Vero Beach - on a mooring, genset working

I am fascinated by Live Oaks. I never see trees up north with such horizontal branches

We ordered again from Winn Dixie's home delivery service. We were lying in bed and scrolled through the list of Winn Dixie's stock at their nearest store and picking out what we wanted delivered.  They have their entire inventory online so it was easy. As usual, the shopper that picked up our order texted us on items that didn't exactly match what we requested as she walked through the store. We got the order delivered to the dinghy dock here at Vero Beach and our provisioning was done for the week, easy!

Their branches just see to wander all over the place

While that was going on, threw in a wash too so we're all set for the rest of the trip north! I would say that about 1 in 5 of the people here wear masks. We wore ours but not everyone wore theirs. In the laundry room, most wore masks but not everyone. I think the people in Key West were more tuned in to having to wear masks, not so much farther north.

Today was out layover day due to high winds out of the north that blew all day long. They are supposed to die off tonight for a good day on Friday for reaching Titusville. In the meantime, I worked on getting our genset working again. I found a corroded connection that needed attention and the genset got too hot when running so I'm guessing it requires an impeller replacement, always a fun job. I'll save that entertainment for a later date. We're looking forward to a cool night for sleeping on fresh sheets, a big change. We plan on leaving at first light on Friday.

Vero Beach - At the last mooring

The Peck Lake anchorage this morning, I hope they all enjoy close company

We prefer our anchorage at Hobe Sound over the one at Peck Lake due to less crowding. As we went by, I counted 12 boats crowded in the anchorage. I like more room for swinging plus the beach is off-limits to dogs. If you don't have a dog and like to walk the nearby beach and don't mind being close to your neighbor at night, you could like it I guess.

At Vero, it was one boat to a mooring unless the other boat was unoccupied

We were making good time until we came to the North Ft Pierce bridge which now opens only on the hour and 1/2 hour. It used to be on demand. We missed the opening by 5 minutes. To add insult to injury, the bridge tender's watch was 3 minutes fast. I had an outside chance to make the opening but no chance at all when he opened 3 minutes early. If only his watch was 3 minutes slow!

Have you ever seen the dinghy dock so empty? You must show a blue plastic tie handed out
by the office to prove you have a mooring or paid for the dinghy dock use.

After losing 1/2 hour doing circles at the bridge, we were on our way again and called ahead to Vero to see what was available. There was one mooring left and another boat was coming too. Oh well, we could always anchor I guess. We trudged on and found that the mooring was still unclaimed so we had a mooring for the next two days. Vero has a mandatory pump out you must do before going to your mooring. I think it has something to do with the local residents who fervently believe that all boaters without exception just dump overboard, all the time, every time.

High winds tomorrow!

A front is coming through tonight and the winds tomorrow are out of the north in the 15 to 20 kt range. That would put the winds on the nose for us in moving north so we're going to make tomorrow a layover day and leave for Titusville on Friday. We will continue to move every day as weather permits.

Hobe Sound - at anchor

             Our favorite Hobe Sound anchorage 

We had a short day today, going only 20 miles to our favorite Hobe Sound anchorage. We were surprised that there were three other boats here with us. I guess it’s becoming more unfortunately, my laptop decided not to connect to my iPhone so I’m doing the blog on my iPad Pro, not the device of choice for doing blogs so the blog tonight is a little thin.

We are headed to Vero Beach on Wednesday and hopefully to pick up a new battery for our Genset. The old one died. 

Riviera Marina - at a dock

The sight at our marina when we left this morning

Today was our first day just on the ICW and it felt good. Starting out from Ft Lauderdale, we had 27 bridges to get through today! All the bridge tenders were great except one at the Lantana bridge. On the way south in the fall, he demanded we snug up against the bridge before he would open it even though we had a 1 kt current behind us at the time which required putting Fleetwing in reverse while waiting for the bridge to fully open. We had been going south and timing our arrival at the bridge to coincide with its opening but that was not good enough for the bridge tender. This time, he was the only bridge tender that did not answer us on VHF when we called for an opening. The guy needs some personal instruction on how to interact with their customers.

We particularly liked the one with the helicopter!

The mega yachts were just out of this world. Ft Lauderdale must one of the megayacht capitals of the world. We heard that the Las Olas City Marina was being redone so they could accommodate more megayachts. Supposedly, there's a shortage of megayacht facilities in Ft Lauderdale. On the plus side, the Las Olas mooring field was up and running with several moorings available as we passe by this morning.

The new parking garage at Ft Lauderdale is finally done - it just to just be a parking lot, always full

In the last two days, we've stayed in two large marinas, and both times we were told the wrong side to put out fenders, not wonderful. At Riviera Beach Marina, the facilities are top-notch but the help at the desk is not up to par. Aside from the wrong instructions on docking, they could not tell us the WiFi code over the phone and neglected to tell us the code when we checked in. Since t's about a 15-minute walk to the dock office, we did without tonight. We're not impressed with the marina service.

We are headed to our Hobe Sound anchorage for Tuesday night and then on to Vero Beach the next day followed by Titusville. We are on a cannonball run headed north!

Ft Lauderdale - refuel and a dock at Bahia Mar Yachting Center

I counted as they went by - a total of 0 on board

After a peaceful night at Marine Stadium, we headed north to Ft Lauderdale. With a 10 kt wind out of the east, the way north was very calm. Once we entered Ft Lauderdale, we saw crowds! Boats were everywhere! However, the sandbar beside the ICW after the 55 ft bridge was empty. That's usually full of weekend boaters wading and partying in the shallow water - but not today. There were multiple patrol boats with active blue lights flashing that seemed to keep the order amid the chaos.

Every single one of these were rented today - they were all out

We took on fuel at Lauderdale Marina which was easy enough, even with the boat traffic. The boat handlers had masks on and I had on a mask and gloves, something I'll be doing all the way north. We did see a dive boat go by but they total people on board including the captain was 10, the guideline limit. We saw the same limit being observed by charter captains in Marine Stadium. I guess they are finding a way to exist.

In the morning, we'll head out for Rivera Marina for the night. I need a new genset battery and I'm a little leary of anchoring when I need shore access with Hoolie. Once north of there, I see no problem anchoring out in Hobe Sound where shore access is to the deserted beach on the west side of the sound. I also changed some settings on Spot so hopefully, it will start to work more reliability in the future. I have a new link to Spot which gives my hourly location as I move north. Fleetwing can be found at Fleetwing 24 hour track.

Marine Stadium - At anchor on a Saturday

We had to get an early start to catch the high tide coming out of Caesars Creek

We had a great trip north yesterday to Caesars Creek and the anchorage there by the ranger station. However, What we did not expect was the noseeums after dark. They were terrible. We have one of those electronic zappers shaped like a tennis racket that you can wave around and it will electrocute any buys it touches, including noseeums. That night we decided to get it out and were delighted to see what appeared to be a fireworks display inside the boat cabin as the zapper was swept from side to side. We stopped counting after a couple dozen flashes.

In the morning, we were greeted with a spectacular sunrise. Ann took a photo as we sped north towards Miami. The anchorage had more boats in it than I've ever seen and that was only the beginning! The boat count almost doubled by the afternoon. I took the 360 degree view before most of the additional boats came in.



We noticed lots of boats that came over to enjoy the great weather. The one next to us was obviously a charter boat. The captain stayed up in the cockpit the entire time and the number of people on the boat numbered 10, including the captain - within the guidelines. They had a great time swimming and dancing but they left at 6:30.

A charter boat with the maximum of 10 people

On Sunday, we are headed to Ft Lauderdale. We need fuel and I need a new battery for the genset. At last we'll be on the ICW for the rest of the trip north.

Caesars Creek at Adams Key - at anchor with Hoolie relief

There was ripraft by US1 on the northern shore at Long Key - perfect for Hoolie relief

We had intended make the trip all the way to Marine Stadium in Miami but the morning weather was not good with 20 kt winds out of the north. According to the forecast, they were due to subside by noon to 10 kts or so. Given our experience with yesterday's forecast where every weather app and the NOAA coastal forecast all got horribly wrong, we were apprehensive about setting out and taking a beating for four hours on the promise of better weather later in the day.

Our first sunset picture

We decided to wait out the high winds in the safety of the Long Key anchorage. Sure enough, the winds this time did obey the weather forecasters and abated on time around noon. Seeing the downward trend, we decided to take off at 11:00 and make Caesars Creek by 7:00 pm. We will overnight and leave in the morning at exactly high tide. We need every bit of that to make it through the 3.7 MLLW spots on the western side.

Our second sunset picture a little later

Once through Caesars Creek, we will head for a day of rest at Marine Stadium before heading north again to Ft Lauderdale. After that, it just depends on the weather. We plan to move every day we can.