Log Book: December 26th

Conditions: 70's

Location: Jensen Beach

We got to Jensen Beach in the late afternoon and made it ashore for a quick look around. Dad went to college a few miles from here at the Florida Institute of Technology, but he said that even the street signs had different names. We walked along the main road and explored Dad's old jaunts, but everything seemed to be new. When the sun set vendors came out onto the sidewalk and sold books, jewelry, scarfs, and art. The most popular stand housed a young guy playing techno music. He was vigorously spray painting canvas for the crowd to create an outer space landscape. Dad and I watched him paint for awhile like the rest of the mesmerized crowd. We returned to the anchorage and Dad told me what Jensen beach had been like when he was here and all the trouble he caused. We plan on going for a bike ride tomorrow to a beach Dad refers to as 'the Baths' and the House of Refuge where they raise sea turtle eggs. 

The branch of FIT that dad went to has since closed but we biked over to campus to see it anyway. No wonder the branch is closed, I don't see how anyone could study here. It is now a large park, right on the water. The only building that remains of the college is the mansion. The giant, white house on the hill was owned by Ann Leach, a Coca-Cola heiress, before it was donated and became the center of the college campus. The hill on which the house stands was an ancient Native American midden, a sort of dump site. The house is yards from the water and a boardwalk hugs the shore close to the building. Dad and I walked our bikes along this boardwalk to the front of the house where we found white double doors that led inside. The doors were locked and the inside appeared to be empty but Dad told me that while he was here this was the entrance to the college bar, upstairs housed the administrative offices. Dad told me his favorite stories of nights at the campus bar while we walked the rest of the boardwalk. The boardwalk ended near a beach that was full of Hobiecats, 420s, and Lasers it turned out to be a very expansive community sailing program. Dad told me a story of the first time he ever went sailing, it was off this very beach and it didn't go so well. Around noon we biked back to the boat, the wind had picked up while we were gone so Dad wanted to make sure we were securely anchored still. Back on the main drag in Jensen Beach we went out to lunch at a New Orleans fashioned restaurant that had been recommended to us. The food at Crawdaddy's was excellent. I tried crawfish for the first time. There's not much to them, it's the sauce that counts. After lunch we got back on the bikes and headed for the Florida Oceanographic Society. It was a mini aquarium not too far from the House of Refuge, our next stop. The aquarium had small tanks with fish and descriptions, the usual boring stuff. The artificial lagoon was the interesting exhibit. This was a huge man made lake with different kinds of fish, sea turtles, and nurse sharks. Dad and I spent hours watching the different fish swim by, ever time you thought you had seen them all a new one would show up. Next up was the House of Refuge, the now museum on the beach was originally built to house shipwrecked sailors that were often marooned on the uninhibited Hutchinson Island. The Refuge was later used to spot German U-boats and to protect and house endangered species of sea turtles who used the surrounding beach as a nesting ground. The museum curator was more interesting than the museum itself. He told us of a pirate, Gilbert, who use to sail out of Hutchinson Island. Gilbert used to light a fire on a sandbar just off the island, fooling his prey into thinking that the bar was the port that they were looking for. When the perspective ship went aground Gilbert and his men sailed out to plunder the ship and to kill the survivors, dead men tell no tales kind of thing. He was caught after he bored a ship of the Royal Navy, imprisoned the crew below, and set the ship on fire but the crew escaped Pirates of the Caribbean style. Gilbert was hunted down by the British and eventually hanged for piracy and if you haven't said argh in your head at least once while reading this I'm disappointed in you. Our last stop of the day was the Baths. The Baths is a public beach on the ocean. This beach is unlike any other due to the tube worm reef just offshore. The reef blunts the force of the ocean, protecting the beach from the waves, making it calm like a bath hence the name. By the time we got back to the boat we were both aching from the long ride but the day was a success.

What we ate: gumbo, seared tuna sandwich, crawfish

Spotted: sea turtle & a beach bum