Vero Beach to West Palm Beach

We've had a minor tragedy here on Gran Vida. We left our beloved Mac laptop under an open window and it got caught in an unexpected rainfall (Que in somber funeral music). We had a small service for it last week outside the Apple store in Miami.  So sad.  As a result we are now the owners of a new cheapo PC.  Let's see if I can remember how windows works....  Oh dear. It's quite different than I remember.

Our plan for the next month is to cruise around and explore all the great anchorages on the southeast coast of Florida as we travel to the keys.  One would think there wouldn't be many in this very populated area but we're being pleasantly surprised.

The first one was Peck Lake where we joined our friends Grant and Cindy on As the Crow Flies for a couple of days. There, safely anchored, we held on tight as what the weather stations were calling a "wind event" blew through.  It was a bouncy night but our anchor held tight.  What's cool about Peck Lake is that you can pull your dinghy up on shore and with just a little walk over a sandy path you are at an absolutely beautiful, almost deserted beach.  Very nice.

Next, Joe and Connie on Chesapeske caught up with us and we traveled together to West Palm Beach.  What a great anchorage that is!  We anchored beside the Flagler Museum and had just a short dinghy ride to the free docks right downtown Palm Beach.  Palm Beach is one of those upscale communities with stuff going on all the time and a free trolley to get you around.  We spent about four days there and took in:

• a free boogie-woogie concert (Jeff even danced with me!!). What fun!
• a great farmers' market.
• a "personal" concert with a fantastic band at Flagler Museum, enjoyed from our flybridge as we were anchored beside the museum.  We had no idea who they were as we were just eavesdropping but I do believe the announcer called them the "Miami Sound Machine".  I'm not sure if I misheard that or if they were THE Miami Sound Machine but they were awfully good.  What a treat!
• a car show of exotic, very expensive cars.
• and what was supposed to be an art tour but turned into more of a happy hour extravaganza.  We're distractable.