Days 303 - 304

Stuart FL - Fort Pierce City Marina, Fort Pierce FL

• Start 9:00 AM
• End 12:00 PM
• Underway 3:00 Hours
• Distance 21 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 4837
• Av Speed 6.9 knots
• Weather Sunny , 67 Degrees, Wind Knots 14 WNW

It was a pretty breezy day, but the wind was directly on our bow, making it a fairly easy but bumpy ride. The one advantage of it being bumpy is there is not a lot of traffic, The disadvantage is the boat gets covered with salt from the spray. The approach to Fort Pierce was well marked, but you had to wind your way through the jetties that they put in to protect the marina. Talking to people in the marina, before the jetties were installed the current in the marina was so bad that they had several accidents a year when people tried to dock their boats. One of my concerns when it is very windy, is docking the boat. We were very fortunate the dock master put both Cheri Baby II and us on a Tee Head dock, where the wind actually helped us dock.

Fort Pierce is like many of the water front towns we have been visiting on our trip. There are plenty of restaurants and shops within a very short walking distance of the marina. We had reservations for two nights and considered staying for a third night, until we looked at the weather forecast. If we stayed until Wednesday once again we would be traveling in high winds that were forecasted to be 20MPH with gust to 25MPH. Since we did not have any need or reason to stay we decide to stick with our original plan and leave Tuesday.

While we were traveling to Fort Pierce Angel was looking for things to do there. The first thing she found was the Navy Seal Museum, and we both agreed that we wanted to see it and planned to go on Monday. Luckily once we settled Angel found out that they were closed on Monday's and we rushed to get there. Uber was not kind to us, we tried to order an Uber that would fit 5 people but after waiting 20 minutes we still did not have a confirmed ride. At that point we decided to go with a standard Uber that seats three people, and begged the driver to let us squeeze in. It was not a comfortable ride but we made it. The Seal Museum was incredible, and if you are close enough to get there, take the time and go. The museum is on the grounds of what was the first Navy Seal Training Site, and every display is authentic seal equipment, not replicas. Two highlights are a Blackhawk helicopter that was used in the raid of Mogadishu Somalia in 1993 (That event is basis for the movie Blackhawk Down) and the life boat from the hijacking of Maersk Alabama. (The Movie Captain Phillips). After holding Captain Phillips hostage on the lifeboat for 5 days, three Navy Seal Snipers, simultaneously shot and killed three hijackers on the lifeboat from deck of the Navy Vessel Bainbridge.

On Monday Angel & I started our day by riding our bikes to West Marine (Angel's Favorite LOL) and Aldi's. As we were riding we came across Peacock Park. Peacock Park is a small park? (More like a corner lot) were there are about 15 Peacocks and some chickens just hanging out. There are no fences the birds just roam around. I was able to get within about two feet of them before they would walk away. In the afternoon we walked around town with Dan & Cherri (Cherri Baby II) and ended up at Pierced Ciderworks. Pierced Ciderworks is like a brewery, but they only make ciders. Angel and I shared a flight of their cider, ten, three ounce servings of each of their ciders. They were all very good and we ended up buying a four pack to go. Our bartender Jo, canned them for us as we watched.

Fort Pierce was a great stop but we are off to our next stop Melbourne FL.