North vs. South

I'm realizing more and more that Fort Pierce is awesome for watersports. Here's a picture of some kiters Tuesday at Jetty Park on the S side of the inlet near my apartment.



Today the wind direction was different (SE instead of E) so I took the opportunity to grab an a.m. session at the State Park on the N side of the inlet. The rangers there have a flag system to warn people about aquatic dangers. This morning two reds and a purple were flying.



The reds mean you're not supposed to go swimming, and the purple means watch out for "dangerous marine life"; i.e. the Portugese Man-O-War jellies that wash inshore when there are strong E winds.



Well, I didn't see any PMOW's, but I did see some surfers and a kiteboarder out there, so I took the flags to be just a "guidelines". There was plenty of breeze, so I used my 5.2 sail and 87 liter board. Getting out wasn't too hard since the gently sloping beach broke the waves gradually, and the jetty smoothed out the chop.



It was the funnest Florida windsurfing session yet. I even saw some smallish sea turtles and a mediumish shark rise up out of the face of a wave. I think the turtles were green sea turtles. Seeing them in the water this morning made reading about them during my research at work today really cool.