December 10, 2017 to December 18, 2017
By the time I got back from Sarasota to Vero Beach a cold front had come through and the temperature stayed chilly for four days. Highs were in the mid 60s and the lows were in the high 30s-low 40s. Quite a change from the high 70s with high humidity. Even so the weather is better than the snow they were getting up north.
Our second week in Vero was a busy one. We hired a guy to ride in a bosun’s chair to the top of our mast and replace a connector on the antennae. This didn’t solve the problem Bob was having with one of our VHF radios and our AIS reception but it eliminated one possibility of the problem. The cats had to be seen by a veterinarian to get their international papers. We also bought all of the cat food and litter we will need until we return to the states. Next, we had to provision for ourselves which took a trip to Walmart to get the nonperishable items and then on our last day at Vero we bought the perishable items at Publix. There was, also, laundry and cleaning to be done. Bob spent a lot of time searching weather apps to find a good weather window for crossing the gulf stream.
All work and no play makes for a dull life. Consequently, we made sure we interspersed some fun in between all of the work. Most days we ate lunch out, exploring some restaurants we hadn’t been to and returning to some favorites. We, also, met some friends from our days at Hartge Yacht Yard in Galesville, MD for breakfast at The Lemon Tree. The food was delicious and the conversation even better. We visited another cafe, Cravings, for breakfast a couple of times.
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| When the days warmed up we were able to enjoy lunch on Mulligan's deck over looking the beach. Eating while listening to the surf is a treat. |
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| Fishack is a funky seafood restaurant with great food and atmosphere. It's becoming one of our favorites. |
Whenever, I was doing laundry I waited in the boater’s lounge where I met two other cruising couples. Another boat rafted up with us for the last couple of days of our stay. They were from Montreal and even though English is not their first language we hit it off right away as all cruisers have so much in common. They were flying back to Montreal and leaving their boat on the mooring so we had to adjust some lines so we could leave more easily. On Thursday we gave them a ride into land in our dinghy and a ride to the bus station where they were catching a bus to the airport. We cruisers always look out for each other and lend a hand when we can.
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| Here's Rainy Days rafted up with Le Repos, the French Canadians boat. As you can see the situation promotes camaraderie. |
Having the cooler weather made taking a couple of long walks very comfortable. One was to the park where there was an arts and crafts show going on. I bought some air plants for the boat. We’ll see how well they do on the boat. Captain Jack has already eaten the blossom off one. The second long walk was to the beach and the beachside shopping district. Fun, fun, fun. I don’t need much now days, but I still love to look at all of the merchandise.
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| What do you think? Will they live? |
After taking showers and topping off our fuel and water tanks we left Vero Beach at about 9:30 Saturday morning. It’s sad to leave Vero, but fun to look forward to arriving in the Bahamas.
Saturday and Sunday were traveling days taking us to West Palm Beach where we anchored out in Lake Worth and waited for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream which if nothing changes will be Tuesday, December, 19, 2017.
My next blog post will be about our crossing and our first few days in the Bahamas.
Thank you for reading my blog
