Vero Beach - Last day

Vero Beach Yacht Club

There is more here than just Vero Beach City Marina, namely the Vero Yacht Club right in the middle. It has no moorings but does have a bunch of docks. We've never stayed there but we could since we're also a member of a yacht club (in Poughkeepsie, NY). We'll continue to stay at the Vero Beach moorings for now.

Spot the "oops"?

So think about this, you're commissioned to chisel a sign in wood for the local marina. They convey what message they want to give and you take your chisel out and commence to hammer into the wood for the sign. You would think that the first thing on your mind would be to not misspell anything. After all, it's not like auto-correct on your iPhone, what you wrote is embedded in wood!   Well  peruse this photo above, see anything suspicious?  Once done, it's very hard to correct mistakes and the sign chiseler did not do so at the time. Maybe no one noticed?

Now, which way do you go here??

One of my favorite signs in the area is this one above. Which way is the right way to go? Straight ahead? (to the water?)

We'll leave Tuesday morning for Cocco beach anchorage for the night provided the winds are not too bad. There's a dinghy ramp nearby for Hoolie and it's generally calm. We'll wind up at Titusville for a week so I can catch up on tax prepration and rest up for the rest of the trip north.

Vero Beach City Marina - Getting ready

Kids fishing under a bridge - great summer fun

The low this morning was 45! That's much colder than we're used to, enough already!  Since our genset quit working last week, we no long have heat in the morning so we're roughing it. So we're now running the main engine to recharge the batteries. The output is not as powerful and it's much noisier - and it takes longer too. We're still in negotiations with Sadler Point Marina in Jacksonville for a replacement (NOT a Panda!!) and we're aiming for 4/1/2013 for the start of installation. Somehow, April Fool's Day doesn't seem propitious for the start of a new genset but that's how the dates worked out.

Would you choose a name like this for your boat??

Today was wash day and for doing teak work. Restaining the teak only takes about 10 minutes so that's not too bad and it looks good when done. In the afternoon we took our dinghy tour of the area that we do every time we're here. The harbor is completely protected from all sides, a great place to ride out a storm but today it was very calm, perfect for dinghy exploring. Marty Siverstein's boat is in good shape but we didn't see him around. John Kwak has not gotten this far north yet so there's no meeting of PYC South scheduled yet.

For Monday we'll use the free buses offered by the city of Vero Beach to see town and perhaps a trip out to the beach. The one unique thing about Vero Beach is the free bus service. Everyone else charges a bus fare but somehow Vero Beach gets by with free service. As a result, they are very popular with the cruising crowd and you would think other cities would take notice. At any rate, we'll enjoy it Monday.

Some smoke but also fog 

This morning we awoke to smoke! We then heard that Florida was doing a "controlled burn" for some reason and the smoke from the fires were filling the ICW, we felt it immediately, especially Ann with her allergies. Luckily, as we moved north, we got out of the smoke. The air this week in Florida is very dry and there's a fire alert for the next few days. One wonders why they would intentionally burn brush during a fire alert?!

Two dogs on the  boat behind us shared the bow

It was a great day for going north on the ICW. There was no wind and no waves and the sun was warm on our backs as we headed north. We are about 2 to 3 weeks ahead of the northern migration but we'll lose some of that head start at Jacksonville we're scheduled to replace our genset. We've been sending e-mails and photos back and forth the last few days to get things finalized, another reason why I need a reliable internet connection via Verizon. At some locations we've gotten 36 Mbps on their LTE network, amazing.

Marty's boat is here but not Marty

Pulling into Vero Beach City Marina, we found they had plenty of empty moorings. As I said before, we're ahead of the migration and taking advantage of the marinas not yet being full. The weather continues to warm up but the nights are still cool with temps around 60 in the morning. We'll be here until Tuesday morning when we'll head north again to spend a week at Titusville where we will rent a car to see the sights at the Kennedy Space Center. We've never been there and we thought we ought to go before they close the place.

Hobe Sound - at anchor

Tiger Woods place on the ICW iin Jupiter - with a par 3 course

Today was a 12 bridge day and we didn't do so well. The tide was against us all the way and we missed two bridges by a couple of minutes each resulting in 1/2 hour waits at both. The killer for making bridges is when one bridge is late ("waiting for traffic to clear...") and the next bridge is ready to go on the dot.

Our first sunset in awhile - we need a few more clouds

Eventually we made Hobe Sound which is the back side of Jupiter Island, the home of many multimillionaires, one of which is Tiger Woods. We knew where his home was from satellite photos posted on Google Earth so as we went by I snapped a few photos. Unfortunately, it's pretty well shielded from the ICW side. You could see the par 3 holes  by his home in the satellite photos but they were not visible from the water. 

We're now anchored just north of his home, very peaceful. The wind has finally died down and it's due to warm up over the next few days after a cool night tonight. Our next stop will be Vero Beach on a mooring, leaving here in the morning. 

Hypoluxo - Last day

Across the ICW next to the ocean is the high rent district - where Chico's was located

Every once in awhile, Ann has to visit the nearest Chico'sto get her "Chico Fix" and today was the day to do that while we still had transportation from Joe Mastri. It's a great place to shop for clothes (for women) that actually fit. They don't cater to the under 20 crowd and so they've been very successful.

The palm trees are the giveaway - this isn't home

Joe took us by the nearest Sam's Club for dinner supplies and they exceeded what I had expected, their meat counter was way above average. We had lamb chops for dinner and I stocked up on wine since, in Florida, wine is sold in grocery stores. The problem with Sam's Club is that they specialize in large sizes. I had wanted just one bottle sprayer but the smallest size package they had was 6 sprayers, didn't need that many even though the cost for the 6 was almost the same as the cost of one sprayer in a hardware store.

The winds howled again today out of the north with whitecaps on the ICW. We could have gone north but why bother? We would prefer more pleasant conditions which should be the case on Friday. We're headed for our usual Hobe Sound anchorage, just north of Tiger Wood's mansion in Jupiter on the ICW. I'll snap a photo as we pass by, perhaps he'll wave...

Hypoluxo - We provision

A daylight photo of the bridge they are proud of

The wind shifted around to out of the north during the day so I had to reposition all the lines which had been braced for the 25 kts winds out of the south. Still, winds from the north are much better for our slip. We're partially protected and the bow now faces into the wind. However, the winds are due to increase over the next 24 hours so we'll just stay here another day and leave on Friday instead when the winds abate.

Hoolie's best friend in Florida

Provisioning was the order of the day and there's no better place to do that than a Walmart Supercenter which has groceries as well as anything else you might want - and at good prices. There are no Walmarts in the Keys so there's one bus that originates in Key West that travels up the keys and turns around in the parking lot of the nearest Walmart, the one in Homestead near Miami. They know their clientele.

The search for the right genset to replace my 4.2 kw Panda continues. I got a call back from Sadler Marine on the exact dimensions of the starboard locker. I would like to fit a 6 kw Kohler diesel genset in the space but it's going to be tight. Thursday morning I have to carefully measure the locker dimensions in all directions and then we'll make a final determination for fit. I told the yard manager that the passing grade would be awarded by Ann only if she asks the question, "Is the genset running?"  (while the genset is turned on!) I want quiet! 

Hypoluxo - Palm Beach Yacht Center - doctors

The palm tree is totally dominate in this area -  you never see one uprooted by wind

Doctors, doctors. Joe had an eye treatment today and Ann had a meeting with a pulmonary doctor, so it was long hours in the spent in getting ready, sitting in waiting rooms and seeing the doctors. Oh well, life does not stop even if you're cruising. You still have to attend to problems. Luckily, we have nothing but good things to say about our experiences with medical facilities along the ICW. Ann is doing much better now, she had a series of colds that her allergies intensified into bronchitis and constant coughing.

Dear Fleetwing - sprung from all sides, needed for last night's winds

After all the medical visits, we just stopped by a Publix supermarket and got a rotisserie chicken and a few sides for dinner. We hope for calmer conditions than last night when the wind blew out of the south, directly into the marina and onto the back of our boat at 20 to 25 kts! There's about a mile of reach for the waves to build up and we heard them slapping up against the aft section all night long. The wind has now shifted around to out of the west, the most protected direction of all since the marina is on the west bank of the ICW.

With the winds to gust to 25 kts or more out of the north on Wednesday and Thursday, we'll stay here until Friday when winds calm down to a more reasonable 10 to 15 kts. Pounding into north winds and waves driven by a 25 kt wind should be avoided if you want a comfortable ride as we do.