Florida and the good life!

 Back to Florida.   The world of nuclear power plants

and high rise bridges

After our excitement of the space launch, we went to shore with friends Kris and Ron.  Not much to do in Ft. Pierce, but we did see manatees near the shore.  The town was pretty dead (after Easter) but there was some fishing activity near the city pier. This would be the 4 of us.

We also saw another Portugese Man-O-War.  This time, I got a picture!

From there we sailed (motorsailed) the 28 statute miles to Stuart, FL, the last 7 miles up the shallow, winding St Lucie River. Here we had made arrangements to have our radar fixed or replaced. It was replaced.  And works.  Glad to have it working again, a bit shell-shocked at the price to have it replaced. We took time to wander from the fabulous marina into town.  Neat, old town, lots of restaurants/bars/shops.  We enjoyed the town.

They even have a couple of round-abouts, complete with great statues.

We left Stuart around noon and motor sailed to Vero Beach, about 42 statute miles, on Friday.  We had about 20 kts of wind from the south, on our stern -- motorsailed with just the jib, doing 7.5 to 8 kts most of the time. At Vero, we saw friends Marina and Dave and new puppy Sarge.  I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the cute 15 week old yellow lab puppy. We had a great visit and dinner with them. Then back to the boat to meet friends Ray, Ange, and Nicole on Saturday.  Ange and Nicole brought a great lunch and hor d'orves. Ange even made cookies from Luke's mom's favorite recipe!  We took them for a little 2 hour boat ride north, up the ICW, and then a sail slowly back to Vero Beach.

Past mega mansions.  Single homes and estates worth that are worth more than many of the entire island incomes of the Bahamas.  It's a strange world...

And the dinghy ride to end the visit with our friends at Vero

Today's shell is the measled cowry.  Wonder how it got it's name....

The back of this shell is indeed "measled" - you can see some of the spots on the upper side of this picture.  I read that the animal itself is most beautiful, covered with colorful fringes and tiny papillae.  There are raised tooth markings which you can feel as you run your fingers along it.  The genus name Cypraea refers to the Cyprus, birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite. The name "cowry" then means the "shell of the Cyprian goddess". This "goddess" is about 4 inches long and truly beautiful.