Fort Pierce, FL Island Camping

[bilbo]

Guywhofishes requested some more photos and stuff about our trip. I figured it warranted a new thread since most didn’t have much to do with backstraps lol.

When they dredged the Intracoastal Waterway on the East coast of FL back in the early 1900s they dumped the spoils to the side as they moved along, creating a series of islands. Over time, Ma nature claimed them and they're now lush and full of mangroves, trees, and critters. More info here.

My son and I recently took our boat to camp on one of the islands for a few nights. We had a blast! I don't have any photos of the trip there as the boat was cramped and the wind strong, so sailing was pretty exciting and no free hands for photos/video. We ended up claiming a spot on SL13, near Fort Pierce, FL. The island offered a little sheltered lagoon kind of area, which was good since the next day we were supposed to get 20+mph winds. That would be just another Tuesday back home but it's noteworthy here I guess.

The view from one of the sandy beach areas:

Our trusty boat, the Dingy Dinghy:

 

[bilbo]

From what we could tell, there were two camp areas on the island. We chose one at the SW corner and set up our camp:

The view from our hammocks wasn't bad:

The same at night:

A cold front moved through overnight the first night we stayed. The cool, dry North wind made for excellent sleeping and the well sheltered lagoon meant our boat stayed beached, moving itself in and out as the tide came and went. In the morning we had upper 50s and the wind was roaring through the trees, but down by the ground it was perfect weather for camp coffee!

The downside was that the wind whipped up the Indian River Lagoon into a frenzy so we were pretty much stuck on the island, but the upside was that nobody was out zooming around listening to their awesome music at 800dB. We did attempt to sail in the afternoon but I could make absolutely zero upwind progress without the motor and the chop was miserable. Sam was cold but my onboard insulation kept me comfortable for the most part.

After the cold, exciting boat ride it was time for dinner. Alas, the familiar backstrap:

After dinner, we had our campfire on the beach. By then, the wind had died down considerably. There was still enough wind and cool temps to keep bugs away though. Awesome evening!

 

[bilbo]

Our last morning was mostly spent lounging in the hammock and packing up. The wind was back to normal, if not a little weak, so sailing felt less like trying to meet Jesus. I had to jury rig the piece that attaches the boom to the mast. The casting broke the day before, even with the sail reefed.

Around noon, we bid farewell to our temporary island home and explored the area a bit, checking out some of the other islands. We left SL13 in the care of this little heron:

We sailed North and checked out SL7. It had a nice beach, but was occupied by a kayaker so we didn't stick around.

SL8 was super nice. It had a huge area for camping, a nice big beach, and this dock/picnic table on the East side. Minutes after we landed, two other boats showed up and started unloading stuff so we bounced.

Last, we stopped by SL9. It was pretty nice too, small and cozy, but the beach area was full of rocks so we couldn't beach the boat. It had a treehouse platform built on it. It would be a great site for a canoe or kayak that you could pull all the way up on the beach. The rocks would damage any boat being moved around at all by the waves.

After leaving SL9 we started making our way back to the truck to go home. Accessing the islands from where we launched requires going through or under the North Ft Pierce bridge. I'm too tall to go under the bridge by about 4 feet so they have to open it for me, which they do on request on the hour and half-hour.

Loitering around in a small sailboat trying to stay near a bridge while 60+ foot offshore boats fly by is not much fun, so we sailed a meandering path to put us there about on time. A half-mile or so North of the bridge is UltimEmotion2, an 80 foot racing trimaran sailboat that dismasted a couple years ago. Apparently it was towed here and is awaiting its fate, be it repair or demo.

The mast failure ripped the aft frame holding the aka apart. They jury rigged it with timber for the tow here I suppose. I was reading in an article that the mast is 102 feet high. The drawbridge South of this that the boat would need to pass through to get to the Atlantic is being replaced with a fixed span with around 85 foot clearance, so if it's not repaired by then it may need to be moved again or demoed. I guess the price tag for the boat was north of $2MM new.

As I was coming around to look at the bow of the broken boat the bridge tender called on the radio for me to approach, so I didn't get a photo of the bow. I didn't get a great photo of the bridge, but was able to pull these from the Gopro video Sam took:

Another half mile and around a corner had us back to the truck. A few comments:

One thing I am having to adapt to since moving down here is that nobody seems to respect others space. It's not that I believe our camping there was some sort of claim of ownership but I couldn't believe people just rolling in with their boats and setting up shop in our lap. And they've all got their sound systems going so it's Merle Haggard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mariachi, and Gangsta Rap all at once! We were lying in our hammocks the first night and I heard a noise. Some lady was just wandering around our campsite looking at our stuff; it was weird to me but didn't seem to bother her one bit even when she noticed we saw her. But I've found it's kind of normal here. It's probably related to the population density.

This was sort of a test run for another trip I'm planning to the Ten Thousand Islands on the Gulf side at some point. I learned a few things on how to load the boat and what I need/don't need to bring. From what I've found so far that area is a bit quieter but we'll see.

 

[deleted member]

Sheesh! Color me green

 

[guywhofishes]

Very good write up!!

 

[Bfishn]

Looks awesome! Sailing is one of those things I've done a little of and love it, but just don't have the time, energy, money for another hobby like that especially living in ND. I've always joked I wish I had a friend with a nice boat on Sakakawea I could jump in for a week every summer and cruise the lake.

 

[scrotcaster]

Thank You for sharing ! Love a good adventure.

 

[fj40]

Nicely done!

 

[wslayer]

Sounds like a fun time !

 

[bilbo]

Looks awesome! Sailing is one of those things I've done a little of and love it, but just don't have the time, energy, money for another hobby like that especially living in ND. I've always joked I wish I had a friend with a nice boat on Sakakawea I could jump in for a week every summer and cruise the lake.

Yeah ND isn’t exactly well known as a sailing destination. I got started on a Sunfish in the Boy Scouts; something like that might scratch your itch. It’s easy to store when not in use and an absolute riot to sail.

Eventually I’d love to have a bigger blue-water type boat but storage becomes an issue, not cheap down here.

 

[Sluggo]

Thanks for the story. Your son will never forget trips like that.
I was waiting to hear about the fishing part of the adventure but maybe there was none?

 

[snow2]

From what we could tell, there were two camp areas on the island. We chose one at the SW corner and set up our camp:

The view from our hammocks wasn't bad:

The same at night:

A cold front moved through overnight the first night we stayed. The cool, dry North wind made for excellent sleeping and the well sheltered lagoon meant our boat stayed beached, moving itself in and out as the tide came and went. In the morning we had upper 50s and the wind was roaring through the trees, but down by the ground it was perfect weather for camp coffee!

The downside was that the wind whipped up the Indian River Lagoon into a frenzy so we were pretty much stuck on the island, but the upside was that nobody was out zooming around listening to their awesome music at 800dB. We did attempt to sail in the afternoon but I could make absolutely zero upwind progress without the motor and the chop was miserable. Sam was cold but my onboard insulation kept me comfortable for the most part.

After the cold, exciting boat ride it was time for dinner. Alas, the familiar backstrap:

After dinner, we had our campfire on the beach. By then, the wind had died down considerably. There was still enough wind and cool temps to keep bugs away though. Awesome evening!

Well done! Thanx for sharing. Late-night python make a midnight visit?

 

[bilbo]

Haha no snakes thankfully. Those are a bit further South and West of where we were. Unfortunately no fishing, I said I think I need to invest in some gear though. There were lots of fish jumping in the water near the beach in the evening. I think fishing and eating your catch right there would be cool. My luck I’d get ciguaterra poisoning though.

 

[deleted member]

My buddy is probably one of the last sailing boats on Devils Lake. It's definitely a trip!