Vero Beach, Fl

 Things are winding down here at Vero - this should be our last day here.  

While we were out with the loaner car, we picked up a couple of white buckets from Ace Hardware.   We need to make new "Lookie Buckets"....because we think we left ours in the storage trailer at Oriental.  We vaguely recall removing them from the boat during the summer to get them out of the way.  Well, that didn't work out too well, did it?

Any-who.....same drill as before.

Get a couple of sheets of clear lexan from Lowe's.  Cut a big circle.

 

Then trace a slightly smaller circle on the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket.

Borrow the jigsaw from Dean and  Kris.  (Always nice to have neighboring boats with tools!)

 

And the normal gluing the clear glass in place with 5200 (and a few blocks screwed/glued in place as extra support.

 Should be a good view down to check on coral in a week or two!

 

We were treated to another pleasant but chilly sunset.  Kris and Dean invited us over for tacos (well - it was Taco-Tuesday ya'know. )

 

We'll part ways for a while with Charm - they'll shove off the raft-up first thing in the morning. Hope to meet up with them again in the Ragged's after their Christmas company departs from Nassau.

 

 We are going to get our Covid tests and shove off south as well later in the morning.

Vero Beach, Fl

 After a few trips to shore to top off our water tank with jugs of water, the Sojourn and Charm crews loaded up in the loaned car for a quick drive to fellow Manta owners Scott and Tina's house.  They had invited several Manta crews over for happy hour/hot dog roast.

Beautiful home - they have a dock a few feet away where they keep their Manta - Sangaris.  (Which is a beautiful butterfly, not a beverage).

We had a fun few hours chatting away about boats and other things that came to mind.  (But luckily, NO politics!!)   They even had some veggie hot dogs!

Great hosts and fun getting to know the other boat crews.

Vero Beach, FL

Yep, we're still here!  

Together with Kris & Dean, we used the car for some more errands.   We had discussed earlier Kris's overwhelming preference for  McDonalds french fries.  We had also discussed the Impossible Whoppers - so the decision that while we were running errands, we would get Impossible Whoppers and head to McDonalds where we would get french fries/drinks.  A sort of fast-food-adventure!  So that's exactly what we did!

No one noticed that we had brought in "outside" food.  A fun meal!

 Back to the boats- it's rainy, rainy, rainy!   So we're taking it one day at a time, calling the marina to add an extra day to our stay until the weather improves.

And later in the evening I whipped up this little hominy dish - Kris and Dean are from Idaho and have never eaten (or even heard of) hominy.  So we had picked up a can of hominy at the Publix.  Kindof as a joke....we gave them a sample.  Their response was sortof like "it isn't bad"  kindof like white rice....always fun to have new experiences!

 

We had some with a salad for dinner....I've never really been a big fan.  Probably won't have hominy again for years unless we find another victim!

Vero Beach, FL

 I'm going to start titling these posts "Velcro Beach" since we seem Velcro'd here!  The forecast for moving south hasn't improved, so we're just hanging tight until it does.  

At the dinghy dock, we saw familiar faces from Oriental - Debbie and Dale Montgomery.  They're at Vero until after Christmas.  Fun to chat with them.

Kris and Dean took their dinghy up to fellow-Manta-owner's Tina & Scott's house to borrow their car for errands.  We rode along and it was a fun, relaxed day.

We went to the huge Marine Liquidators in near St. Lucie.

 

They have an enormous inventory of every boat part imaginable, both new and used....fortunately we weren't really in the market for any boat parts!  Fun to look around though.

 Our planned Saturday night gathering of Manta crews was postponed until Monday - so we had a mini-meet-up of our own with crews from Skoolz Out, Charm and Sojourn!

 

Vero Beach, FL

 The forecast for the day was rain....but it really never rained.  

 

Charm and Sojourn at on the mooring.

 

 

We had supper with Kris and Dean.  They made these fabulous pizzas - I of course didn't sample the pepperoni one, but the spinach/artichoke/mushroom/cheese pizza was extremely good!  

 

Vero Beach, Fl

 We had a pretty busy day!  

First we caught the city bus at the marina to take us over to Walgreens for our Covid booster shots!!  The trip took about 20 minutes.

 

 And I AM smiling under that mask!

 

Not long after we got back to the boat, our new friends Kris and Dean arrived.

 

Since the mooring balls are almost all full, the marina starts "rafting" folks - more than one boat on each mooring.  We've done this before and it's good fun.  They'll be here for 5 days so we'll have a good time conversing across the decks.

And at the end of the day we walked over nearby to Dot and John's condo for a gracious dinner invite.  We met them several years ago - they are good friends with Ed and Cathy from their Boca Chica days.  Their other friends Mary Ann and Ed were over for dinner as well.  We had a wonderful time, chatting the hours away about this and that.  (And chatting about Ed & Cathy who we missed greatly!)

Back to the boat after a scrumptious meal and good company!

Vero Beach, FL

We took a nice long bike ride, about 10 miles in 2 hours.  We crossed highway A1A which is the famous highway that runs right along the east coast of Florida - often bordered with homes like this one.  Quite a pleasant and quiet ride.

 

There's a ocean front golf course - amazing since that huge ocean front property has to be worth mega$$.  (And they don't even really have a good view of the ocean because of the dunes).

 

Just a pleasant walk on the beach.  The water was a bit nippy though!

 

And on the way back to the boat we were treated to a couple of playful dolphins.

 

Vero Beach, FL

 We used the big bags I'd made a few months ago for the first time to transfer the bikes ashore in the dinghy.  Worked well.

 

Enjoying my new-to-me bike that was a gift from Cathy when she got her electric-assist bike.

 

We rode over to the beach - quite lovely.

 

And quite deserted.   This almost looks like a NC beach with so few people....well, except those palm trees on the dunes.....

Vero Beach, Fl

 If you're looking for adventure, you won't find it here for several more days!

Mundane stuff - laundry at the marina was so much easier than on the boat.....  

Although we do have to tote it over in the dinghy....

For less than $10 I got nice fluffy clean clothes and didn't have to tote or make water.

And I also picked up a few Amazon packages we had ordered.  The marina staff just piles all the packages in the open breezeway.  Folks order stuff all the time and pick the packages up whenever they arrive.  It's a fairly safe area as no one seems to have a problem with this method.

I just sort thru the packages until I see my name.

It is lovely here - so lush and green.

That's about it for the day, exciting stuff, right?

We ended the day watching the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown affair.  Didn't really get into the vibe of that one.  We both say the 1968 version is the better one.

Vero Beach, FL

 Not a lot to report, just a long day motoring down the intercoastal waterway.  Up at sunrise and off the dock at Cocoa.

 

I think I'd planned to take some photos of the big houses along the waterway....but I apparently lost interest as this is the only photo I took of them!

Made it to Vero Beach City Marina in the late afternoon.  The folks from Salty Mare came by in their dinghy to say hello (the trawler we exchanged photos with a few days ago).  We're both here for at least a week so we'll probably cross paths with them again.  

Filled up with fuel/water - mundane stuff.

And then around sunset, inside the boat just got this lovely pink glow so I stepped outside and took a photo facing forward and aft. 

I had read an article on CNN yesterday about the notorious bank robber from the 70's - he was inspired by the movie The Thomas Crown affair.  I was intrigued by the story so I looked for both the 1968 version starring Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway and a 1999 version starring Pierce Bronson/Rene Russo.   We watched the 1968 version and it was interesting but very 60-ish with weird music and camera angles.  We'll watch the 1999 version tonight if we stay awake that long!

Cocoa Beach, FL

 We had another great treat - we got to witness another rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  We're less than 10 miles from the launch site here so the view was spectacular.  It's a daytime launch, so not as cool as the nighttime ones....but still cool.  This rocket was only taking some more Starlink satellites up.  The evening launch had 4 astronauts on board.

 

We took another long bike ride today, taking advantage of the dock and ease-of-bike-removal from the boat.  Rode right past the water tower we see in the distance from the waterway.

 

The city of Cocoa/Brevard county have things looking very tropical.  Even the signal light power boxes look cool.

 

We stopped for a few minutes in the "touristy downtown" area for a cold beverage.  Very busy there.

 

Back to the dock - Sojourn with sun shades out! 

 

Next we'll head down the waterway to Vero Beach for a spell.

Cocoa Beach, Fl

 Yay!  We moved over to the "free dock" early in the morning.  We were  surprised to find that we were all alone on the dock!  

The City provides the free dock space for about 5 boats.  They limit the stay for "Intercoastal Travelers" to 48 hours.  (Local folks are limited to 8 hours according to the signage).  

Sojourn at the dock in the middle of the photo.

 

Since we've been on the boat for several days now, time for a bit of exercise.  We got the bikes off the boat and headed 4 miles to the Ulumay Nature Preserve.  It's just a wetlands area with a nice trail.  Once there, we opted to walk the 1.3 mile trail rather than ride since the ground was a bit mushy.  

Several overlooks along the path.

 

We saw lots of birds but none close enough for a good photo.  A pleasant couple of hours, stopping to eat our granola bars along the way.

 

On the way back to the boat, it was lunchtime - so we pulled into Burger King and each got an Impossible Whopper.  They are very good and they're included in BK's 2 for $6 deal.  Fun to do that every once in a while!

Taking advantage of all the "shopping" we stopped by Aldi and got some fresh vegetables - and scored some lovely asparagus on sale.  Love Aldi!

 

And it was definitely time for a haircut!  Too warm and in my eyes!

 

All chopped off, ready for some cool breezes!

Cocoa Beach, FL

 We were up early because the run to Cocoa Beach is about 9+ hours.  

The rowing crews were out on the river, waved as we passed.

The usual sights along the way.  Lots of boats in Florida!!

 

 

Most of the day we had a trawler, Salty Mare, that was following us, about the same speed.  They called on the VHF - and offered to send me a photo of us passing Haulover bridge.  They texted the photo to me.

 

And then I took a few of them over the next few hours and returned the favor.  Boating folks are mostly the nicest!

Anchored at Cocoa - 

 

 

Should be a pleasant night - the low tonight is 70 degrees.