Vero Beach - Still at a mooring

Just a grocery store display, but in Flroida

We had intended going north today to Titusville but the weather had other ideas. A line of thunderstorms came through that included hail warnings of 1.5 inches and even a tornado warning. Our neighbor next door offered to take us to Publix in the morning before we knew all this so we accepted. All was fine until the storm decided to come early. It wasn't due until noon but nobody told the storm that. We finished our provisioning around 10:30 and headed back to the marina in the rain with lightening and thunder to accompany us. We looked on radar and thought we saw a window to return to Fleetwing between storms but that window suddenly narrowed. As we rushed for the dinghy we found, of course, that it was full of water and I had no way to dewater the dinghy. So we floated the groceries in the water of the dinghy but did manage to save the bread by perching it on the lifevests, our first use of them in 12 years.

They are popular just to decorate your yard

Even though the gas tank was floating, it was still waterproof and the outboard started up fine. As the rain settled in for the second time this morning, we motored to the boat with the groceries sloshing all around us - but staying in the dinghy at least. We were soaked to the skin, everything was wet. We climbed onboard and I started the genset to dry out the cabin and our clothes. As it turned out, the only thing really damaged was the magazine Ann bought, it resembled a wet rag. You'll see a recommendation in my next travel guide to always take a water pump in the dinghy. The advice resembles most of the advice in the guide since it's based on doing the wrong thing first! Experience is a great teacher!

The captain of our neighbor got soaked too but it was nice of him to drive us to the nearest Publix

Now it's calm and the wind has shifted to out of the north for the next few days. Our forecast now is for dry weather and a window for Titusville of probably Sunday. Of course, all that can change for for the present, that's the plan.