Vero Beach- our last voyage for a while

Well, we are traveling our last day on Escape for a while. Once we get to Vero Beach, we will be stationary until we head to the Bahamas. Or that’s how we usually do it.

We had discussed our plans with Tide Hiker and decided we’d be ready to “drop the hook” at 6:00am. Well, we were both ready, but decided we needed to wait a while later for enough light. We didn’t need full light since the anchorage was going to be easy to leave from this year.

We had checked around and didn’t see any crab pots like we usually do. Usually there are more boats here, both permanent and transient. The last two hurricanes that came thru here damaged, sunk, or grounded a lot of boats, which was good and bad. Good that it got rid of some derelict boats, but bad because it made others. We watched as they took a huge crane out on a barge and got at least ten boats up while we were there and there were more to get.  They took them to another huge barge and then moved them onshore to dispose of. There were at least two masts sticking up from sunken sailboats near Escape. Who knows what else was under the water.  The dingy docks and walkway were also destroyed, so we had to tie up to a gazebo and climb over and under 3 fences to have a place to land. Not the usual SOP, but we made it.

Now back to our departure.  We left the anchorage at 6:15 and headed out, with Tide Hiker behind us. We didn’t travel very far until we were surrounded by fog. We couldn’t see the banks on either side, Tide Hiker behind us, or what we were heading toward.  We did have AIS to let us know where other boats with AIS were and our radar that showed us the land, boats, and even some markers. Thank goodness, it didn’t last long.

Yes, Tide Hiker is behind us.

 

We’ve been seeing dolphins ever since left we our marina, but they’d come toward the boat and then leave. But not today. They came up to us and swam alongside our sundeck. We actually heard them splashing and jumping in the water. Of course, I grabbed my camera and ran down, expecting them to be gone but they were still there. I sent pictures to show that we really did see them. They came back several more time and I got a video. Hope to post it soon.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We did slow down a little to meet a tugboat and it's cargo. We were heading toward a bridge and wanted to make sure we had plenty of room to meet him. This was a very sad boat. Hope someone makes it happy and usable again. It’s bad when the tugboat looks better than it's cargo.

We got to Vero or as some call it Velcro, because lots of boaters say they get stuck here. It is a great cruiser location. Free bus service to everywhere, lots of other boaters to talk too, and a beautiful beach.

We got here at about 1:00pm, after traveling almost 7 hours at 6.4kts and moving about 47nm. Tide Hiker is close by. We both put our dinghy down and jumped on the bus. They needed to get some provisions and we tagged along to help them navigate the bus system for the first time. Back to Escape for dinner, TV and reading.

We’ll spend time with SeaSalt, since they live here and FFF will be back in early December.  I’m sure we know people that are here now and others will be coming and going thru the winter.  We’ll be busy celebrating birthdays, meeting old friends and greeting new ones. It’s a very social place.

We plan to be here until after Christmas and then we’ll look for a weather window for Green Turtle Cay.