11/23/15
Vero Beach, FL
Posted by Bill

On our first full day in Vero, we started into the daily routine of going ashore for showers, running the generator for 3 hours to charge the batteries, and then do something more fun. For fun we walked to the beach, about a 15 minute walk. It has been really windy here but the temps are in the 70s…I’ll take it! The ocean was really rough and we got sandblasted on the beach due to the wind. Our biggest challenge was that we needed to print a document, a shipping label that Microsoft had emailed us. The keyboard on Tricia’s Surface computer stopped working while we were in St Augustine, and after several hours on the phone with Microsoft, they agreed that it was a busted keyboard and would replace it under warranty. We don’t have a printer, but thought we could get the marina in Vero to print it or find someone who offers that service. We looked everywhere that was in walking distance to no avail. Finally, we spotted a Fidelity Investments office. We have investments with Fidelity, so we thought they might help us. They went out of their way to take care of us, including giving us the see-through adhesive pouch to slap on the box. Kudos to Fidelity. Dealing with stuff like this is not easy in our world. For example, Microsoft says “It will take 7 to 10 days to get you a new keyboard after we receive the bad one. Where should we ship it to?” How the hell do we know! We have an idea, but nothing is ever for sure as schedules go. We ended up having shipped to Marathon, knowing they will hold it for us until we arrive.

That effort took us up to happy hour and after a couple of sun-downers we dinghied over to Mr Manatees for the $5 burger special on Monday nights. Good food and good service. Tomorrow we will take the bus and go to the grocery store, and that will be our big project after charging the batteries.

Here are a couple of pictures from where we are moored. You will notice that we are tied up to another boat. When it is peak season, they “raft” up to 3 boats together on a mooring. We happened to get lucky and rafted to Dave, a really nice person, and also quiet!