‘TASKED AND TESTED’

Causeway Cove Marina works hard at having fun

BY PATTIE DURHAM

Heading east over South Bridge, you could miss one exciting place if you are not careful. It might be called Fort Pierce’s “best kept secret,” but Causeway Cove Marina manager Harold H. “Buzz” Smyth has dedicated himself to welcoming the community as well as its visitors. The marina’s 18 acres of uplands and 27 acres of submerged land offer all sorts of water-related activities on the Indian River Lagoon, as well the space for parking and vendors for festivals and fundraisers.

If you are seeking to rent jet skis or paddle boards to explore the lagoon, head out for a day of fishing on various charter boats or take a floating tiki bar out on the water with friends, head for Causeway Cove Marina on South Beach. The beautiful waters of the lagoon and inlet are inviting to everyone and now you don’t need to own a boat or a paddle board to enjoy them. Plus, the marina has a lot more than water-related activities. At the monthly Dancin’ in the Street party for adult marina guests and locals, attendees bring a potluck dish and join in the festivities. The marina also has pull-through RV spots for stay-cationers and tourists alike, as well as Airbnb rentals: a few are floating on the water, but the two-bedroom dockmaster’s quarters that has a deck and expansive views of the waterfront is on dry land. 

Keeping all of this organized is a crew headed up by Smyth. His roots in Fort Pierce go back nearly 100 years, when his grandfather moved to the city to work at the Ford tractor dealership. He spent a lot of time visiting his grandparents, Charlie and Julia Wilson, and eventually moved here after a stint with the U.S. Navy Seabees. He has worked in various businesses and operated his own, since his honorable discharge in 1979. A man of many interests, Smyth has piloted his ultralight craft around the county as well taken an avid interest in the history of this area. He’s also spent most of his lifetime learning all sorts of exciting ways to appreciate the splendor of Fort Pierce. If anyone has a finger on the pulse of what people want to see and do around here, it is Smyth.

LOCAL RESOURCE

As manager of the marina for the past seven years, he has put together a top-notch boating and recreational area. When COVID-19 hit the Treasure Coast, people wanted something to do but were scared to gather indoors. So, Smyth offered the marina’s parking lot to the community, partnering with Treasure Coast Park and Watch to screen movies. A few food trucks were set up. Families or couples could pull in to watch the big screen while tuning their vehicle radios to 87.9 to listen. It was such a great hit, movies are still being shown. Visit TCParkAndWatch.com or the company’s Facebook page to check for the next showing. 

“We did [open air] graduations; we did concerts; we even did church during COVID,” Smyth recalls. “For major events, we can accommodate up to 3,000 people and 140 vendors. We can park 1,600 cars onsite and have 90,000 watts of power available.” 

Smyth has adopted the Seabees motto: “Dedicated to the Can-do Spirit.” It has been picked up by his staff. “Going from a wedding to a concert to moving a boat, we are always being tasked and tested,” he said. “We have to be friendly and versatile.” The staff assists in staging most of the activities, such as karaoke on the first Thursday of every month at the marina’s Wet Whistle kiosk bar. 

The marina is home to an array of small businesses. The Sandwich Factory food trailer sits on the property. Island Bikes is based at the entrance and sells or rents electric power bikes, which are a great way to explore South Beach. Smyth is a Realtor with Branca Realty, which has an office at the docks.

Salty’s Water Sports & Boat Rental is one of the major attractions at the marina. A family-owned business, the company has pontoon boats for rent, as well as paddle boards and jet skis. Salty’s also offers dolphin tours on the lagoon. 

GIVING BACK

Several benefit fishing tournaments and festivals have been scheduled on the property, including the Wounded Waters Fishing Tournament slated for July. The group aims to build awareness and raise funds for the needs of wounded veterans. 

To promote an interest in Florida history, the marina offers camping to the Cracker Trail riders who bring their horses and wagons to Fort Pierce from the Tampa area each year. Smyth said the horses can take a dip in the water while riders enjoy the amenities of the marina after a week-long ride across the state. 

The Florida Cracker Trail Association, which organizes the annual Florida Cracker Trail Cross-State Ride each February — this year the ride is scheduled for Feb. 17-24 — uses it as “educating through demonstration.” Cracker cowboys, who gathered up their scrub cattle in the 1800s, left from Fort Pierce with provisions provided on credit from Peter Cobb at P.P. Cobb Store. They would drive the cattle over the Cracker Trail to Tampa and other ports on the west coast to ship them to Cuba. The money from the Cuban buyers would pay off their debts to Cobb and leave them a profit. Today’s riders will be dressed festively and cracking their whips as they ride into Fort Pierce in parade formation, passing the P.P. Cobb Building on Indian River Drive.

HISTORIC 

“Causeway Cove Marina is the site of lots of history,” Smyth said, “from the dredging of the inlet with [Crayola businessman] Edwin Binney to the occupation by the U.S. Navy as a training post during World War II to the mobile home park destroyed by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.”

Causeway Mobile Home Park occupied the acreage after World War II ended and the U.S. Navy moved its barracks and other property out. Terry Howard, a retired St. Lucie County school teacher and an author, remembers coming to Fort Pierce in the 1960s to visit his grandfather who had a mobile home in the park under some Australian pine trees. They spent hours fishing with his grandfather’s small boat. It was a quiet place where retirees came to live on their little piece of paradise. There were multiple shuffleboard courts that hosted tournaments, making it a top-ranked national shuffleboard location. All of those dreams of a wonderful retirement along the waterfront came to an end when the retirees’ mobile homes were condemned by the city, after the hurricanes that gave the Treasure Coast a one-two punch in 2004, forcing the residents to find housing elsewhere. The remains of the park were demolished.

Prior to that, in the 1940s, the U.S. Navy operated a naval base on Fort Pierce’s South Beach to train frogmen. Along with the hundreds of structures built to house and train the men, water and sewer lines, along with a small treatment plant, were installed on the island. The property was left in the hands of the city after World War II.

According to Terrance Mann, public relations specialist for FPUA, in the late 1950s the City of Fort Pierce utilities department [before the creation of Fort Pierce Utilities Authority] built the wastewater treatment plant in its current form.

Over the decades, environmentalists began to worry that the plant might leak effluent during a storm or hurricane and pollute the Indian River Lagoon. So, in the next century, FPUA leaders sought a way to move the treatment plant to a new location, away from the waterfront. A year ago the utilities authority broke ground for a new and larger capacity wastewater treatment plant in an industrial area west of the city, expected to be completed in late 2025. Once the new plant is operational, FPUA plans to tear down the current plant on the island.