Vero Beach Municipal Marina

It is softly raining.  It’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those long, soft soaker rains.  Because of the impending rain and the lack of a really inviting anchorage in the neighbourhood we decided to tie up at the Vero Beach Municipal Marina, tired after a full day of travel.  We could see the rain in the distance and felt a few of it’s sprinkles as we travelled but shortly after we tied up the soft rain started and we’ve been snug as two bugs in a rug enjoying it ever since.

We’ve covered a fair bit of ground in the past few days and we can feel the difference in our surroundings.  More Spanish moss in the trees, the “snap, crackle and pop” sound is back (see earlier post), nights are cooler.  We’re heading NORTH and we’ve been getting those naggy little “alternative universe” thoughts.

The “alternative (or other) universe” is a term coined by our Looper friend Laurie, from the boat Andiamo.  We were docked beside them as they finished their loop and Laurie discussed it often: making the transition to land life (the alternative universe) after a year of cruising.  They were packing up their boat and heading home to their “dirt house”.   It’s something that is starting to loom up there on the horizon for us, as much as we try to ignore it.

 

On our travels today we saw more big boats and big houses.  Lots of them.  Jeff has been snapping away and will soon post an entry.  We are still pushing to get up to Cape Canaveral in time to see a scheduled launch and hopefully make it to Melbourne in time to take in some of an airshow that is going on there this weekend. 

This morning we took advantage of our stop in Vero beach to, well, go to the beach.  It was still a little misty out but we walked through a very nice neighbourhood of tree lined streets to a local restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards we walked along the beach, trying not to get too wet from the big waves.  We watched as volunteers dug, looking for turtle eggs to mark them and keep track of them as they hatch.  This is a prime hatching area for loggerhead turtles and they all come back to the beach where they were hatched to lay their eggs.

We received a package that we had ordered and had delivered to Vero Beach Municipal Marina.  We had forgotten our little wee solar panel on top of the canvas one day and it appears it is now on the bottom of the gulf of Mexico somewhere. So we now have a new solar panel and it’s not “wee” at all!  Jeff’s tinkering away with it as I type.