tadhana: peck lake anchorage, FL.

i have been remiss with blogging - just too busy! from vero beach, which we missed completely, we went to peck lake. now this is more like what tom and i actually do and LIKE to do!   a lovely anchorage between a barrier island and the mainland. one side was a national wildlife refuge and the mainland side shared a marina in an exclusive gated community with a state park. there was easy access via dinghy to shore for consuelo and a short walk to the beach on the atlantic side. ahhhh....

a former classmate of mine from medical school, rina, lives in port st. lucie and wanted to come and visit. that visit was actually amazing considering we didn't know the first thing about our anchorage or what was close to it and how we were going to meet up. her first plan was to drive to the hobe sound wildlife refuge which would have turned out to be a mistake because she would have had to walk for miles down the beach and through a trail to get to where we were. the other alternative, peck lake park, turned out to be a dud. she would have had to climb over the fence of an overlook and tramp through mud and oyster beds. we did, however, happen to see a tiny sign to loblolly marina and when we investigated that, it was definitely the best option. the only problem was that it was a gated community. well, rina is a very charming person. we left it up to her to sweet talk someone into letting her in. imagine my relief when she called and said, "i'm here!" in any case, it was a very nice, albeit short visit.   i gotta say this for rina - she was bound and determined to see us, come hell or high water. when we dinghied over to pick her up at loblolly, she was accompanied by the dockmaster who watched and waited until we motored away. and when we dropped her off, as we were leaving the marina's channel, there was a small center console boat at the mouth with a guy fishing who called out to us. it turns out that he was the other dockmaster on his day off and he asked a bunch of questions about our presence there. as i've said, it was an exclusive place - one of those gated golf-course communities (shudder... think stepford wives!)

we would have loved to stay at peck lake longer because this is the kind of cruising we like to do and both tom and i were thinking at the same time about how we missed the chesapeake.   on the other hand, it is pretty cold cruising up there right now - which is really why snowbirding is the best option.

of note, this is the time of year for the geminids meteor shower but that night, as we were doing the last doggie run, we saw something even better - a huge and brilliant comet-like-with-a-flaming-tail-looking thing flash by very low on the horizon! beautiful peck lake - we will be back.