December 10th- Titusville to Melbourne, FL

We thought about staying in Titusville another day but decided to push on. The weather looks like it’s going to be questionable later in the week. I’d like to come back here someday and see the Kennedy Space Center. I’ve always admired the folks at NASA. Growing up, I had a space shuttle model (probably Columbia) along with my Star Ship Enterprise. Space geek.

Calm morning.

I believe this is the NASA shuttle hanger.

Later in the day the wind picked up out of the south. Catalpa is a sloop, meaning it has two sails. We have a big genoa (jib) up front. It is on a roller furling mechanism which rolls up the sail similar to a window shade. Aft of the boom is the mainsail (mains’l). It is raised and lowered with a halyard and is flaked on the boom when it’s lowered. We then cover it so it’s not degraded by the sun. When we are motor-sailing I just unroll the genoa. It’s easier to roll up. The main stays covered on the boom. The other day I was trying to remember the last time I hoisted the mains’l up. The Chesapeake Bay? Would the sail be growing mildew? Could some swamp critter be living in there? Ollie standby for attack!

We finally had the wind far enough off of the bow for a real sail. The course was straight for a few hours, so no problem there. Hoist the main! Real sailing. No mildew. No critters.

The end of the day had us anchored in the lee of the Melbourne bridge.

December 11th and 12th- Melbourne to Vero Beach, FL

Fog. This is the first time we’ve had fog on this trip. We New Englanders are used to fog. Pea soup thick fog. We stayed in the cabin until I could see the bridge. Once it was clear enough, I ran Ollie over to the shore. Eventually it lifted enough that we could get under way.

The fog banks came and went during the day.

A little island, shrouded in mystery.

Our next stop was Vero Beach. I did not misspell the name in the title. Other boat gypsies refer to it as Velcro Beach. Once you get there, you stay. We grabbed the last mooring ball in the harbor. It’s packed with snow birds. Boats are doubled and tripled on the moorings. We are the only boat on mooring #50 but that may change. The harbor has nice grounds. A nearby dog park. Clean showers. A lounge. There is even an hourly (free) shuttle bus to the grocery store and West Marine (chandlery). Someone called out to us, “You made it! Welcome.”

We’re “stuck” at Velcro for a while.

Today we had plans to explore but we have monsoon rains instead. The weather is warm. Tomorrow is another day.

View off the back porch.

Rainy day Ollie.