Vero Beach

Sunday January 6, 2013
27 39.639 N
80 22.325 W

Today was a fun day. We woke up under a blanket of fog. We had planned top leave at 8AM so we delayed that till 9AM to give the fog a chance to lift. But by then it was no better. We had to leave no later than 10 AM or we would not make Vero in the light (and I do not like boating in the dark). At 10 AM I could see blue sky straight up, and that was enough for me. It had to burn off soon! So we pulled out.

I was immediately disoriented. Even with all the aids to navigation under my nose I was disoriented and the boat was going in circles. Then, as usual, the Admiral came to the rescue. "Here is a compass course for the bridge. Adjust it to "true", enter it into the auto pilot and let go the wheel!" That worked, and we started making progress. We were only doing about 4 kts and had our radar and fog horn going, so felt comfortable enough. We were on the radio listening and talking to other boats. The water was dead calm.

The fog lifted at about Noon and it was a perfect sunny day. We moved from the Pilot House to the Bridge. Deidre changed into shorts and a tee shirt. It was warm.

Mooring field at Vero Beach

We arrived at Vero about 4:45 PM. We were assigned a ball and threaded our way thru the boats to our spot. There were all sorts of boats from all sorts of places. During the fog we had "made friends" with an English boat and had been invited over for drinks. As soon as Tide Hiker was secure we had the dinghy in the water and off we went. The captain was ex RAF and had sailed the boat over from the UK.

Deidre had been cooking during the afternoon. Its good to cook underway as we have more electricity then. Plus the vent for the galley must exit just under my seat on the bridge and I get to enjoy the aromas in advance. She had made a tasty meat sauce and we had it over pasta.

Tomorrow we will catch the bus into Vero Beach for breakfast. (No photos today. I took some, but forgot to put the memory chip back into the camera)

Monday January 6, 2013

Ladies Rowing Practice

This morning we were woken up by the local ladies rowing club practice. Since we were awake we put a fast 1/2 hour charge into the batteries and took the dinghy into the marina, from where we took the free city bus to "downtown" Vero. Found a decent breakfast place where we ate and read till we could eat and read no more. Followed by $100 shop at Publix and then back to the dinghy and boat. No lunch today! This afternoon we have done "boat things" and now taking it easy. We have decided to recover the dinghy before the rain comes and eat dinner at home.

Taking it easy - the new baby's blanket

Tomorrow we head for the St. Lucie River and Stuart. Arriving at Stuart will mark the end of our first "voyage" after just over 600 hours of engine time. On the way tomorrow we plan to stop in Ft. Pierce to take on about 500 gallons of fuel.