Fort Pierce

Fort Pierce is a very nice marina.  There are 500 plus slips some floating some fixed docks. It sits right downtown Fort Pierce and it seemed like there was always something going on.

We were tucked away on the fixed docks and the back of our boat was right on the sidewalk that faced Indian River Road.  The front of the boat faced the fuel docks, so we could watch boats coming and going. We also got to see many of the locals and visitors passing by the back of the boat – maybe we should say- they got to see us.  At times, we felt like we were an exhibit at a zoo, especially when Boner was on the upper deck.

Every Saturday they have a Farmer’s Market. There are many craft and food vendors.  They also have a band that plays from 8AM – 12 PM.  Our favorite spot was the Cider Donut tent.  They made bite size donuts covered with sugar and placed in a “Walk Around” cone.  This became a routine for Saturday mornings. We would make coffee and then go get a Walk Around cone of donuts!

The full moon in February was called a Blood moon because of a lunar eclipse.  It was pretty cool to watch from the boat.

We found this Marine Liquidation store that was huge.  We must have spent 3 hours there.  They get parts in from boats that have been taken apart and also some new parts.  We think you could build a boat from scratch with all the different parts and supplies they had.

We visited the Manatee Center which was right beside us. We actually saw more manatees in the marina area than at the center. One needed to be guided by the Fish and Wildlife guys out of the marina.

We decided to drive to Lake Okeechobee and on the way we stopped at a “You – Pick-Em” farm.  We enjoyed walking the fields and looking at the tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, etc.   We wanted to pick jalapeños but they were all picked through so we ended up purchasing pepper that were already picked. We like to save the seeds and grow plants for the summer.

We watched a fishing boat called the “Fort Pierce Lady” come and go during our stay. We decided that we would go along on a fishing trip with them.  It was like “Herd Fishing” the crew herded us like cattle on to the boat and lined us up on either side. It was a nice day, but a bit windy.  We went out to the reef about 5 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean.  We were surprised by the number of other fishing boats that were also out there.  The crew dropped anchor and provided us with fishing poles and bait and we dropped our lines over board. It was a bit crowded so we could not move up or down or to the other side of the boat.  The side we were on did not catch anything other than a few bait fish.  There were about 20 fish caught on the other side of the boat.  Even so, it was a nice boat ride and we met a couple nice people on the way.