Vero Beach - November 21, 2008

November 21, 2008 VERO BEACH MOORING FIELD

We are on a mooring at Vero Beach in Central Florida. As I look off my stern I'm ten feet from mangrove type bushes and the field beyond. The field alarms Maggie because it is the dog walking area, and soo close! A short dinghy ride is Riverside bar and Restaurant. The marina- Vero Beach Municipal- is very cruiser friendly and provides bus service to everywhere for a reasonable fee, and moorings are $12 a day. The way things work here is rafting of as many as three boats to one mooring is expected. It seems safe enough in this creek to do that, and we are rafted, carrying another boat our size. It makes for new socializations and has been fun. We will move on toward Rivira Beach and commission our water maker on Wednesday. A water maker is a machine that makes fresh water so we do not have to find harbors to fill the water tank for drinking and cooking. A necessary upgrade for safer water, we think.

Some highlights have been watching the Space Shuttle go off last Thursday- a bright explosion of light followed by a long bright streak for about a full minute- wonderful! We were anchored in St. Augustine at the time, South of the Bridge of Lions, and yes we did twist our two anchors together! We will consider long and hard about the use of two anchors as we could not move the boat even in an emergency, unless we had untwisted the rode of the second anchor, first.

The Intracoastal Waterway has provided us with lots to see and the depths have been fine. Every day we travel there are dolphins, we saw a manatee and the bird life is spectacular; diving pelicans, white pelicans, osprey, a Bald Eagle, egrets, Woodstork. Seeing those things breaks up the intensity of staring at the red and green markers in the narrow channels. We have stopped at St. Augustine, Daytona Beach anchorage, Titusville, Eau Galle at a lovely park by marker 11, and now have spent two nights on mooring at Vero- whoops I mean VELCRO Beach. Vero is called velcro by cruisers because many just stay at this friendly, accomodating mooring field as long as possible! Some others such as Danand I used the busses to restock and are ready to move on. Also it is too cold for any beaching.