We arrive in Vero Beach

We arrive in Vero Beach

Sunday 20th December 2020

It was a beautiful clear windless morning in Melbourne. We pulled up anchor shortly before 8am and motored the final 30 miles down the ICW to Vero Beach. It was very busy out on the water – perhaps no surprise for a Sunday with such good weather. We pulled in to the Vero Beach City marina fuel dock to sue their pump-out system and to check-in, then we moved onto our assigned slip, which will be home for the next two weeks. It feels like we have finished another part of this voyage. Norfolk, VA  is considered to be mile zero of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and Vero Beach is at mile 952. We did some of this part of our journey out at sea and some on the inland waterways – but all told it’s quite a long way!  We’ll have two weeks break and then make tracks south towards the Florida Keys and possibly the west coast of Florida.

You may be wondering why we chose here in particular to take a break. Gloria’s brother Paul and his wife Fran spend the winters here in Vero Beach, as does Fran’s sister Susan and her husband Clark. We are excited to see them – although it will be different from our normal interactions, as we’ll all be taking great care to avoid spreading the virus. As nice as it is to live on the boat and anchor out in wild and beautiful places, we are really looking forward to being able to step off the boat whenever we like, use the marina showers and facilities and generally relax.

Not much else to report here. We may get rain and T-storms this evening but we are safely tied up to the dock so no worries. Now it’s time to catch up on some football. I think our presence here in Florida is going to give the Patriots an edge over the Dolphins in their game in Miami!

Mike

27 39.482 N, 80 22.215 W

Our neighbors in the Melbourne anchorage - early morning light

I particularly liked the look of this property on the ICW just north of Vero Beach