The Cities Within

Fort Pierce

I took a long walk through downtown Fort Pierce today. Ugh, another boring place like Jensen Beach. The main street, US 1, is lined with failing businesses and factories. City Hall is vastly oversized and elegant suggesting an out-of-control local government. The city marina caters only to power boats. One bright spot is that the active factory downtown squeezes orange juice. Visually it isn't pretty but the orange aroma is wonderful. I love the smell of oranges.

Another bright spot is a little diner I found for lunch. The sign outside says just "Diner." The menu inside says just "Diner." The walls were covered with artwork depicting diners. However I saw the black proprietress carrying out a dish that looked delicious. I asked her what it was and she said "Fried fish. Would you like a sample?" "Sure" I said. The sample turned out to taste just as good as it looked. If you drive through Fort Pierce on US 1, stop at the "Diner"

I bought a local newspaper and my opinion of Fort Pierce plummeted. I read of the anguish the residents experience due to overpopulation, rapid growth and too mush traffic. I read of high crime. There were rampant drive by-shootings in the neighborhood near where Tarwathie anchored. It makes me want to weigh anchor and get out of here. Nevertheless, I must admit that it is still pretty and charming out here in the Indian River. From out here, there are few or no hints about what life is really like onshore.

That made me think of the other places we've cruised to. It seems to be generally true that the face presented to waterborne inhabitants is radically different than the face seen by land bound inhabitance for nearly all places. Shorelines can be classified as nature, residential, industrial, urban condos, or urban. Regardless of the realities of the place visited, the vast majority of shoreline shows nature. Residential waterfront property is often charming, and always interesting but largely inhospitable to boaters. Industrial shorelines are varied and interesting. Waterfront urban condos tend to be ugly and hostile but there aren't many miles of them. The worst ones we saw were Harlem and North Miami. We saw urban downtown shores only in the midst of major cities. Many are ugly like New York and Jersey City, and some are beautiful like Newark and Jacksonville.

To give a rough estimate, I say that 75% of the shorelines we see are attractive and 5% are repulsive.

In addition to the scenery, boaters are immune to the horrors and expense of car and truck traffic. Sometimes we see the cars backed up on the bridges and highways visible from the water. We also hear the daily traffic reports on the radio. I'm very glad not to see or hear about the traffic from a distance. Another fortunate fact is that very little of the crime on land seems to leak into the waterways. Where there are exceptions, such as North Palm Beach Florida, the cruising guides warn boaters to stay away from those places.

The underlying truth seems to be that America's waterfronts by and large present a much more pleasant view of life than can be seen from America's highways and streets. I can say the same thing about Sweden based on my memories of living and sailing there. One could say that boaters live in a fantasy world, oblivious to the ugly realities of real life, but that would be wrong. What the boaters see is just as real. The remarkable thing is that both realities can coexist in such close proximity.

Fiddly dum fiddly dee, the boater's life for me.

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