambled by the historic Driftwood Resort. We also saw some Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish washed up in a few placed on the beach and avoided them. After a bit, we bribed the kids out of the water by the promise of ice cream. That usually works for them…and Tonia.