March 6, 2013- Ft. Pierce City Marina

Well, as Garrison Keillor says “ It was a quiet week in Lake Wobegone”. Today, it was a quiet day for us at Fort Pierce City Marina after we awoke to a dark and stormy sky and forecasts for 20 kt NW winds with gusts to 30kts.  Hazardous boating conditions on the ICW added to the forecast meant that we were going nowhere today.  Arrangements were made to delay our arrival at Vero Beach City Marina until tomorrow when the forecast is for winds of 5-10 out of the north, sunny and 71 degrees.  By late morning, the sea gods must have decided that they scared enough

boaters and that now it was time to bring out the sun, calm the seas and generally call off the stormy weather.  However, by that time we were well into having a lazy day reading and planning to go to the Manatee Museum and farmers market that they have here every Wednesday.  Besides, we both didn’t sleep too well last night so after having dinner at Cobb’s Landing restaurant…which was excellent but I think that the key lime tart dessert did us in.

There are about 3,000 manatees left in the world, yesterday we saw about 22 of them and today about 10 more.  At the museum, they built a viewing area overlooking a basin where they expect manatees to congregate.  Of course, there was not a single manatee there…they seem to prefer Ft. Pierce City Marina among all the boats.  These creatures are really weird as they seem to float around as giant clumps, barnacles on their backs, every once in a while (about 6 minutes) sticking their noses up out of the water for air.  When sleeping they can stay submerged for about 15 minutes without breathing.  They can weigh up to 2000 lbs. and be 10’-12’ long.  When you get 20 of these creatures in the marina as we saw, they effectively block any boat traffic as they are an endangered species protected by law.  Probably it will be a beautiful day tomorrow when we are set to leave…but we will be surrounded by manatees!

Ft. Pierce has been a great stop and the town has done a remarkable job improving its waterfront facilities and having events here at the waterfront every week.  Also, the Sunrise Theater, about two blocks from the marina, has top name entertainment.

Just in March, Tony Bennet, Itzhak Perlman, Pat Benatar, and Johnny Mathis performed.

On to Vero Beach tomorrow.

P.S.  Bob thought it would be fun to write the blog today.  I (Liz) will return tomorrow.

Farmer's market at the marina

Heron on the pier