Washed down the boat scrubbing off the salt. The anchors were gross with dried black mud. Yuck.
Read most of the afternoon. Felt good to just relax.
Wednesday morning we rode bikes to Publix to get a couple of things. Stop at a diner for breakfast. Back at the boat we fill the water tank in preparation for leaving. As we're on deck, we see a couple of manatees hanging around the boat. Just big lumps in the water hanging around.
We leave about 1pm today on our way to Vero Beach. This was a must stop for us. When we were looking for boats about 2 years ago, we stopped here and had lunch just down the waterfront from the marina. As we're looking out we see these boats on the intercoastal and dream of the day it's us on that boat.
So at Vero Beach, we tie up to a mooring ball. This is a first but is really easy, just ease up to the ball and grab the line and tie it to the boat. The boat swings around as if it were on an anchor. We dinghy in to the marina to get registered. There is no power or water but the cost is about a third of a slip so still a good deal for the night.
We dinghy to the Riverside Cafe for dinner. The guest dock is covered in pelican poo. One of the restaurant patrons comes out to help us get the dinghy tied off . We have to climb up on hands and knees so a trip to the bathroom is in order before we touch anything. The place is crowded so we have to wait for a table. We get a beer from the bar and walk out to the outside deck. There are only a few tables out there but we'll wait. That's where we want to sit. The couple that helped us offered us the other two chairs from their table so we moved them to the rail. We ended up eating there which was just fine with us. There is nothing really special about this place just holds special memories for us.
It's past dusk when we dinghy back to the boat. Anchoring out has lighting limits. When it gets dark, it gets really dark. We have lights from the inverter but we try to limit their use. We also have TV but only local, very basic channels.
Thursday morning, we wake up and notice we aren't facing the same direction as the other boats. Jerry goes to the stern and I hear him talking to someone. When I go out on the sun deck, I see a 40' sailboat attached to our stern, sort of. Somehow our dinghy had become caught under the ladder on the stern of their boat. Jerry suspects that because we have more windage than sailboats, we had turned when they hadn't and the dinghy got hooked. Fortunately, no damage to either.
We head out this morning. Finally see some American White Pelicans. Much prettier than the Brown Pelicans we've seen throughout the Gulf Coast and through the Okeechobee. They don't dive for their food like the Brown Pelicans, instead they surround fish in shallow water, scooping them into their pouches. Interesting to watch.
We found a very cool anchorage. The narrow channel had houses on one side and a beautiful park on the other.
We made our way around to where it was recommended we drop the anchor but it was too shallow for our liking. We turned around and motored out across the ICW and dropped anchor closer to a bridge in wide open spaces. We were outside Melbourne, FL.
While we were around the park, Jerry made several attempts to capture a Brown Pelican diving into the water. I think he finally did it.
Just funny to see. Like a kid doing a cannonball. The splash makes it.
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