Thursday, May 15, 2014

Ft Pierce

It has not been a very exciting week. Our friend, Allan left for home yesterday and the boat seems quiet without him.
I thought I would start the blog with some photos I did not put in the last blog because of the long time I spent on the computer. I am using the wifi at the marina so it is their minutes I am using not ours.
I liked a couple of photos I took at Flamingo Park.



                                                  Bottoms up!!!!
I left you with a photo of a strange plant and asked you to identify it. It was the flower of the banana plant and the little yellow things at the side of the plant were the very small baby bananas. The next photo is a bigger view of the flower with bigger bananas beneath it. I am always amazed that bananas grow upwards.
We had some unusual animals at the last marina. One was a lizard with a curly tail.
Like all lizards, if he loses his tail, he will grow another.
The other was a group of lovely little chicks, 16 altogether.
The next group are several days older.

Aren't they cute I hear you say. Well, this is the reverse of the ugly duckling. The chicks are real cute but the parents are plain ugly, especially the male.
This guy is a Muscovy Duck. The red growths on his head are called caruncles and when upset he raises his head feathers between the caruncles and he looks like he has a mohawk.
I saw a tree that I do not know the name of. If anyone can tell me, I would love to hear from them. You can always comment about my blog after reading the blog.
Whilst Gary and Allan visited the Ft Lauderdale Science Museum, I went for a walk along the Riverwalk (recommended). The walk follows The New River and has shade, seats and some lovely vegetation. There were several memorials, one to Policemen killed in action, another to Sailors.
 The above photo is of the Police Memorial, the one below Sailor Memorial.
 A fake paddle wheeler passing underneath a pink bridge!!
Some lucky millionaire is getting delivery of his luxury yacht. It was so long it needed boats at the front and back to guide it around the corners. The next photo is of the boat at the back of the yacht. The driver is working VERY hard!!!!


                                         A bird-of-paradise plant.

We are now in Ft. Pierce. We are staying in a marina tonight because the generator is not running and with night temps in the upper 70s it is very difficult to sleep. As you know, I like my sleep so we decided to stay cool tonight.
On the way to Ft Pierce we saw a sky scraper being built. There was a very tall crane to the side of the building and on the boom of the crane were three people standing/kneeling without harnesses. They must be crazy. I would be afraid the wind would blow me off.

The waterways we have been following have a nice channel for us to boat in. However, to the side of that channel is very shallow water, so shallow that you can stand up in it and the water only covers your ankles.
There are many lovely homes along the waterways. One of them had a boat house built into his house.
Many homes are now boarded up for the summer. Prior to going back North the owners have lowered the hurricane shutters on their homes.
There are also many canals to the side of the channel allowing people to "park" their boats right outside their homes. I wonder if they have traffic wardens giving out tickets to non-residents.
When passing through the port of Palm Beach we saw a very large boat with many yachts on board. Now I understand the saying "you can get a boat on a ship but not a ship on a boat".

To get to our present marina we passed a couple of interesting sights. One was of a crane on top of a rock island in the middle of the waterway. We wondered how the crane got there and what it was doing.
The other was of 3 tanks painted with marine mammals on them. This made them more interesting to look at.

Today, we passed this old paddle wheeler. It was actually being propelled by the paddles despite having a Yamaha engine at the back.
 I know this is not my most interesting blog. I will try to do better next time.



 



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