2-11-2016 – Leaving Vero Beach

After 70 days in Vero Beach, FL, we finally pulled up the dinghy, dropped the mooring lines, texted off a few more quick goodbye’s, made one last stop at the fuel dock, and headed south, with the current, and toward the sun.  It was a very cold morning, 37 degrees outside, 57 in the boat, with condensation dripping from the ports. As the day progressed, it got warmer and sunnier, and the water ahead sparkled in the sunlight. The “white noise” of the engine sparked imagination and creativity, just like a nice long shower or the noise of running a lawn mower (or snow blower!) can do, and I started thinking that it’s high time I updated the blog!

We are excited and feeling free! It’s fun to get back into our traveling groove. Chuck joked, “I forgot how to start the engine!” and I felt the same way about all of the “startup” tasks that I do – stow the coffee thermos and the water filter pitcher in the sink, put away the clean dishes, clear the table, check the stack of supplies in the “garage” (our forward berth) for stability, post charts, guidebooks, and binoculars outside under the dodger, and the radio at the helm.

After a few weeks since its last cleaning, our dinghy is lying upside down on our fore deck, covered with a brownish slime and tiny baby barnacles. It’s been rinsed with fresh water and lies drying in the sun. Chuck says it will be easier to scrape clean when it’s dry. Soon we will spend a day on boat maintenance in clearer water. We’ll clean the dinghy and the boat bottom, clean the prop and check the zincs. 

Our dinghy on the foredeck, in need of a good cleaning!

Meanwhile, today, we’re moving along and enjoying a version of our cold weather traveling menu: oatmeal for breakfast, chili and salad for lunch, and homemade soup with long noodles, chicken, vegetables and Asian spices for dinner.

Spinach salad with pears, chevre and pecans,
and homemade honey mustard vinaigrette.

I’m feeling happy to be back in the boat, moving, just the two of us. (As opposed to living in the boat at the mooring. It’s the same boat, but it’s such a different feeling.) NOT that we didn’t enjoy Vero Beach and the company of our wonderful friends there, but we were just so ready for a change.  I’ve never been the sort of person who moves quickly from one thing to another, or one place to another. I like to be where I am, and to make the best of it. It’s not hard at Vero. Not a day goes by without something fun or interesting happening. We have made a lot of great friends among the cruising community, and we do a lot of things with other people – go to the beach, go out to lunch, go to a movie, go shopping, analyze and fix things on the boats, get together for drinks or food.  Chuck and I also get out alone - by bus, by foot, or by bike and try to see as much as we can. We like to discover new routes, new restaurants, and new things to do. This year we discovered the Vero Beach Public Library, and we just found the jogging trail in the "park beyond the park" (south of the VB Art Museum) the day before we left.

Vero Beach jogging trail, in the park south of the VB Museum of Art

But now we are moving again and looking forward to what lies ahead. Tonight we are at Peck Lake anchorage, in Hobe Sound, near Jupiter, FL. Tomorrow we’ll stay here and maybe do our maintenance. We’ll see how we feel.

We passed a dinghy race along the way

Scene along the ICW
(looks very much like Vero Beach City Marina)

Peck Lake anchorage

Our plans are to continue south along the east coast of FL, using the ICW or outside routes depending on weather, whim and bridges. We plan to visit the Florida Keys, do some fishing, lobstering and scuba diving, and then head up the west coast of FL, stopping to visit a few friends and to attend our Baldwin Yacht Club Winter Rendezvous in Sarasota in March. Then we’ll head back to the Keys and see more of it, and, if weather allows, visit the Dry Tortugas before going back up the east coast of FL and beyond. It’s been a very difficult winter for weather.  We’ll just take what we get, and try to make the most of it.