11/22/15
Vero Beach, FL
Position: 27 39.257N, 080 22.280W
Posted by Bill
We made it to Vero Beach today. If you are a blog follower, you know this is one of my favorite stops along the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway). The moorings are very reasonably priced, the facilities are above average, you can walk to the beach in 15 minutes, you can take a short dinghy ride to many restaurants/bars, and there is a free bus service that will take you to nearby grocery and liquor stores, a great dive shop, and fresh seafood market. It is known among the cruising community as “Velcro Beach” because it has a way of keeping you from leaving. It is also a very picturesque area along the waterway:
They have a huge Thanksgiving day gathering where the city provides turkey and ham, and everyone brings a dish to share. Our friends on Simple Life that we met here last year, Joe and Michelle, invited us to sit at their table so we will be enjoying Thanksgiving with them and several other people that we know who are here. Unfortunately, Byrd Ketcher ran into some mechanical problems in St Augustine, and they told us yesterday that they are not going to make it here for Thanksgiving. This will be the first Thanksgiving away from family…ever…which is hard for us, so we are glad to be amongst friends.
There are several previous posts about Vero Beach with pictures. Use the blog search function if you are interested in seeing more.
When we left St Augustine, we made our way through a badly shoaled area called Matanza’s Inlet. We hit it at low tide, and following the advice from Active Captain, we had no problems. Not so for this guy who ran aground…hard aground:
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We also passed this guy who created his own fishing vessel out of two kayaks:
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What a hoot!
After a long day, we anchored in Ponce Inlet at Rockhouse Creek. You may remember it from our blog in the spring when we stopped there. Very nice anchorage. Search the blog if you are interested in seeing pictures and learning more about it. The next day we had another long one getting to Cocoa, where we watched the Ohio State game with one of Tricia’s long time friends from high school, Connie and her husband Scott. It was great meeting them and having dinner with them. Then today we made to Vero, where we will be until Friday. It was supposed to pour rain all day today but we didn’t get one drop, thank goodness! After this we make the push to Marathon…trying to get there in the first week of December.
One other thing…we have been seeing tons of dolphins. The morning when we left Ponce Inlet, we saw constant dolphin activity for at least 2 hours along our route. Several times after that we have had them swimming along side the boat. We usually see them every day at one time or another, but the last couple of days have been amazing. We will try to get some pics.