December 1, 2017 - December 9, 2017
St. Augustine is a cruiser’s town (it even has a daily cruiser’s net to facilitate communication) and most cruisers stop over there on their way up or down the ICW. It’s also an easy stop for those who are going outside in the ocean for the trip. We always seem to run into friends in St. Augustine. This time we noticed s/v Paperbird just behind us in the mooring field and stopped by to catch up with Greg and Lynn who are also from Annapolis. Stories of our journey was the topic of choice. Our neighbors from Anchorage Marina in Baltimore, John and Bobbie on s/v Satisfaction, stopped by our boat to chat, too. Maybe that’s why it is always hard to leave St. Augustine, but we got up with the sun on Friday 12/1 and were on our way for the three and a half day trip to Vero Beach by sunrise. When we get up that early we are always treated to a beautiful sunrise.
About two days of the trip were spent on the Indian River. It’s wide and shallow with a dredged channel for the ICW. Most of the time we were motoring in a straight line, keeping our eyes out for other vessels, and navigating the many bridges. During my time at the helm I particularly enjoy watching the habits of the water birds. The cormorant is a sleek black bird that sits low in the water and ducks under to catch fish. We often see them atop day marks with their wings spread wide. They do not have the oils most water birds have to waterproof their feathers so they have to air dry them in this way. Brown pelicans are fun to watch. They glide above the water so gracefully until they spot a fish and then they clumsily crash into the water with a loud splash. Pelicans like to follow fishermen around waiting for a free hand out. Sea gulls, of course, are plentiful. I have seen them follow a pelican around and land on its back when it crash lands in the water. I guess they are looking for an easy meal, too. Another excitement on the trip is dolphin sitings. Many times they swim in our bow wake for several minutes or surface right next to the cockpit. We’ve been told that they like to visit with other mammals.
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| Here is a cormorant drying its wings. |
We dropped anchor three nights on our way to Vero Beach and found quiet pleasant spots. The weather has been absolutely beautiful with lots of sunshine. The mornings are cool, but we are in shorts and shirt sleeves by noon. That’s why we make this long trip in the fall - we are looking for “weather that suits our clothes.”
On the last night of our trip to Vero our transmission cable snapped making it impossible to change gears from the cockpit . Grabbing a mooring in the harbor the next day was quite a project. Bob and I both wore our communicators and I went below and pushed and pulled on the gear lever as instructed by Bob. Unbelievably, it only took us two passes to snag the mooring and get tied up. After picking up our rental car from Enterprise we went straight to the marine store to get the needed cable. Bright and early the next morning we tackled replacing the cable. After lots of cursing, struggling, and checking out ideas on the internet we got the cable replaced before lunch. I was sure it would take all day a possibly a few trips to the marine store.
Vero Beach is another cruiser’s town. Our first few days in Vero were hot and humid without enough wind to keep the no-seeums at bay. Consequently, we were a bit uncomfortable. Vero is, also, the only marina that I know of that has boats share mooring buoys by rafting up beside each other. We had neighbors from Virginia the first two nights. It’s a fun way to make friends and talk about our experiences.
On Thursday-Saturday of the first week in Vero I was able to drive over to Sarasota to visit my children’s grandmother and dear friend, Claire. She and her husband, Fred, are in the process of finding and moving into an Assisted Living Facility and I was there to lend a hand. An added bonus was that Fred’s daughter visited at the same time and we reconnected after years of not seeing each other.
More about Vero Beach in my next blog post…
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