A Peanut of an Island

A great coincidence brought more friends from the 'burg into our journeys; we made plans to see them after we moved the boat (incoming windage) and so, a little journey down the ICW brought us to the Riviera Beach area into an anchorage just north of the Phil Foster Park.  We didn't know this at the time, but the bridge area on the south side of the park is quite the place to go if you like to skin or scuba dive in shallow water.  The site is known for having a great number of types of fish and other underwater wildlife.

So, anyway, our friends were staying at a family spot right on our path down the ICW, so with them being both photogs, we got some cool snaps of us motoring down the waterway.  Always interesting to see us from another's eyes.

We got settled and then our friends picked us up from the nearby dock to lay in some rum and margarita-making supplies and then I begged to go to Chick-Fil-A for sweet tea, because, for some crazy reason, Florida is just not a southern state as it is very hard to get sweet tea at restaurants.  They might have Arizona, they might have regular, but no sweet tea, and I was hoping for a fix.  And I got one and am so thankful because it's such delicious bad-for-you stuff.

Much food, snacks, swimming in the heated pool, and fishing ensued; the kids even caught a starfish, which they inspected well before placing it back in the water

Peanut Island was on the itinerary for the next day, so Gary dropped Elliott and me off there and went over to the Sailfish Marina (where we bought Nalani) and got our friends.  While waiting for them, we watched kayaking groups coming in, skin divers, and families who looked like they came straight from church.

All of a sudden I felt like I was Dudley Moore's character is the movie "10," as a beautiful apparition walked out of the water towards us.  Elliott had just been admiring the young women in bikinis and so, when this young man walked by with his glorious long black curly hair, tanned skin, nice tattoos, and a real sweet voice when he asked the time, E and I looked at each other and broke out in knowing giggles. A special moment between mother and son. 

Elliott was also busy cracking open a coconut, so that when our guests arrived, they got to munch on a special treat.  A few of them had never had fresh coconut, which, to me, is a fruit of the goddesses.

Peanut Island was called that because it was originally a shipping terminal for peanut oil; our theory is that it is small and shaped like a peanut, there you go.  It is a beautiful little oasis with camping facilities and a lovely beach for swimming or snorkeling.  A trail runs the circumference which takes you by a reef area, a lagoon, a canal (in which we saw a very large manatee and one that tried to get out of the water a bit, which was odd, and where we saw schools of large fish playing follow the leader).  There is also a bunker on the island that was built specifically for President John F. Kennedy for when he stayed nearby on vacation or for other "special" meetings.

After our friends left because we thought some weather was coming in, it actually cleared up enough for us to visit the lagoon again (at low tide now) and Elliott discovered a live conch and an interesting sea-cucumberish animal that had fleshy spikes all over.  It would shuffle along on the sand and then, ever so often, a hole would open in its back and a lentil-sized oval of sand would drop out and down.  It must take in sand, sift it of nutrients, and expel the unusable stuff.  Really cool and weird to watch.

On FB, I'm part of a women's sailing group, and like Elliott with the sailing families page his is on, we have a chance to meet up with people everywhere who are sailing, either with kids, without, or solo.  We dinghied by a boat that Gary thought he insured, so we said hello to the owner, said hi to her dog, and then I noticed her Women Who Sail burgee.  I said that I also have one; she said, "I'm Angie Wilson."  We said we'd meet up again.

The next day, I let her know I was making spaghetti and that she could come over for a meal.  She'd already landed ashore with a friend and were at a restaurant at that point.  She came up alongside the boat later that evening and said hello and introduced her friend Paul.  She also gave us a block of ice for Christmas.  That was really kind of her.  I liked her immediately; she had a great drawl and is the kind of woman who would fit right in with my best friends.  I hope we see her again; she's on her way to the Bahamas real soon.

I was glad for these peaceful times of friends and making new ones, because you know what was coming next, don't you?   The dreaded going under the bridge!!!!