New Year. New Post. A little late. Weather, Weather, Weather.

In all, we spent around a month and a half in Vero Beach. While there, we stocked up Evergreen for the Bahamas a few times. Ollie played ball and frisbee about 4 million times. There was a lot of rain but we walked around town on the nice days. Just general day to day life happening.

A few more scenes from Vero.

Happy dog after beach frisbee.

Another Space X launch.

Booster separation.

While we both enjoy Vero Beach Marina, we were ready to move on. I get a little “antsy” when we sit for too long. Pete the diver cleaned some of the accumulated gunk off of Evergeen’s hull and replaced the zinc. During our time here we made several aborted attempts at leaving. The problem has been the weather.

Florida has been having some unusual weather this year. According to meteorologists, El Nino has prevented hurricanes from hitting Florida but this has made for a cold, wet, and windy winter. The north winds and squalls have complicated our Bahamas plans. Some boats have made it out there but have been mostly pinned down in the few protected harbors due to heavy wind. So, we make plans – then we cancel them.

January 15th- Vero Beach to Jensen Beach FL

We decided to break out from Velcro Beach. We have a very brief/ uncertain weather window at the end of the week so the decision was made to move a little further south. We got a late start and had a head wind so I planned for a short day. We arrived at Jensen Beach around 2:00 and anchored on the side of the bridge for protection from the wind. Around this time many dark clouds started pushing through the area.

On the way to Jensen Beach.

Things were looking worse as it got later in the day. Eventually, I let out a bunch of extra chain for our anchor. This was a precaution for possible winds. It became earily calm. Then the wind started to pick up. Then the rain. Then our phones started blasting government alerts. “CAUTION – EXTREME TORNADO ALERT – Take shelter in a basement immediately. Blah, blah, blah”. No basement. Not much shelter. Two tornados touched down near by and were moving across the area.

Tornado.

We avoided the worst of it until around sundown. Then, we were hit by a wall of wind and rain. The lightning was constant for a while. The tornado alert was re broadcast for an hour and a half and really wasn’t very helpful. I’d have thrown my phone at the tornado if I could have seen it. Visibility was zero and it was almost impossible to keep my eyes open with such a hard rain and heavy wind. The wind made a roaring sound and was punctuated by thunder. Our big anchor held. This is why we have an over sized anchor.

The closest wind observation I found said sustained wind was 47 knots with gusts to 70. A sailboat was hit by lightning on the other side of the bridge. At least one vessel washed up on the causeway. What a squall! After it ended, the rest of the night was calm.

January 16th to 20th Jensen Beach to Manatee Pocket/ Port Salerno FL

Today looked like it might involve more squalls so we decided to hide somewhere. Manatee Pocket is a very protected harbor with a brand new mooring field. In other news, our planned crossing to the Bahamas (on Friday) was looking very marginal. In addition to that Lynne spoke to a friend over there who said they were prepping their boat for “a blow”.

We’re spending some time in Manatee Pocket. It’s a nice spot. There is a small commercial fishing industry here and a couple of fish markets. There are many places to eat and some actually have reasonable prices. The Pirates Cove Marina has a bar with live music almost every night.

I’m writing this on the 20th so we’ve been here a few days. Weather has been mixed. Generally a day of sun followed by a few days of clouds and rain. Odd weather. We found a few good sandwich shops I’d like to sample. Lynne and I walked up to a Mexican grocery store with attached produce market. She bought a few things. The produce looks great. Tomorrow we’re going to walk up to the local coffee shop which is in an Airstream camper. We’re enjoying ourselves and will keep an eye open for a Bahamas crossing window.

Some scenes from Manatee Pocket.

On the way in. Lots of boats.

The sun!

View off the back porch. That’s a Cape Dory 36. Catalpa was a Cape Dory 28.