Vero Beach 2017

As always, we have had a great time at Vero Beach. I've mentioned before that it's also known as "Velcro Beach" since people come here for a few days and end up getting stuck here. It's a great place for us boaters with free public transportation that not only gets you wherever you want to go and also give you an "up close and personal" look at the people around you. We have met some very nice people and some real strange people. But that's what you see everywhere.

Beautiful sunsets

There are also great places for us to get our power walks in. We can see a mile long bridge from our boat and we've walked it several times. We walk about 2.7 miles round trip. We have a mile long trail at the riverside park that we walk also. We've left the marina, walked to the park, turned and walked to the beach, walked in the sand to the end of the beach and walked back to the boat for about an 4.6 mile walk.

We've visited the farmer's market on Saturday and seen beautiful fruits, veggies, flowers, trinkets, and edible goodies. We've window shopped at some very expensive places along the way.

We've met some old friends and made some new ones. A large group of us boaters went out to eat at a new local restaurant and had a great time. We always enjoy getting together and hearing about others peoples adventures.

Roux, my grand-dog, getting in the Thanksgiving spirit!

The "CLODS" aka "cruisers living on dirt" had a big Thanksgiving meal again this year. They supply the ham and turkey and us cruisers supply sides and dessert. We had a great turnout this year and a ton of food. I appointed myself as the "designated dessert cutter" and I cut pecan, apple, pumpkin, key lime, sweet potato and other pies. I cut up several cakes and other desserts. I know there were at least 12 pecan pies and that many pumpkin pies. We were overflowing with desserts! On the other end of the building were the savory tables and they were overflowing too. Hams, turkeys, all kinds of cranberry dishes, green beans, mac n cheese, sweet potatoes, salads, pastas, and every traditional Thanksgiving dish there is. Then we had the non-traditional things like baked spaghetti squash, lasagna, and others. We had lots of food, people, boat adventures to tell, and lots of fun. There was some great music after the meal, but we were so stuffed that we walked back to get rid of all those carbs. Thanks Vic for all the great Thanksgiving Day pictures. He's a great photographer!

An area of intense activity. As you can see, Shay's right in the thick of things. Doing what he does best, talking. This time Bill looks like he's getting into the conversation. Gigi getting our table ready.

Vic titled this as, "Skinny, this is not how you got that way." He calls me "Skinny" now. And NO eating pie was not how I did it! But I'm only cutting the pie now, and not licking the knife!

Gigi made sure there wasn't any of her delicious cranberry dessert left to spill on the trip home!

We were in the marina office one day and a couple were talking to the dockmaster about getting a mooring ball. They were full so they were double rafting and he was looking for a boat to tie them up with. We could see their boat was a trawler and heard them say they were staying about a month. We knew we could get a "buddy boat" at anytime and were looking for a long term boat rather than a boat that would stay a day or two and then leave a put us up for another new arrival. Shay volunteered to let them tie up with us and we'd even help them get tied up. They agreed and we now have neighbors.

They seem like a nice couple, even if they are from Canada. Ha Ha. They also have a camper and plan to spend time traveling in it. So they told us they'll be the perfect buddy boat. We won't even know they're around since they will be gone a lot of time. We've enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them. I found out she was a chef and they had their own "farm to table restaurant" in Canada. I told her then I wasn't inviting her to eat with us! But we did have them and Vic and Gigi over while George and Pam were here.

Bill and Lore on Sea Wolf had us over to their boat for a fantastic lasagna meal. Pat and Addison from Three Penny Opera had us and Richard and Connie from SeaSalt over for baked chicken and veggies at their land home. Richard and Connie had us, Vic and Gigi from Salty Turtle, George and Pam our friends from back home, Pat and Addison and Paul and Helle from R'Liberty over for spaghetti, salad and I brought key lime pie. Vic and Gigi had us over for his delicious chicken stew and corn bread. We had Vic and Gigi, George and Pam, John and Carolyn from Ocean Haven over for smoked sausage on the grill, grilled sweet potatoes, Carolyn's beet and quinoa salad and pecan pie. John and Carolyn had us and George and Pam over for a delicious soup of kale, carrots, butternut squash and then chicken and shrimp curry over rice. Yum to everyone! A few nights later, we had panko-pecan crusted chicken breast, grilled asparagus and zucchini, brown rice and quinoa, and salad. Great meal and thanks again. Hey, guys! All this eating can't be good for my calorie intake! I'll have to walk 10 miles a day. Well, its worth it!

Lore and Bill from Sea Wolf

George and Pam came down from Mt. Airy to stay with us a while. We had a great time getting caught up on gossip and hearing what's going on back home. They are such easy guests. Shay and George can talk for hours. Pam and I are happy talking, reading, or just enjoying our beautiful scenery. We took several long walks with them. had several really good meals with them and just enjoyed having them around. As with all good things, they must come to an end and of course they had to go back home. It is getting close to Christmas. Hurry back anytime. Remember, We're going to the Bahamas after Christmas. Come on back with us and see the beauty there! No, seriously!!

As in the past, we are making plans to head back to NC for Christmas. We'll spend two weeks there and then back to Vero for last minute running around getting our last-last minute supplies. We hope to have a good weather window soon after we get back down here.

David and Emma, from Five Flip Flops aka FFF are back in the US and back here in Vero. They have not seen me since we left Green Turtle Cay. Since then I have a new hairdo and clothes that fit me so they drove right by me in the parking lot. They got out of the car and started walking away, so I called out the traditional British greeting of "oy". They both turned around and were shocked. In a good way. After many hugs and smiles we started getting caught up with them. If our plans work out (haha, remember our plans are made in sand) their boat will have been painted and be beautiful just in time for our after Christmas departure.

In early December, we had a super moon and Emma and I were talking about how great it would be to be able to do a night crossing with that big moon. Let's hope we have the right weather, the right moon phase, and the right timing to do an easy crossing. Cross your fingers!

Super moon rising on one side of us...

...as the sun sets on the other side

The pictures below are Vic's. As I said before, he's a great photographer. He's the "official, unofficial photographer of the several schools in the Exumas. Thanks you so much Vic for these pictures and the ones at Thanksgiving.

The artist named this "Unwanted Guests" They will make a mess on your boat!

Stormy moorings

Foggy morning

Calm water

We have rented a car for our trip back home already. Remember, its cheaper to rent one for month, than two weeks. Yeah, hope they don't figure out how dumb that really is. We've already got the small trunk full of Christmas presents and stuff to take back with us.

I've decided to post this now and then finish up with Christmas when we get back. We're so excited to see everyone again. Check back after Christmas and see how ours went. Merry Christmas to everyone and if I don't see you before, Happy New Year!

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.

New Symrna to Cocoa

We left New Symrna at 7am. We could have left earlier, but forgot the time turned back last night so we missed first light. Well, our day is not too long so we’re ok. We fell in line with the others heading south, passing some and being passed by others, as usual.

Sunrise at New Symrna

We had a long drive thru Mosquito or “Mozzie” Lagoon, as FFF calls it. It’s a long stretch of the ICW that goes on for about 10 miles. We’ve never had a problem there, but boaters that anchor here say its name is appropriate.

This is what it looks like for 10 miles

We saw damaged dock all along the ICW

We’ve had the sun in our faces most of the day but as we turned into Haulover Canal we got out of it for awhile. We saw about 20 manatees just in the canal. We kept seeing noses sticking out of the water, backs gliding thru, and the circles in the water they make when they go under. It’s hard to get a good picture. We also saw fishermen in boats and on bank, dolphins and birds. It’s a very busy place. But, we didn’t see any kayaks this time. Thank goodness since they get in the middle of the channel and are slow to move. I guess they think we have brakes and a park so we can wait for them to move. Not so.

We had dark clouds follow us around and several light showers. But all in all, we had a good day. The water was calm and so were we.

One of the huge buildings at NASA

A captain's view of the railway bridge. It's usually in the up position so boats can get thru.

We got to our anchorage in Cocoa at 1:45pm. A shorter day than we’ve been doing. We went farther than originally planned yesterday and that made today shorter. We traveled about 45nm, at 6.5kts for 6.75hrs. There are several sunken sailboats in the anchorage. A guy on a sailboat hailed us as we got to Cocoa and asked what our plans were. We told him anchor here and spend two nights. He told us he had talked to a nearby marina and found out that the dingy dock was destroyed and there weren’t any places to go ashore. He also said the marina charged $2.50 per foot for a night dockage, plus power and water.  We don’t need power or water, but we’re not paying $122.50 to stay here either! So we anchor and stay aboard. Our original plan was spend two nights here and then we have reservations at Vero on a mooring ball. Right now, not sure what we’ll do. I will miss my walks.

We had a great view of the sailboats racing up and down the ICW.

Cocoa dock. You can see damage.

Sunken sailboat in the middle of the anchorage

No, that's not how the sailboats are usually docked.

This is some intense steering, both crew are at the helms.

Kokomo at anchor

 
Tide Hiker at anchor

We’ve invited Kokomo and Tide Hiker to Escape for drinks and appetizers tonight. Everybody brings their own drink and an app to share. We’ll have fun eating, talking, and telling more boat lies.

Jim and Meryl from Kokomo. You can see their boat in the background

Beth and Kurt from Tide Hiker to be renamed Petry's Pet.

And Shay and I from Escape

Shay and Kurt found a place for us to tie our dingy so we went to shore for a 5 mile walk. It felt good but we then went to share a  burger so I guess I walked it off. Or that's what I'm gonnna tell myself. We took some pictures of us and Tide Hiker while on shore.

We're heading to Vero tomorrow. Hope to leave at first light so we can beat the crowd getting there. Wish us luck!