Vero Beach City Marina - We visit the beach

Not too many on the beach today!

The Vero Beach City Marina is on an island, the other side of which is the Atlantic ocean beach. The free bus will take you there in less than 10 minutes and pick you up anytime later on top of the hour. The surf was coming in pretty good but there was a south wind which I think is what the boaters going to the Bahamas look for. It's possible to make the crossing in one day from near here (Lake Worth).

The beach stores are somewhat upscale but still pretty typical of what you usually see on a beach. The real find was the restaurant right on the beach (Mulligans) with an outside table - a good view of the ocean. They had a $4 drink special and fish sandwiches for $12. The sound of the ocean, the 80F temps and wind, it was perfect.

Many towns down south have mascots

When building our house, the contractor introduced us to the "Carpenter's Tax" which consisted of buying 10% more lumber and supplies than the plans called for - in the end they were usually needed due to various problems (bad piece of lumber, errors, unforeseen "extras" requested, etc.) On a boat we don't have a Carpenter's Tax but we do have a "Stupid Tax" So far I've been unable to locate one of my high powered, small flashlights. It's on the boat somewhere but not to be found. So, I bought another one. Eventually I'll have two. Today I could not find my "On/Off" cleaner for getting rid of hull stains. I must have left it on the dock at Harbortown Marina, the last time I cleaned the hull. So I bought another bottle of that too along with a nozzle to replace the one I also forgot to pick up off the dock. On the good side, Ann is still with me, and so is Hoolie! We'll wander down the ICW with most of what we own with us with the occasional odds and ends being replaced (or duplicated).

More boat work is on order for Wednesday when I'm also due to get a new ink cartridge (er, I forgot to pack a spare...) so Ann can do the daily crosswords from the NY Times. Things get tense around here without the morning crossword to do.