Vero Beach - at a mooring

Many more full moorings and a lot of doubling up now

The snowbirds have finally caught up with us. When we first arrived the mooring field was barely 1/3 full but now there are less than 5 moorings left with many of the moorings having two boats. We saw boats double up all day but as long as there were available moorings, we didn't put out fenders on our side for another boat. Eventually we may have to do that but for now we are alone.

You can't do this in the wintertime in Canada!

Today my to do list went unheeded. After all it was a Sunday, a day of rest, right? We had our traditional Sunday breakfast of pastries and donuts and with the sun in the cockpit and warm breezes, life is good. The free buses do not run on Sundays so we just stayed on the boat and chilled out. We went for a tour of the area and ran into a Canadian that was down for the winter exploring the area with a kayak. When I was still working in my previous job I took trips to our Canadian manufacturing facility and I'd read in the local newspaper about how deserted the area would be in the wintertime with all the locals leaving for points south! The newspaper author sounded somewhat disgusted with the snowbirds that they didn't "tough it out" up north during the winter months, with phrases like, "not like the old days", etc. Some of our fellow workers who came to Canada in the wintertime for a meeting didn't understand how cold 30 below zero was with a wind (early in the morning). We rescued one of our own who was going to walk the short distance to the Canadian plant to get some air. Ha, we drove along the road and rescued him, he was freezing in his lightweight jacket only good for zero degree weather! You need a parka for weather like that (and not the sissy parkas you find in stores in the US - you need a real parka). All in the past now!

So with thoughts of how it was when I was still working and making trips to Canada in the wintertime, I can appreciate how much the Canadians like to come south for warmer climes in the winter. We see quite a few Canadian flags along our way, we always wave! We'll explore the beach area on Monday and have a lunch with a view of the ocean too, ought to be fun.