December 21st- Vero Beach FL

It’s been a while since I last posted. This seems to happen when we get to Florida. Relaxation takes precedence. I’m going to break from the usual format and sum up the past few weeks.

We left St Augustine and headed down to Titusville. The main reason for stopping there was to visit with family. Unfortunately Lynne and I both got sick on our way there. We were able to have a socially distant get-together but avoided restaurants or being in a car. We spent most of the rest of our time on Evergreen recovering. I did see an up close rocket launch as Titusville is close to Cape Canaveral.

Gator! It looked around ten feet. I was told it was six feet. He/She is living in the marina.

Space X rocket launch.

Eventually we were done with quarantine and left for Melbourne. We haven’t seen much of Melbourne. It’s just a convenient spot to stop for the night. We had a north wind pushing us along and were able to sail most of the day.

Evergreen anchored in Melbourne.

We’ve now been in Vero for a couple of weeks. The Florida weather really hasn’t been that great. We are waiting for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. There just haven’t been any opportunities for us. Many days have northerly winds, gusting to the 30s offshore. The other day we got 2 1/2 inches of rain, a record for VB.

Weather complaints aside, Vero Beach is our preferred Florida base and we’ve enjoyed ourselves. We had a rental car for a few days and stocked up Evergreen for the Bahamas. Ollie has been to a local vet and has gotten his paperwork for the crossing. We’ve hung out with other cruisers. SV Rhiannon is here and SV Clara was moored in harbor also. We are rafted (on a mooring) with SV Barry Duckworth, which we know from our past trips. We’ve had a lot of camaraderie. Vero has many good restaurants and we’ve been frequenting Elsid’s Taqueria and have had other great meals from around town. The other day we celebrated Lynne’s birthday with grilled steak, fresh ravioli, Portuguese Dao, and a really decadent piece of chocolate cake from a near by market. We’re still saving one bottle of Dao for the Bahamas.

Looks like we’ll be here until after Christmas.

Some scenes from Velcro Beach.

Rough seas on the ocean side of VB.

Whoa!

Evergreen rafted up in Vero Beach.

Nicer day but still some rollers out there.