Round Island Park: A Pretty Spot With A Lot Of History

I recently read an online article about Round Island Park, located on North Hutchinson Island about 8 miles south of downtown Vero Beach, Florida, and decided to check it out in person. This park has two parts, Round Island Riverside Park, which borders the Indian River and is where the actual island is located, as seen in the photograph on the left, and Round Island Oceanside Park, which is directly across the street along the Atlantic. What made me want to visit was that the article mentioned the river side of the park was teeming with manatees and dolphins. I think they mentioned unicorns, too, but I could be mistaken about that. In any case, the area is very pretty, with a number of people out on kayaks or on the boardwalk fishing, but the only wildlife I saw was a single crab attached to one of the boardwalks pilings. No surprise there.

I headed over to the ocean side next, and it is indeed a very nice and uncrowded beach, as seen in the photograph on the right. But what really got my attention was a sign about its history during World War II. This beach was the site of amphibious training connected to the former Fort Pierce Amphibious Training Base. Just to the south, closer to Fort Pierce, is the National Navy SEAL Museum, located on the former training grounds of the original Navy combat divers, the Frogmen. What was especially poignant was the plaque that said a U.S. tanker, the Java Arrow, was torpedoed 8 miles off the coast from this park by a German submarine, the U-333 back on May 5th, 1942. Two sailors were killed and the rest were rescued by 3 Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers in a 30-foot fishing boat. The survivors were taken to the Fort Pierce Coast Guard Station. That same night the U-333 sunk 2 more ships, the Amazone and the Halsey, off the coast of Fort Pierce. I have never given much thought before to how close that war came to the shores of our country. Very scary times indeed. Definitely makes you stop and think.

A Murky Mystery In The Closing Of The Jensen Beach Mulligan's

Mulligan's Beach House Bar and Grill in Jensen Beach closed on April 5th after 23 years in business. The restaurant, at the corner of Jensen Beach Boulevard and Indian River Drive, directly across from the Indian River, always seemed to be the center of the action in downtown Jensen Beach, and it is sad to see it go. The owner, George Hart, said that business was great, but the high cost of rent drove him out. Hart's landlord has pointed out that Hart originally owned that building in Jensen Beach where Mulligan's was located, and when he sold it, he wrote the 10-year lease for $40,000 per month himself. When asked about this, Hart said he didn't want to talk about it anymore. There were originally eight Mulligan's throughout the area, but only two now remain open, in Sebastian and Vero Beach. The Vero Beach location is where I took the above photograph. That particular Mulligan's is right on the ocean, with an outdoor patio with wonderful views of the sea. I sure hope they don't close that one down. In any case, there has been speculation that Hart is downsizing in preparation for retirement, which might explain closing the Jensen Beach location due to the high rent that he himself wrote into the lease. And by the way, the Mulligan's in Jensen Beach was a key organizer of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in that city. Hopefully, another restaurant will take the space over and carry on that tradition. Otherwise, next St. Patrick's Day, instead of a parade and street party, we might be seeing Irishmen sitting despondently along the curbs crying into their beer. Talk about depressing.

Beach Erosion - A South Florida Bugaboo

There has been a lot of erosion along the beaches here in South Florida this past winter and spring. And this when the area is still experiencing drought conditions. Beach restoration began this month from the St. Lucie County line to Stuart Beach, and up in Fort Pierce, the area around Jetty Park is in the middle of a $430,000 sand operation. Just last week, two of the three public beach entrances in Palm Beach were closed due to the disappearance of the sand, with a drop-off where the stairway once led to the beach. The reasons for this have been harsh winters, strong winds, and persistent wave action. I myself can attest to the strong winds and persistent wave action. Virtually every time I have gone to the beach this spring, the wind and waves have been relentless, and red and yellow warning flags have been the norm. I took the photograph above at the Juno Beach pier just a few weeks ago and there were only a few brave souls along the shore. A major complication to the restoration project between Jensen and Stuart Beaches is that it is turtle nesting season, and there is danger that the sea turtle eggs will be crushed by construction equipment or buried too deep for the hatchlings to survive. Just yesterday there was an article on the website of WPEC 12News in West Palm Beach that volunteers have relocated more than 4,100 sea turtle eggs from 45 nests along the Treasure Coast over the past few weeks. These volunteers patrol the beach every night looking for new nests and have 24 hours to relocate the eggs from the construction area before they can no longer be safely moved. Each egg has to be dug up and moved by hand to a safe location. Remember, we are talking about 4,100 sea turtle eggs! Talk about dedication. Who says there are not many good people out there these days?

A Blue Anchor Update

The Blue Anchor British Pub in Delray Beach, Florida has had a rough time of it lately. I did a post about the place back in December, after it had been closed down due to "extensive rodent infestation and serious sanitation failures." And so, when I went down to Delray Beach a few weeks ago for "The Delray Affair" (an arts and crafts festival), I checked the place out and was surprised to find it was open. When I got home, I looked The Blue Anchor up on the internet and found an article in the Palm Beach Post detailing a pretty turbulent past few months. Health code violations triggered six temporary closures in December 2025 and another five in February. A March 2nd state inspection resulted in still another temporary closure, but it was cleared to reopen the same day. Regular blog readers will recall that The Blue Anchor was originally built in London in the 1840s. Legend has it that a woman named Bertha Starkey, who lived above the pub, was caught with her lover by her husband, who murdered them both. When the pub was torn down to make way for an office building, its Tudor-style facade and wood interior were removed and shipped to New York. They stayed there until 1996 when the pieces were shipped to Delray, and the Blue Anchor was resurrected on Atlantic Avenue right next to the Intercoastal Waterway. And yes - Bertha Starkey also made the trip across the Atlantic and still haunts the place.

Sadly, the health department closures are not the pub's only problem. Landlord Delray Beach Associates has filed a lawsuit alleging unpaid rent of almost $70,000. Restaurant broker Tom Prakas negotiated the deal to bring The Blue Anchor to Delray Beach, and in a recent interview said that landlord Burt Handelsman paid to have the pub pieces brought to the site, which is part of the Handelsman family's real estate holdings in Delray Beach. His adult children still own the property through Delray Beach Associates. In any case, the pub, a favorite of local soccer fans, especially those following the English Premier League, was indeed still open for business when I stuck my head through the front door and snapped the photograph on the right. Nobody knows what The Blue Anchor's fate will be, but 70K in back rent seems like a pretty steep tab to pay off. Restaurant broker Prakas hopes that if the landlord does take it back, The Blue Anchor will remain the way it is. All of the other restaurants on Atlantic Avenue are expensive modern hotspots, without the charm of an old English pub. The Blue Anchor, after all, is a local landmark. And besides, where would all those soccer fans go otherwise?

Sunday Afternoon Baseball At Roger Dean Stadium

My sister Susan and I went to Roger Dean Stadium in the Abacoa neighborhood of Jupiter, Florida yesterday afternoon to watch the Jupiter Hammerheads play the Palm Beach Cardinals in a Florida State League contest. As I have mentioned before, this is a really nice ballpark in a really nice community, one which has lots of things happening all of the time. The last baseball game we attended at this stadium was on "Opening Night," when the Palm Beach Cardinals played the St. Lucie Mets. In that game, Palm Beach got only two hits and lost to St. Lucie 1-0. And it wasn't nearly as exciting as that score indicates, either. Since then, both teams have improved tremendously. The Palm Beach Cardinals are currently leading the Florida State League East Division with an 11-4 record, and the St. Lucie Mets have an 8-7 record and are in second place. And happily, yesterday afternoon's game was quite good.

Our seats were quite good, too. We sat in the first row right behind home plate and had a great view of the action, as seen in the photograph on the right. The cost for these seats: $12 each including internet fees. To sit in the same location and day at Denver's Coors Field: $400 plus internet fees. I was going to mention that the Colorado Rockies are, of course, a Major League Baseball team, and Palm Beach and Jupiter just Single A teams and much less skilled. But then again, do the Rockies really play that much better baseball than a minor league team these days, having lost 100 games three years in a row? But I digress. The Palm Beach Cardinals beat the Jupiter Hammerheads 7-6 in what turned out to be quite an exciting contest. Definitely worth the $12. I wonder if Colorado Rockies fans can say the same about plunking down $400 for a ticket.

Biking Along The St. Lucie In Stuart, Florida

I finally was able to get out on my bike yesterday afternoon and pedal along the St. Lucie River here in Stuart, Florida. Stuart is surrounded on three sides by the St. Lucie, and biking along it is sheer pleasure. About a mile from my sister Susan and my condo, you can turn into one of Stuart's older neighborhoods and bike along the river, with mostly newer McMansions along the river and older homes, mostly from the 1920s, throughout the rest of the neighborhood. Stuart, I'll have you know, was named Best Small Coastal Town in America by USA Today in 2024. That was the year Susan and I took back our Stuart condo after renting it out for 15 years. The following year, Stuart dropped to 7th place in that top 10 list. I had no idea our return would drop the quality of life here so drastically, but this year, happily, Stuart rebounded back to number 2 on the list. We definitely have been trying to keep a lower profile. And it helped. Only Pismo Beach, California beat Stuart out for number 1. And yes, that is me posing at a park in a very upscale riverside neighborhood just to the east of downtown Stuart.

Once you bike through that older neighborhood along the St. Lucie that I mentioned, you reach Shepard Park, where I took the photograph on the right. Shepard Park is where Stuart's Riverwalk begins. It curves out into the St. Lucie, going from one side of the park to the other, leading to a still older neighborhood, with homes from the late 19th and early 20th Century. Once you hit the Sunset Bay Marina, the Riverwalk goes past piers where almost 70 boats are docked, and then past the Sailor's Return Restaurant, the location of my favorite outdoor patio, which has a great view of both the river and those yachts. Once past the Sailors' Return, you cross Dixie Highway (Dixie is not politically incorrect here in Florida) and then bike uninterrupted along the Riverwalk past Hudson's on the River, next to which is Harlow's Hideout, an outdoor Tiki Bar where this past November a 4-foot-long juvenile alligator entered the bar around happy hour and hung out under a chair. Sadly, it was removed by the police even though it was not causing any trouble at all. Cruel. Next, you pass Flagler Park and then reach downtown Stuart.

The boardwalk ends at Colorado Avenue Park, just to the east of downtown, and seen in the photograph on the left. But you can still bike through the neighborhoods along the river all the way to the bridge leading from Stuart to Sewall's Point, an upscale community bordered on the west by the St. Lucie River and on the east by the Indian River. From there another bridge leads to Hutchinson Island and Stuart Beach, where you can get breakfast, lunch, and even a beer at the Seaside Cafe and relax while you gaze at the ocean. Who needs Pismo Beach, anyway, right?

Fort Pierce, Florida - Superyacht Service Center To The World?

Fort Pierce, Florida was first settled in the 1860s and has a cute downtown with historic buildings from the late 19th and early 20th Century. It also has the Port of Fort Pierce, which handles an average of 350,000 tons of commerce annually, mainly through the export of citrus and the import of cement and aragonite. The port is a bit of a scruffy area, truth be told, which makes it all the more unusual that it is now the home of Derecktor Ft. Pierce, the first shipyard specifically designed for superyachts, and equipped with the world's largest mobile boat hoist, allowing for the lifting of large yachts needing service or refit. Fort Pierce, to be honest, is not my idea of a superyacht town. I was thinking about this as I was crossing the bridge over the Indian River from Hutchinson Island yesterday afternoon and caught a glimpse of the yacht seen in the photograph above. This superyacht is no doubt worth many millions of dollars and must cost a fortune to operate. I can just imagine it cruising in off the Atlantic and pulling into the Port of Fort Pierce for servicing, perhaps an oil change and a new filter. Do the owner and his guests just hop off the boat, hand the keys to the dockmaster, and then head to the nearest watering hole for a libation while waiting for the work to be done? The two nearest bars happen to be the Tipsy Tiki and the Funky Cuda Bar and Grill, which I suspect are just as colorful as the names imply. There is always the Bottoms Up Public House or the Pickled Restaurant and Bourbon Bar, if you want to get a bit more upscale, but they are both downtown and probably too far a walk for the one percent crowd. Hopefully the service people won't find anything else that needs to be done, like they always do with my Hyundai Accent, or the yachters might have to stay over at the Fort Pierce Motel 6. But no problem - crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and the South of France can wait. This will be a true adventure.