We left Fort Pierce intending to go to an anchorage just north of Melbourne, FL, in Eau Gallie. We knew bad weather was coming over the next few days, so we intended to stop here for one night and head elsewhere for a safer port for the impending storm.

When we got to the anchorage, it was a little crowded and didn’t appear to offer much protection from the weather. We made a last-minute decision to go instead to the Eau Gallie Yacht Basin, where we snagged their last slip. The rain began shortly after we tied up.

We had been on the boat for a long time the last few days, so we weren’t going to let a little rain keep us from enjoying the sights. I’m so glad we did! What a neat little town!

(In Milwaukee, there’s a furniture restoration store called Mullaly. Their commercials have the tag line “By golly, it’s Mullaly.” This would not stay out of my head the entire time we were in Eau Gallie. Seriously. I must have thought, “By golly, it’s Eau Gallie” a thousand times in the 24 hours we were there.)

The marina is a short walk from the small downtown area (it’s a longer walk in the rain). There were several historical marker signs between the marina and the town, and we stopped to read them. Eventually, we came to the library, which was having a book sale. We stopped by and bought a couple. The skies opened while we were inside, and the rain poured down hard. The library is right on the water and has large windows and a seating area facing the ICW and the anchorage we chose at the last minute not to drop anchor in. The boats there were bobbing quite a bit in the weather, and we were glad to be in a marina.

When the rain abated, we left and walked to the long city dock next to the library. By then it was finally a reasonable time to eat dinner, so we walked to Squid Lips (I did not choose the name of this place). The food was okay, but the building was really cool.

I had read that THE place to go in Eau Gallie is Joan’s Perfect Pies. We knew they closed at 5, and we made it just in time. Holy moly. We ended up buying a full-size pie, an individual pie, and six cinnamon rolls. These purchases lasted an embarrassingly short time.

If we had been able to stay longer, I’d have wanted to walk across the bridge to the park on the other side. Next time…