Beach Warning Flags

Fort Lauderdale beach has some very nice looking lifeguard stands. They have a sort of futuristic look. The office chair pulled out on the front deck is a weird addition to the decor. It is the first time that we have seen that. Guess they wanted to try and relate to the tourists and see what it feels like to sit in an office, but can't imagine that many tourists have the ocean as their desk. Today was a beautiful day with a high of 82 degrees and a wonderful ocean breeze.

The flags flying are indicators of the swimming conditions. The yellow flag means that there are moderate surf conditions. Not too rough but not smooth either. But the purple flag is ominous and means that there are sea pests present in the water, it can mean jellyfish, sea lice or the dreaded man-of-war. So we did not test the waters. There are several colored flags that they can fly to inform us of the conditions. Here is a link to our Ocean Rescue website that gives current updates on the conditions. There is a neat color image for the different flags. One can log on before heading to the beach and find out if it is a good swimming day at the beach, or just a good day to be on the beach. http://ci.ftlaud.fl.us/oceanrescue/index.asp

In the first photo you can see how close the water is to the road. We have had a lot of beach erosion so the beaches have really lost a lot of depth.