A month in Vero Beach

January 12, 2016

Finally ... settling our one bill at the Riviera Beach Marina and moving out to the anchorage.  Not sure where we are going next, but glad to be moving in any direction after a month in the marina.

BTW: Because of the high-rise buildings surrounding the marina, we got maybe 5 TV channels. Moving out to the anchorage gave us 69 channels!  Wowza!  We could stay anchored here for awhile!

But no, weather is coming, so we decide to got north towards Vero Beach to test out the engine.  And ye gads, within an hour, we were experiencing overheating.  How can the engine be overheating? It wasn't overheating before the fuel pump, and the repair would have nothing to do with overheating *anyway.  So why in the @#$% is this happening now? Just as we got up to speed outside of the anchorage?????

Arggggg..... we need time to figure this out.  We need to go somewhere where we can test out some theories, get some parts, provision, and we need to avoid expensive marinas.  Done. Vero Beach it is. Vero Beach is inexpensive living on a mooring ball in an upscale Florida community. The marina provides water, pump out, free bus, happy hour every Thursday ... all for $357/month. What. Is. Not. To. Like?

So, we limped north, 65 miles on ICW to Vero Beach.  If we kept the rpms under 2000, then the engine temp would stay under 185deg .... yielding a whopping speed of  4 knots.  Two days of travel, coupled with 8 bridges where we had to time our arrival to meet a scheduled opening.   Not much exciting on the ICW when you are plodding along at 4 knots .... for two days ... but the weather was nice..... and I do enjoy anchoring out at night.

Anchored behind the causeway at Jensen Beach.

 

Welcome to Vero Beach

(AKA Velcro Beach b/c once you arrive, you have to rippppp yourself away to leave.....)

 

Step 1:  Leave ICW at green marker

 

 



Step 2: Enter short channel into the anchorage/marina

Step 3: You are arrived at the mooring field.



 

Step 4: Call marina office for your mooring assignment. Ball #19.

 

 

Because of the el nino (aka crappy weather) this year, the anchorage was surprisingly crowded.  At least half of the boats here have been waiting 1+ months for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas.  (To explain: Because of the Gulf Stream, you want a 2-3 day window of nice, settled weather to give you enough time to cross (~30 hours) with some time to spare once you are in the Bahamas to get to your safe destination).  This year, many people are making the run with a 24 hr window ... because, frankly, that's about all the time you get before stormy, windy weather moves in again.

 

A crowded anchorage means that most moorings have two boats 'rafted' on the same ball.

 

 

During our month at Vero, we were rafted with another boat about half the time.

We lost about 7-10 days to crappy weather. 

Rain. Rain. Rain.

Wind.

Cold.

I understand that our MN friends and family will scoff at the very thought of cold in Florida. But seriously, we've had nights with temps as low as 34 degrees. Add in 25 knots of wind. We have no heat on the boat so lots of baking has been going on.  Keep in mind that we are sitting in a fiberglass boat in 57degree water ... so yes, cold.  Everything cold!

 

 

But still, we had some beautiful days in the 70s and got lots of boat projects done ... including 6 things that Dan researched that may/may not be contributing to the engine overheating. It's 2016, so we are optimistic that our luck has turned!

The dinghy gets us everywhere around the anchorage. I even spent 6 days in it waxing the hull. 

 

 

Dinghy Dock

 

When the weather doesn't keep us boat bound, Vero provides lots of great walking area.  2 miles to the grocery store, 1 mile the beach, and the streets that surround the marina was just lovely. Nothing like the "industrial areas" where a lot of marinas are located.

Trees.

It seems like most of the homes had a beautiful oak tree out front.

 

Driveways.

Seriously. Such lovely brick driveways.

 

 

 

A rich person lives here!

Dan swears that before we leave Vero he wants us to take a day off and sit on the beach, eat ice cream, and be tourists.

 

 

 

For now, it has been great to have such a nice place to hang out and not worry about the weather.

No schedule = no stress!

Captain Dan ALWAYS has a project!

 

Finally, a non-windy day to haul Dan up the mizzen mast (the one in the back)

Lots of little repairs to make. Replace wire. Repair light.

Add rigging for our new mizzen staysail

 

What's next?

 

We don't have a schedule, but we do have plans .... we plan to leave Vero and run the boat south to Fort Pierce to test the engine (~15 miles).  If necessary, we'll seek professional help there as Dan is all out of ideas. But it's 2016 and we're optimistic ....  After that, we'll wait for good off shore weather so we can sail from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth and test out the new rigging that Dan installed.  After Lake Worth, we'll either head East to the Abacos or South to Ft Lauderdale and Miami and then the Berrys. 

 

Not sure. Like I said, plans but no schedules.