2024 November: Vero Beach Scenery

13 November 2024

no boat travel

We have been staying at a friend's dock in Vero Beach the past few days. Our friend Don, who owns the dock, has been traveling on his boat and returned today. He had friends we know from New Jersey onboard with him - Cathy, Franklin, Gerri, and Bruce - all folks he knows from their days docked together at the marina in Atlantic Highlands. Don's wife had stayed home due to taking care of the house after tornado damage to their home when Hurricane Milton passed through Florida. 

Anna has been serving Clark and me meals while we waited for the travelers to arrive home. Tonight she planned a celebratory feast for dinner to welcome them all back to Vero Beach.

14 - 15 November 2024

Dinghy returned

Our dinghy had air leak problems and went to the dinghy doctor for maintenance. Today, Clark picked up the dinghy from the boat ramp in Vero Beach. The patches looked good, but the outboard made unusual noises as it was lowered and raised. Clark spent time after he got it back to the dock where we are staying to try to address the issue. He went to the store to get some transmission fluid to lubricate the mechanics. He worked with Bruce for quite a while bleeding out the air in the line. After they were done, the problem still existed. 

Clark believes the outboard motor part shown below is the root of the noise issue.

I spent the day doing some acrylic painting.  I got in the mood after painting the dragon for our friends. Looking through pictures I have taken on our travels, I found a couple that I liked and decided to recreate the scenes on canvas. 

Below are the pictures of pelicans that I used for ideas.

Pelican in Acrylic

Photo

Acrylic Painting

We have been seeing a big moon the last few days. I tried to capture a picture.

16 November 2024

Well, the dinghy repair did not go as well as planned. Clark discovered today that the dinghy was still deflating. He contacted the folks who had worked the repairs, and they told him to bring it back to the boat ramp for pickup this morning. We had planned to leave today. This news meant we would continue to stay in Vero Beach for a while longer.

Gerri and Bruce departed today for their long drive home to the northern edge of South Carolina. They needed a one-way rental vehicle. None could be located anywhere near Vero Beach. Yesterday, our mutual friend Cathy drove them to Stuart to pick up a rental from a Budget located there.

As Clark prepared to take the dinghy to the ramp for a 10:00 pickup by the repair team, I prepared to go for a walk. I helped him launch the dinghy, and then left for my walk. I left around 9:00 and took a bunch of pictures along the way. 

When he boated past a neighbor's dock, he grabbed some pictures showing tornado damage to a houseboat moored there. This is the boat that was moved downstream to a supposed "safer" spot. Clearly that did not turn out as planned.

Pictures from my walk...

At the earlier part of my walk, I observed teens enjoying baseball practice; more dogs than I could count romping in the dog park; and a playground full of laughing children. A group of a least 10 bicycles passed me along the way. 

I decided to stop by the boat ramp area along the way, so I knew where Clark would be bringing the dinghy for drop-off.

High tide at the boat ramp area

Something big was happening at the rowing club near the boat ramp.

Vero Beach and Indian River
Rowing Clubs event

The ibis were quite prevalent and busy at the ramp.

Some other birds were enjoying the park as well.

Having made note of the location of the boat ramp, I continued on my walk with no idea where I was going to end up. I headed towards Route 60 and kept going.

Map of the area where I walked is shown below.

Vero Beach Museum of Art

At Riverside Park, I found a lovely bird mural.

Being a Saturday, I found lots of folks out and about today. A special event dedicated to dementia was just completing as I approached the park. Sets of folks with matching shirt colors were leaving the area in droves. It must have been a well-attended event.  

Watching my time, I retraced my steps to the launch ramp and found Clark talking to the person collecting it for its trip to the repair shop. I arrived at the boat ramp at 10:00 and found Clark talking with the pickup person as I walked up to them. In typical Clark fashion I had trouble getting him to stop talking. He had planned to have our friend pick us up in his car, but when I showed up, we agreed to walk back together. 

The walk to the house was about a mile or so. We were weighed down a bit with a lifejacket, throw cushion, oars, and a bag holding anchor line and some other stuff. Clark wore the lifejacket and, as we wondered what the locals thought of us walking with all this equipment, made jokes about worrying he might drown on the walk down the street back to the house.

At the end of my walk, I found that I had covered about 4 miles of distance! After that I was done for the day and spent time reading and doing word puzzles. 

The sky at night here has been quite pretty. The phone does not due it justice.

17 November 2024

This morning it felt more humid than yesterday, and I was not motivated to go on an early walk. I spent the morning relaxing with my latest murder mystery. After lunch, I laid down and took a nap on the sofa. I woke later to cool air blowing in the window next to me and decided I should drag myself off the sofa and take that walk I had decided against earlier. 

As I left, I found Clark on Don's boat helping him with some boat chore requiring him to lift 6 100-pound batteries 3 times each. I looked at the local map before I left and decided to go exploring in the opposite direction to yesterday's walk. By the time I returned to the boat, I had been gone for about 80 minutes and walked about 3.5 miles. I stopped multiple times to take pictures.

I started my walk by heading to the Vero Beach boardwalk.

Today was a "red flag" day as the surf was rather rough.

Looking down from the boardwalk to the beach, I saw the man below with 6 small dogs on leashes. As I watched he released each one to go romp on the beach. A woman I passed said each of the dogs had rhyming names including Thea and Mia.

Continuing my walk into town, I passed lots of interesting sights.

Miscellaneous plants and critters ...

Lots of interesting art work ...

Some pretty landscaping ... 

Signs of Christmas coming ...

Numerous businesses - some open even on a Sunday ...

I saw the sign below and looked in the direction of the arrow.

I wanted to stop at Kilwin's for ice cream, but it would negate the benefits of my walk, so I passed by without going in. Sigh!

After my stroll through town, I decided that it was high time I started heading back towards "home". I got more boardwalk pictures.

Girls braving the cold air and water

Red flag for dangerous waters

Continuing on, I came upon the Jaycee Park 

where I found a cannon

From a Spanish Galleon that
sank in the Bahamas in 1656 and 
recovered from the ocean in 1995.

 and murals on local businesses.

The sun, what could be seen of it, was low in the sky by the time I reached "home". 

When I got back to the boat, I found Clark had completed his chores helping our host with his boat and was preparing to sit on the patio with Don for docktails. We sat there with Anna and talked until time for dinner when the gnats drove us all indoors.