Unstuck from Velcro Beach

While the boat was in Vero Beach I flew home to Maine for a  week and Bill stayed on the boat .  I had a great time at home and had fun volunteering at the Grange Fair,  going to the Gardens a Glow at the Botanical Garden in Boothbay, the Christmas concert at the Knox Mansion, seeing friends and family, spending time with my mother, and playing with Bailey.  It snowed a couple of times while I was home so I had a taste of winter to make me appreciate the warm Florida weather.  David and Liz picked up and dropped me off at the airport in Portland. David was a good sport about eating at an Indian restaurant and browsing a yarn store.  My carry on bag when I returned to Florida was loaded down with molasses cookies from my mother and cheesecake from Liz. Bill appreciated the deserts from home!

While I was home Bill was very productive (as usual) and fixed the windlass, painted depth markers on the new anchor chain, loaded the anchor chain, changed the oil, refilled the propane, and did various and sundry other boat tasks.

Vero Beach lived up to its nickname of “Velcro Beach”.  We reserved a mooring on November 20^th for a week and finally unstuck ourselves from the Velcro with a loud ripping sound on December 13^th.

Tuesday we went to Manatee Pocket where our friends Russ and Pat met us in their powerboat and led us to a friend’s dock. They then gave us a boat tour of Manatee Pocket and drove us around beautiful downtown Stuart in their truck. We then had dinner on their balcony overlooking the water.  It was a treat to see them and to have a chance to tour this beautiful area of Florida. 

Wednesday we went offshore to Lake Worth.  The weather was quite calm so it was a motor sail all day.  Really, it was a motor boat ride and the sail was for decorative and shade purposes, but we like to pretend!

The anchorage in Lake Worth is a popular place to wait for a weather window to either go to the Bahamas or Miami.  Publix, West Marine, and a fantastic Italian bakery are within walking distance. Unfortunately, West Palm Beach is not particularly welcoming to cheap cruisers, so the only place to land the dinghy is a small beach under a bridge in a high theft area.  Unless your dinghy is locked to the metal fence it may not be there when you return.  

Saturday night the wind was gusting well over 20 knots, and it is still 15 - 20 with higher gusts so we are waiting for the weather to clear before heading to Miami.  There are so many bridges between here and there and the anchoring is very limited in Ft. Lauderdale so we will be going outside when the wind dies down.