'Velcro Beach'

Location: Vero Beach, Florida
Position: N27 39.567 W080 22.290

We are beginning to see why Vero Beach has been renamed ‘Velcro Beach’ by the cruising community. What a great place!! We can stay on a very protected mooring here for $12/night, use all the marina facilities, laundry, showers, receive mail, get water, etc., etc. The town has a great FREE bus service which takes us to all the shops we want or need, picking us up right here at the marina and dropping us off at the dinghy dock so we don’t even have to walk very far with our purchases!!

We’ve been doing some last minute boat jobs, restocking the larder and making a lot of new friends. We never thought we’d get burned out on "happy hour", but, take it from us, it CAN happen. We’re spending this evening having a simple dinner together and listening to the wind that is doing at least two things for us – making it too ‘bouncy’ to go visiting, and spinning our wind generator to recharge the batteries.

We’ve been here for almost two weeks now (time flies when you’re Velcroed to the mooring) and we’re getting impatient to get going again. We have enjoyed sunny 80 degree days, walks on the beach and visits from our Virginia friends. A strong cold front has blown through here for the past few days, 20-25 mph winds gusting to 35 mph and nighttime temperatures near freezing – BRRR!. It looks like we’ll finally be heading out again on Saturday. Some parts we ordered haven’t shipped yet, so we’re having them routed to Stuart where we’ll wait (again!!) for them to arrive. At least we’ll be another 50 miles further South.

Happy New Year,

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel