West Palm Beach

Under light winds and sunny skies, we pull away from the Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce.  At the ICW we turn southward and continue our journey.  There are a lot of boats heading north, very few heading south.  The ICW looks very tropical at this point, the banks are lined with mangrove and there are many casuarina trees and palms.  Here is a typical ICW scene through our "high-definition" windscreen.

We see lots of dolphins and a few manatees, although it has been impossible to get a good picture of either.

Just south of Fort Pierce, I see an airplane falling from the sky trailing smoke.  I hope he or she is practicing for an air show.

The zoomed out view...

For several miles we pass through the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Preserve, a 1,035 acre refuge established in 1969 on Jupiter Island to protect the Loggerhead and Green Sea turtles.

He did catch his lunch.

Further south, it was "summer cottage" time again for several miles..

And golf courses... we must be nearing Palm Beach.

We pass a Palm Beach Yacht in it's native habitat.

This one has a "garage" built into the side for it's toys.

Got an extra $250K or so to charter for a week?

Finally we wait for the opening of the Flagler Memorial Bridge (14 foot clearance) and pull into the Palm Harbor Marina.

This is by far the nicest marina we have seen and their summer rate is only $1.25 per foot per day.  So we decide to stay here an extra day as it is only a few blocks away from a great park, restaurants and City Place.  More pictures tomorrow.