Surprising Fort Pierce

First of all apologies, this month has gotten a way from us as we have moved down the Florida coast. We have made several new to us stops which is both exciting as an opportunity to discover and taxing as we sort through a new place and our still very large to do list. 

Fort Pierce has a very well marked and dredged all weather inlet. We had wanted to stop at Ponce de Leon on the way down but was informed by the local Sea Tow that it was not suitable for our draft. Timing wise we passed Cape Canaveral during the evening so continued on to Fort Pierce. The sailing down the coast has been mixed, with usually lightish winds behind us and just enough of schedule constraints (tides/cold fronts to dodge) that our windows to move have been pretty tight resulting a fair amount of motoring. 

Fort Pierce has several anchorage and marina options, though the marinas were either too shallow or located under a low bridge, so a no go for Tenacious. We anchored about 3 miles in from the ocean along side the inlet channel which in large part is the most popular anchorage. We had good shore access with the city of Fort Pierce a couple miles away and the causeway park (our favorite) about a quarter of a mile. The causeway park has a great boardwalk that went all the way to the ocean, with beaches, bars, food and live music. 

It was not all play, we did a major Bahamas provisioning targeting our expected 4-5 months of needed supplies, with family friends assisting, a rental car, amazon lockers and lots of dinghy and bike runs. 

So other than just being a super pleasant and welcoming place..... the other surprise, we were swarmed by local boaters on Saturday night, some within pass the beer distance - it was the annual Christmas Boat parade, a great time. 



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