2026 August in Fort Pierce

     As predicted, August has been hot and humid, with lots of pop-up storms that split around us. They are usually accompanied by afternoon breezes that a couple of times became wind just before the storms. We continue to have a “force field” around our boat. I swear that there are times where a storm approaches, only to splits around us, miss by passing within a quarter of a mile (sometimes I believe the rain hits somewhere within our marina!), or simply dissipates before reaching us. Pete has watched a wall of water approach from the south as he walked Tillie. They barely made it under Cobb’s covered porch before it arrived. He only had to wait 10 minutes for it to pass. While waiting, Tillie was fascinated by the runoff tracking through the bricks of the patio. She quickly learned she could still watch the water’s movement while her bottom stayed dry if she sat on Pete’s feet! 

Storms clouds that herald the ominious . . .

 

Storms that break at sunset or challenge the moon . . .

 

Storms that try to block the sunrise . . .

 

These are from sunrise on 8/28. I wished I had gotten up about 15 minutes earlier, 

knowing that the backlit clouds at sunrise would have been spectacular.  

Tracey Kurilla, a local photographer, verified my belief with photos below, 

taken at the jetty and posted on Facebook.

 

 
     The heavy rain showers finally found our boat in the last week or so. Pete had power washed the boat early in the month. It is looking cleaner once again after the storms. I love watching the clouds build into storms. I can see the slow building of the clouds, with white and fluffy changing to dark and menacing. The lightning within clouds after dark is pretty amazing. We have seen storms that were pounding Orlando and Titusville nearly 90 miles away, illuminate with flashes from lightning. Florida’s flat lands and the cloud heights made it easy to be seen over distances.

     On Sunday, 08/23, one of the storms spawned a tornado/waterspout that touched down in Stuart near the Indian River.  There were no injuries, but a lot of excitement on the 6 pm local news as it was forming. There was some damage, but thankfully, nothing severe.  

     With the continued temps in the 90’s, dinners tend to be readied quickly. I either cook a dinner for 3 meals at a time in the cockpit, use the electric grill, opt for sandwiches, or reheat leftovers. This month, Tuscan Chicken, Pulled Pork and Lasagna were done in the crockpot. That is 9 meals of deliciousness! The crockpot and electric grill can be used in the cockpit, with reheating via microwave. That limits the onboard heat and taxing the AC, which by the way, it is running perfectly since it was blown out last month. PHEW!!!

 

    Due to an accident on 95, we had to take the Florida turnpike to make my appointment in Miami.  Shortly after getting on it, we saw dark smoke rising further south. Within a few miles, we hit traffic that was oogling a car fire in the north bound lane.  Thankfully, the family inside got our safely and were assisted by a road crew that stopped. I think it is safe to say that the car was a total loss.  

     With only a few weeks until our daughter, Heather and I leave for a Viking River Cruise of the Rhine, we have been closely watching the water levels on the Rhine and Danube Rivers this month. Facebook has had a lot of photos of the river bottoms that haven’t been seen in years as well as WWII ships that were sunk and “Starvation Rock,” which was a bad omen. When it appeared in the past, lands were too dry to produce crops and support livestock. Cruises are still running, but the schedules have been modified. Some areas are so low that the shallow-drafted river boats cannot pass. Passengers are being bussed to another boat stationed further up/down the river, depending on the cruise. Tourism and shipping are vital to the river comminities.

 
Some of the postings we have seen on Facebook

     Cruise lines are offering substantial credits and onboard perks. Passengers are saying that the boats’ crews have really gone out of their way to make the cruise as enjoyable as possible. We are watching the weather daily, monitoring the website that reports on the water levels, The rainy season is slowly arriving, water levels are rising and the extreme heat that has plagued Europe has finally dissipated. With less than 3 weeks, our excitement is building.

     We continue to met up with local friends to shared stories and great meals. We tried the new-to-us, Fishshack in Vero. They have the best and skinniest onion rings ever! Marilyn, Jon, Miles and we went through 2 servings before we had our lunch. Speaking of outrageous appetizers, The 2nd Street Bistro still has the best ever, nachos with chicken!

     Things in the marina continue to be relatively quiet. There are lots of vacant slips and even fewer people still onboard their boats.
     I did finally asked about the AC in the ladies’ bathroom. For months, it has been hot and humid even in the evening after the sun goes down. I avoided showering in the bathhouse as once out of the shower, I really couldn’t get dry. One evening, the temperature inside it was 84! The AC service people we called and, low and behold, it is once again cool and drier, and it's better for showering than the boat. YIPPIE!!!

     On a slightly negative note, Pete received an email from TowBoat US. Our membership of 27 years has been cancelled due to “abuse of membership.” Needless to say, we immediately enrolled in SeaTow. I am so angry, I wrote a letter to the VP of Member Services. After doing some research, I found that during those 27 years, we used Towboat 14 times, unfortunately 12 of them in the past 5 years due to our major issues. During the 14 round trip cruises from Annapolis to Florida in the past 16 years, we traveled 36,000+ miles. Those tows average out to one tow every other year and approximately every 3000 miles. It is probably an exercise in futility, but I needed to vent my spleen.

     On Saturday, 08/15, there was an evening launch of the SpaceX’s Globalstar’s initial batch of HIBILEO-4 replacement satellites. There was a unique arial display, which I tried to photograph, but it was too far away and extremely blurry. The NSF website did a much better job in capturing the “exhaust nebular” and boy, it was impressive! It is something we have never seen before. 

  

     This was their final flight from Cape Canaveral using the Falcon Rocket. SpaceX will be using their facilities in Louisiana for future launches to place/replace the Starlink’s satellites in orbit. That means that the frequency of launches from Cape Canaveral will decrease substantially. However, Sunday, 8/30, the Roman Space Telescope was launched shortly after 7 am. It was too overcast to watch from the marina, but Pete watched on the NextSpacecraftFlight app.

"They're back!"

      Friday, 8/28/26 ~ It has begun.  Seed pods have begun their annual migration on Tillie's hair.  Yup. . .  Those troublesome little green spots are appearing on her legs, paws and face. Today's yield took Pete a good 25 minutes and it was impressive.

    Chrissy and I met up for a couple of walks out at the jetty. There were also a couple of mornings, where it was possible to catch a walk before “The H’s” (Hot, Humid, and Horrible!) climbed and the sun came out from behind the clouds. Of course, there were also a number of photo ops.

 

These mushrooms were growing around a tree stump. Thought they were pretty amazing!

               

Sunrise in the marina and Sunshine Mimosas backlit

Raindrops on Roses . . .

 

View from the marina walkway by the office

 

Chrissy's and my sunset walk out at the jetty was definately memorable!

    Staff here confirm that September is pretty much like August. Time will tell. After a hot summer all over, I hope September brings cooler temps and fresh breezes to all of us!

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~ K & P