Palm Coast, FL to Vero Beach, FL

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Lighthouse on the ICW

This covers two days of cruising and two days in Vero Beach. Both cruising days were nice and sunny and WARM! I'm actually went barefoot on the boat and we both wore shorts for a couple of days. The second day the wind picked up and we had to contend with sailboats actually sailing.

Here is some ICW humor - "How do you tell it is the weekend on the ICW?" "There are boats going North too." During the week, we rarely see any Northbound traffic.


Old Fort on the ICW

We also noticed that on this stretch of the ICW, which is really Indian River, there are a number of small islands. One is named "Hole in the Wall Island." On the weekend, we see people camping on these small islands with their boats anchored off-shore. I assume the campsites are available by reservation through the park service, but they certainly make a nice place to camp.


Island Camp


Some islands are very, very small

The scenery starting at Vero Beach changes from nice houses to mansions with boats that require a dedicated crew parked in front. It will be like that the rest of the way South.


House with its own observatory


Pelicans Napping


There must be a story here - but we don't know what it is.

Coming into the harbor, we had been told we would be on a mooring ball, so Bob prepared lines for that. Then, when we called to ask which one, we were told that we would be rafting up to another catamaran. Well, that requires a whole different set up with lines and side fenders. So, I spent a harried few minutes running all over the boat re-setting everything. It is a very protected mooring, the water tonight is like glass. Since we expected the wind to pick up Sunday, we will stay here till the weather improves before moving on.

The folks next to us are from New Jersey on their sailing cat named Harmony. I had read that the city of Vero Beach provides a nice shuttle bus with stops at shopping and tourist sites. Unfortunately, they do not run on Sunday.

Saturday night, we went up top to enjoy a cocktail at anchor and I heard some splashes and what sounded like a gasp. I could see in the dark, the porpoise coming up to the surface and hear the blow, then the splash again as it went back down. Since it was quiet, we could actually hear that.

Sunday we loaded up the boat with boxes of school supplies we had signed up to take to the Bahamas. We have some to drop off at Staniel Cay, Blackpoint, and Georgetown.

We had some excitement Sunday morning when we went to launch the dinghy with its new Honda motor. The dinghy is stowed on top of the boat and is lowered to the water with a hoist and straps. We had checked the straps that hold the boat and thought that they were good for another year because we could not see any fraying at all. Well, unfortunately, the strap holding the front of the dinghy broke, dropping the bow of the dinghy into the water. Bob was able to hold it up enough while I lowered the aft end down so we didn't take on too much water. He then pumped out the water we did take on and checked the motor to make sure no oil spilled. We were very lucky that the dinghy did not hit the boat, or us in the fall. Sorry, I was too wrapped up in helping to get you a photo of this mess.

We were able to over to check in and pay for the mooring, take showers, and pick up our mail that had been forwarded, and we just made it back before the rain started in buckets.

When the rain stopped, Bob took off on foot to walk the two miles to the West Marine store to purchase new strapping. While he was at the store, the sky opened again and the wind picked up. We had added another line to the mooring ball to give us extra holding. I was very glad we did that because the wind turned the boat so that the stern was just off a stand on mangrove. If we had broken loose, we would have ended up tied up in the mangrove. Why do these things happen when Bob leaves me alone on the boat? He didn't make it back till after dark.

Monday we took the shuttle back to West Marine, WalMart, and returned to the boat. The weather has cleared up and we expect to continue on Tuesday.