Palm Beach County, Florida

I had a wonderful start of my first time visiting Florida, staying with Jason who introduced me to kitesurfing and gave me all flexibility lending me his bicycle to explore Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Juno Beach. I stayed way longer with him than expected, did a lot of research on people and boats crossing the Atlantic and went to several marinas in the area. At the end of my stay I helped Garvin and Rebecca, friends of Jason, building a pergola in their garden.

Starting from Palm Beach County and south of it, it is a single large conurbation that is densely populated all the way to Miami. I stayed with Jason in Palm Beach Gardens but I also explored the neighbouring towns/cities Jupiter, Juno Beach Town, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and Lake Worth. As a passionate windsurfer I know about the fun playing with the elements out there in the ocean but I've never tried kitesurfing so far. Jason was well equipped with kites, boards as well as harnesses and he was kind enough to go to the beach with me and give me a first little trial lesson. I absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to get more of it, although I almost got a stiff neck from staring up to the kite and into the sky. I didn't get on the board and into the water yet, but Jason showed me how to steer the kite pretty well in three days.

One complete day I spent cycling around and exploring different areas. The ride from Palm Beach Gardens towards Juno Beach takes round about half an hour without stopping and the way passes through luxurious residential areas. Multi-million dollar houses are nothing special though in this part of Florida. Another day I cycled around in different areas of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. West Palm Beach was originally a cheap place where the workers lived that were constructing the buildings for the richer people who lived on the island Palm Beach. Palm Beach is still a city and island that is dominated by the wealthy elite, also Donald Trump's private resort Mar-a-Lago is located here.

Many parts of roads, sections of the cycle path as well as a barbecue area were under water when I got there. This was mainly due to the fact that it was high tide at the time I went there, but it becomes more and more a problem. Sea levels around Florida are up to 20 cm higher than in 1950. The porous limestone which builds the ground in a large part of Florida causes further problems as traditional methods of solving sea-level rise like building sea walls won't work. In many places groundwater levels are not high enough in relation to rising sea levels, which results in saltwater entering drinking water and affects sewage treatment facilities. Whereas many cities are building dams against the rising sea level, Florida has to invent new things. That's why people see climate change rather as a chance of innovation for Florida and possible economic growth rather than a threat.

One day I visited the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, a center for research, rehabilitation, education and conservation. The center aims to promote the conservation of marine ecosystems, especially the threatened and endangered sea turtles. It includes a sea turtle hospital, a research laboratory and exhibition areas with sea turtles as well as educational material about the life and protection of turtles.

The main reason why I decided to come to this region of Florida was looking for boats that might go for a transatlantic crossing within the next two months. So I went to various marinas and asked everywhere if I could leave some contact details and information with my request. However, I had to find out that this doesn't work anymore. All crew application and handling takes place online. I had registered at some online platforms like findacrew.net and crewbay.com in advance and I've already been looking for crossings in the last few weeks, but unsuccessful until now.

One day I met up with Couchsurfer Doug who showed me around Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. We went to Worth Avenue, an upscale shopping and restaurant district in Palm Beach which extends over four blocks from Lake Worth to the Atlantic Ocean. Next to the main street there are several courtyards with further luxury brand shops. Another stop we made at the Manatee Lagoon in Riviera Beach. Especially during winter tons of manatees come here from the coasts of Florida as they like to be in warmer waters. Here they have this possibility, since a power station leads its warm water into the lagoon. We didn't see any this day though, probably I would have to come back in a few months if I wanted to make sure to see some. Doug invited me for a lunch sandwich at McCray's Backyard BBQ which had opened a restaurant recently. The owner had been barbecuing food and serving sandwiches at a street food stand for already many years and was very popular amongst locals. The last place I went to with Doug was the Howard Park Arboretum where I saw a lot of giant Banyan trees. The Banyan is a fig plant that grows on another plant, when its seed sprouts. Furthermore there were many iguanas around this area which you can find more and more the farther south you travel in Florida.

I also had a lot of delicious food with Jason, we went to a fine sea food restaurant in Jupiter the first evening and were grilling the following three evenings. Jason and his roomie also have a dog which is the laziest of his kind I've ever seen in my life. As Jason was working on a project rebuilding a van he just bought I tried to help him with that just a little bit. But most of the work still has to be done before he can go on long journeys on the American continent.

Garvin and Rebecca, friends of Jason, had a lot of projects going on at their house and garden and one of those projects was building a pergola. Spontaneously I decided to help them and finally I ended up staying for almost three days working with Garvin on this construction site. It was definitely a very interesting project and it didn't all work out for the first time. Unfortunately it was not finished until I left their house but I hope that I contributed a little to create that shady spot in their backyard.