Sunday, April 20, 2014. We left the
Las Olas Marina at Fort Lauderdale at 8am. We mad the Las Olas bridge at 8:15am
(it only opens once and hour while under repair). It is sunny and 65 degrees,
wind WNW at 10-15. Made the 8:30 opening at the 17th Street Bridge
and then out to sea. Wind is NW at
15-18. Seas are flat as we stay only one
mile offshore. At 1pm, the wind is dying
and shifting North. We are motor sailing
and the clouds are thick. At 2pm, the
wind dies off and the sun peaks through.
At 3pm, the wind goes NE 10-15 – 2 miles to Lake Worth inlet! At 4pm, wind is NE at 20+ and the tide is now
running against us as we negotiate around Peanut Island and north to Lake Worth
north anchorage. At 5pm, the anchor is
down in Lake Worth North. Wind is
18-22. Seems the wind is always howling
when we come here. Lots of boats here, so leave headed south, some headed
north.
Today 53NM, 64SM, MM 1914. 26° 50.20’N 08°03.28’W
Monday, April 21, 2014. Anchor up at 8:30am. Sunny, wind NW@10, 65
degrees. Made the Parker Bridge opening
at 9:15am. The weather is beautiful, but
the tida is running against us. At 2pm,
we have the anchor down in Peck Lake, just south of the St. Lucie River inlet. The wind has strengthened to 20+ from the
North. The barges and dredging equipment
that were here in the fall are gone. We
heard from one of the park rangers that the barges were bringing in sand from
the St. Lucie River inlet and then it was being pumped to the beaches. We can hear clanking of earth moving
equipment on the beach.
7 bridges today, 4 scheduled and we managed to make three of the
scheduled openings with no waiting. The
other three bridges were on demand. 4 boats here overnight.
22SM, 17NM today. MM992
27°06.86’N 080°08.56’W
Tuesday, April 22, 2014. Peck Lake Beach Day. The beach has had a lot of sand pumped onto
it. The height of the beach is probably
6 feet higher than it was a year ago.
Even tho’ the wind has calmed down today, the surf is still up and there
is a significant undertow. Three boats
here overnight.
Wednesday, April 23,
2014. 8:30am,
we refill with fuel from the jerry cans and anchor up. Sunny, 65 degrees, wind
NW 5-10. We bring up a huge amount of black mud on the anchor and the
chain. The water is very murky
also. Maybe a result of the
dredging? When we pass the St. Lucie
River, we can see a dredge working at the mouth of the river. The wind remained pretty constant all day. We
picked up mooring 31 at Vero Beach City Marina at 3pm. Still sunny and 80 with a refreshing NW
wind. Showers and early to bed.
41SM, 33NM today. MM 951. 1 bridge on demand
27°39.61’N 080°22.28’W
Thursday, April 24,
2014. Vero Beach. Sunny and 80 degrees. Wind E@10-15.
Today we rode the bus to the beach and had lunch at a little take-out
spot on Ocean Blvd. Good burger and very
reasonable. We walked back to the marina and stopped at the hardware store and bought a water filter to put on a hose (like with an RV). Some of the water at the marinas tastes terrible!
Someone said that when living on a boat, you really pay attention to things you take for granted on shore, like drinking water, electricity usage, fuel consumption, refrigeration, etc. You also get very close to the wildlife. Today we watched a newly born porpoise being taught how to catch fish by its parents. It was having troubler staying under the water and kept cruising along the surface to breath.
At 4pm, a Happy Hour at the
North Tiki Hut at the marina. Not as
many cruisers as the last time we were here, but about a dozen folks showed
up. We met Doug and Barbara on Melinda
Kay, who were just in Marathon and know Nelson and Ondra (Last Boat) and Dean
and Susan (Autumn Borne). Bob Martin
(River House) was there and played mandolin and someone else played
guitar. Bob is trying to learn the dobro
– Dean could give lessons!
Friday, April 25, 2014. Stan and
Judy Hedlund picked up Lisa and I at 9:15am and we all drove to Fort Pierce to
scrounge around Marine Supply to find something to make a mount for the
iPad. This place has lots and lots of
boat stuff, some new, some manufacturers’ overstock, some used. They did not have what I was looking for, but
probably everything else! Back to the boat
and Pete Brocker came by and changed the zincs and cleaned the running gear
under the water, then stayed for a beer.
Peter is a nice guy and handy to know.
He is a diver, mechanic and all ‘round boat handy man.
Stan and Judy picked us up at 5 and then an early dinner at “The French
Quarter” on 14th Street. Nice
restaurant and the food was very good and pretty consistent with good New
Orleans cooking – can’t say that about many restaurants outside New
Orleans. We saw Sea Major come into the
harbor and waved, but haven’t actually run into them yet.
Saturday, April 26,
2014. Lisa
went kayaking this morning and I worked on getting some of the thousands of
pictures off her iPhone so it would continue to work. We then walked over to Riverside Park to the
Orchid Festival – very nice. Then across
the street to the Art Museum, which was hosting a children’s festival. Even so, we got to see most of the
museum. They have a display of time
lapse photography by Stephen Lawson which is very special.
We had hot dogs in the park and then back to the boat to do
laundry. While doing the laundry,
someone discovered a possum injured in the parking lot. It looked as if it had been hit by a car and
it died soon after. We weren’t able to
save this animal. We went over to
Riverside Café by dingy for an early dinner (soft shell crab BLT – yum). We stopped at River House to see Bob and Deb’s
composting toilet and then got the boat ready to depart tomorrow morning.
Sunday, April 27, 2014. We dropped
the mooring at Vero at 7:45am. Sunny, 75
degrees, no wind and just a hint of fog.
10am wind SE @ 10 – foresail out and motor sailing. 12 noon – wind E@10-15 sailing with only the
foresail. 2:30 wind dies off a bit and
we switch the motor back on. 4pm, we are
tied to the dock at Cocoa Village Marina.
Beautiful day, sunny, 85, nice breeze.
We had dinner on board and then walked into Cocoa Village. Both places that have ice cream were already
closed on Sunday night – bummer. The
humidity is building up, so while at the dock, we have the boat’s a/c running –
nice!
55.5SM, 44.5NM today. MM897.5
28° 21.47’N 080° 43.53’W No
opening bridges today.
Click here for pictures of Ft. Lauderdale to Cocoa 2014
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