Voyage 2009: Chapter 3

20 Jan 2010, Heading on to Vero Beach, 27 39.432 N/ 080 22.272 W

Weather over the weekend was not very nice. It was quite cold and blustery. We and the other cruisers (yes there are other silly sailors heading South this late) stayed on the boats and didn't do too much. We had power and TV reception. What more could you need. On Monday, the weather was good and promised to continue through Wednesday so we prepared the boat for a 1000 ET departure with the turning of the tide. We told SV Peter Rabbit and SV Journey that we would meet them in Vero Beach. A favorable tide took us past Fort Clinch at 1045 and we were out of St. Mary's channel by 1130 heading South!

Winds were out of the north but too weak for sailing so we did our normal motorsailing protocol. We made good time at low RPM but it was a bit rolly. However, the day was clear and we could see the North Florida coastline for most of the day. All in all not a bad day.

Dusk fell as we passed passed the St. Augustine inlet. Another fantastic sunset but it was getting cold again. We noticed that the previous rain in St. Augustine leaked through the stove pipes and landed on our AM/FM radio. It struggled valiantly but finally gave up that night. Still we had a bit of cellular signal so we ordered a new radio and stove pipes over the Internet. Not bad!

The next morning was much like the previous day. Still rolly but enough wind to add 0.5 kts to our speed. We were lazily keeping watch when we suddenly noticed a large fishing vessel (not fishing) barrelling down on our position. Though we had the right of way, his low hanging booms gave us little time to protest. FV Lady Catherine did not alter her course or speed nor did she respond to our queries on the VHF. Maybe the guy in the wheel house was 'texting' (the boat in the picture was not the rude SOB but rather a professional mariner).

Another night on the water warrants a lot of coffee and co-captain Ann was preparing a lot of it. Because of the Lady Catherine incident, we were more alert than usual and not very sleepy. The off-watch crew slept fitfully while the helmsman had no problem staying awake. We saw the bridges of Vero Beach around 0300 with the bright lights. At 0800 we entered the Ft. Pierce inlet with a favorable current but lots of sportsfish leaving with their large wakes.

The Ft. Pierce bascule bridge opened up upon our request and we were back in the ICW. While Ann 'drove the boat', Bob pumped up the dinghy on the fore deck. We tossed it 'overboard' about 3 nm south of the first Vero Beach bridge. Boy what a pretty day. We called the Vero Beach City Marina and requested instructions for mooring. They told us to find an empty mooring ball and tie up to it which we did. So here we are in Vero Beach. Good to be here again.

06 Feb 2010, Days of our lives in Vero Beach, 27 39.438 N/ 080 22.272 W

Eighteen days and we are still in Vero waiting on weather. We will leave tomorrow and head south for either Palm Beach or Nassau. We will see. Today was spent readying the boat for the trip and briefly participating in a cruiser's happy hour at the marina. It was great chatting with the other cruisers but it was getting cold so we had to head back to the boat.

Earlier in the day, we decided to head for shore in the dinghy without the motor. Big mistake. After we got to shore, the winds piped up with gust to 30 kts. We didn't notice it until we tried to row back to Jule. No go! After 5 minutes of rowing, we barely made 10 feet of headway. Bad mistake. Fortunately for us, Roger of SV Peter Rabbit (Fernandina Beach guys) came to our rescue as they were heading back to their boat. They had a motor. They are smart. We were not. In a few minutes we and our engineless dinghy were back to the mother ship.

Earlier in our stay here, we saw our friends, Bob and Barb, formally from SV Barbobasea. They have an airplane now and we got to see it. It is a project plane and they are redoing the interior. Jule Bob is jealous. Jule Ann is not. They took us to around their community but we could only stay a short while as we had to get back to Sammy Jane.

Harry and Sheila from Orlando came by to visit us last Sunday and we visited the beach's 'la-de-da' places with expensive stuff. We didn't buy the expensive stuff but Ann and Sheila had fun looking at it. We got coffee instead. Good seeing them. We are fortunate that we see them most of the times we are in Florida, either by car or boat.

We also went to Jensen Beach to visit our Wilmington neighbor's mother (and cruise ship companions) Connie and her friend Les. We saw some really nice homes on the St. Lucie River, ate some great Chinese food and enjoyed the company of really nice people.

We were fortunate enough to share mooring ball #18 with Bob and Sally of SV Endaxi. Jule Bob helped Endaxi Bob with some Winlink configuration issues and Endaxi Bob gave our Bob advise on some alternatives while in Nassau and a very nice chart of the Turks and Caicos and where to go there. They will probably be leaving tomorrow also so we will travel a bit together.

Of course, we will miss Vero, but we hope to be back in a couple of months if we do not do the Bermuda thing. We recommend this place to our cruising friends as a one day stop over or a winter destination. Not bad.