Vero Beach, FL

We arrived at Vero Beach on New Years Day, just shy of one month after leaving Galesville, MD. Given our various hiccups along the way and our stop for Christmas, we consider this a rather quick trip, especially with December's temperamental weather.

 

Having been here before we are very well acquanted with “Velcro Beach” as it’s often known by cruisers. With good anchroages few and far between in Florida, the inexpensive moorings available at the Vero Beach Marina, the free bus system that runs through town, convenient grocery store and availability of marine supplies it’s pretty easy to get stuck spending much longer than planned.  This was our only destination goal in the US, and we knew we had some projects to complete on the boat before leaving the US (the project list just kept getting longer as we traveled south) so we were not surprised when we ended up staying for 22 days.

 

First on the list was to schedule a haulout, so we can replace the cutlass bearing. For this we will have to go down to Ft. Pierce, but it’s only 2 hours down the ICW. We have to wait for high tide to get in and out of the haulout slip, so it means a night on the hard. They get the bearing replaced and splash us the next afternoon.  With a few more projects to finish and still waiting on good weather we return to Vero Beach for a little longer.

 

We drop our dive tanks off at the local dive shop to get Hydro tested and refilled.. well my tank gets tested and refilled, IB is informed that they won’t even test his tank because it is to old and we just need to buy a new one. We make several trips to the grocery store and varous other stores on our bikes to provision the boat. We order spare parts that we may or may not need, slowly check off the list of miscellaneous repairs, such as the head pump and water line… again. 

 

We also have some play time, take Lyra to the park, on a bike ride, visit with old friends, and make some new friends. 

 

Lyra got to enjoy the swing-set at the park.

A day of bike riding and shopping sometimes needs a break in the shade.

Riding over the "hill" in Vero Beach, which would be the high rise bridge over the ICW.

We told her it would be warm in Florida, although it's not at least she has her sporty jacket to keep her warm.

Slowly but surly, Lyra is trying to make sure we get everything on the boat very clean as she once again threw up. This time she managed to hit the bed, a side table and two chair cushions.

Sitting on the hard while we get the cutlass bearing replaced. At least we were still in the US and somewhere easy to get hauled and have it replaced. We could have noticed it was bad in a much worse place, with less convenience and added expenses.