11/19/16
Vero Beach FL
Position 27 39.600N, 080 22.244W
Posted by Bill
On the 17th we departed Marineland and motored the ICW to Rockhouse Creek at Ponce Inlet, anchoring at position 29 03.701N, 080 55.878W. It is just south of Daytona Beach. We have anchored several times before in this creek. There is a great beach there and a beautiful view of Ponce Inlet and the lighthouse there. We all took the dinghys to the beach and let Grady run and swim. He is like a furry kid, and it is so much fun to travel with him. He had a great time. The next day we motored to Cocoa/ Cocoa Beach and anchored in position 28 21.122N, 080 43.160W. We have also stopped here every trip north and south. We checked out the really cool hardware store they have and had some Jurassic appetizers at a local restaurant. The trip through New Smyrna Beach was another round of boats tossed up on shore, tarped roofs on houses and damaged docks from hurricane Matthew. We have seen this damage all along the route from South Carolina through New Smyrna. More pics:
Many of the boats were clearly “live-a-boards” and people that did not have a lot of money. We feel for them. We also saw tons of dolphins and manatee along this route. We have been seeing dolphin regularly since the Georgia/South Carolina border, but they have been very prevalent since the Florida border. The manatees were in herds of dozens, many in the channels that we traverse. We have not seen manatee in the channels like this ever before. It was crazy, and we had to dodge them for hours. Very cool.
It was also cool to see the sun rises over the last several weeks. I can count the number of sun rises I saw in my dirt dwelling life with my toes and fingers, and it is amazing to me to see them every day, most rising above the water with dolphins, pelicans and various wildlife filling the scene. Very cool, despite the fact that we have to get up at the butt crack of dawn while in this travel mode.
Today we motored to Vero Beach, one of our favorite stops along the Florida coast, and took a mooring. It ended up being a crazy day on the Florida ICW, especially since it was a weekend day. You all know how much I hate the Florida ICW on the weekends if you have been following the blog. Today was not much different. Vero was pretty full, as it always gets for Thanksgiving. This year we have decided to stay one night here and move on to a mooring field and marina in Stuart Florida. We are meeting up with Kurt and Sharon on Byrd Ketcher, and it will be a major reunion!!! Just after dark we watched a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center. It was very cool!!! We are going to miss spending some time in Vero but are looking forward to a new place in Stuart. There have been many stops along the route south this year that are new stops for us, and that has been really fun. We have found many cool anchorages that we will definitely return to. We will chill in Stuart until after Thanksgiving and then begin the trek through the Keys. The last couple of weeks has been fun but very tiring. We are looking forward to some down time and enjoying the nice weather now that we are in central Florida.