The sun was heating things up by the time we got up at 8:00. At 11:00 when we left for the beach, the thermometer was reading 90 degrees. We packed a cooler and all our beach gear and drove out to Hutchinson Island–a barrier island east of Stuart. There were 4 beaches to choose from and since Bob wanted to be as close to the Stuart Inlet as possible, we chose the one at the end of the road—Bathtub Reef Beach.
It got its name from the Sabellariid Worm Reef that lies 200 ft. offshore creating a “bathtub” of calm, warm water close to shore. The Sabellarariid worms are about 1 inch long. These worms group in clusters of 50,000 per square meter and create their homes from pieces of sand.
During high tide, the worms move to the top of their tubes to feed. When the tide is low, the worms stay down inside their homes. It is quite an unusual phenomenon.
The beach is rimmed by tall man-made sand dunes. We climbed one and chose it as our spot for its vantage point to view the boats going in and out of the inlet. Bob was king of the mound!
We sat there until the lifeguard came by to tell us to move off of the dune. It wasn’t a problem as the wind was blowing very strong, creating havok with the beach umbrellas and our hats. Still, there were lots of boats, big and small, motoring about in the ocean. Bob has his binoculars glued to his eyes so he wouldn’t miss a thing. I took a walk down the beach in search of shells. I found some unusual ones that I haven’t ever seen on any beaches on the west coast of FL. They will be added to my collection. The water was warm as I strolled down the beach to the rock outcroppings that looked like volcanic rock.
Lots of people were swimming and enjoying the day.
We got back to our campsite around 2:00 and Auggie and I took a walk on a shaded path that paralleled the river. He enjoyed every minute and ran the entire way. Where does he get all his energy?
Later that afternoon, we relaxed with a cocktail sitting along the river bank. Around suppertime, the skies darkened and raindrops began to fall. Back at the trailer, the severe weather notice on the TV warned us of dangerous storms moving into the area with lightning, hail, and strong winds. We quickly put our outside things away and retracted the awning on the trailer as we got pelted with rain. Just in time!
It rained hard and the winds blew for an hour during dinner. Then it died down and rained lightly as darkness fell. It rained off and on all night. There was no long evening walk for Auggie tonight, but he didn’t mind. He was snuggled under the blanket during the storm and happy to be there. Bob and I were both wiped out from our day at the beach and all that fresh air.
