Florida's Best Beach

Peck Lake Florida, 27 07 N 080 09 W

Well we just returned from an afternoon at the nicest beach we ever saw in Florida. Here's the story.

When we got up this morning the weather was awful. The wind howled and it blew from the North. We almost decided to sit in Lake Worth one more day, but I was antsy. I thought that if we motored up the ICW that we would find some shelter from the North wind.

I was right, and the day turned out to be nice. In fact, the wind turned to Easterly and we were able to sail and motor.

This is the one portion of the Florida East Coast ICW that we haven't seen before. It was very nice. I never saw so many boats before. Jupiter Island, which forms the ICW east shore from Palm Beach up to Jupiter Inlet seems to be one long dock, as if it were a giant marina. The homes along the shore are also especially pretty with nice green lawns and beautiful palm trees. Of course the were all million dollar and multimillion dollar homes but they looked much nicer than we've seen in other high rent districts.

Just north of Hobe Sound is Peck Lake where we're anchored. Coming in we cleaned a few barnacles off the bottom of the keel, if you know what I mean.

What a neat place. We're anchored about 150 feet from shore. The shore is actually a barrier dune only 100 feet wide. On the other side of the dune is a lovely unspoiled beach. If I strain, I can hear the surf breaking from where we're anchored. Considering how inhospitable breaking surf is to sailboats, it's remarkable that we can anchor safely so close.

We took the dinghy to shore and walked over to the beach. The beach extended as far as the eye can see north and south, and we only saw a dozen or so other people on the whole stretch.

We found lots of the baggie creatures that I've been writing about washed up on the beach. I have some pictures and I'll post them next time we have WI FI.

We walked the beach and waded out to our waists. The water was delightfully warm. We didn't swim however because the surf was rough and there may have been strong rip currents.

The weather out to sea looked fine to me for sailing. Darn that weather report.

There is a condo compound on the other shore of the ICW and they have a pontoon boat that the run as a ferry to take condo residents to the beach. We saw the ferry cross three times in 30 minutes. That must be a very expensive perq for the residents.

The weather forecast is frustrating. North winds most days, with short 18 or 24 hours of east or south winds in between. We need a bigger window to go for Cape Canaveral so we'll have to wait a few more days. We'll take the leisurely tour instead. Peck Lake today, Jensen Beach Wednesday, Fort Pierce Thursday. Then wait a little. There may be a weather window open on Saturday to allow us to go back outside in the Gulf Stream Saturday.

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Click here for an aerial view of Tarwathie's anchorage and the nearby beach.

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