Depart: Titusville Marina 8:15
Arrive: Serenity Island Anchorage near Melbourne, FL 1:20
Distance: 39 NM
Once again we made our destination decisions while underway. Based on a recommendation from Denise on "Island Office", we decided to try a new anchorage at Serenity Island.
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| View as we departed the Titusville Marina area |
Truthfully, I did not see much of today's trip. I stayed below for the majority of the time doing some much-needed cleaning and then working on a couple of sewing projects. I seemed to have too much energy to just sit at the helm. Clark, on the other hand, had a good time up top watching dolphins playing in our wake along the way.
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| 3 dolphins this time - one jumping and two underwater |
Serenity Island is a little bitty thing - just big enough to hide behind if the wind is from a favorable direction. Two sailboats had already claimed real estate when we arrived to drop anchor.
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| Sailboat at anchor; wrecked boat ashore |
We enjoyed a pleasant and very-welcomed breeze all afternoon and into the evening at this anchorage. When we set our anchor, we note the tide change. The amount of up and down room we have to allow for the anchor line has changed drastically state to state. Around home, we have a 3-foot change. In Georgia we had to calculate in an 8-foot difference from high to low, and here we only had to allow for less than 1/2 a foot of change.
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| Sunset near Serenity Island near Melbourne, FL |
Thank you to Denise for a great anchorage recommendation!
11/10/2018
Depart: Serenity Island Anchorage 9:00
Arrive: Vero Beach Private Dock 11:50
Distance: 20 NM
Knowing we had a short distance to travel to Vero Beach today, we did not set an alarm, and we slept in. Heavenly!
Clearly it was the weekend as the number of boats we saw on the water increased exponentially over what we have been seeing on week days. People in small boats zipped by us waving madly with big smiles on their faces. We wondered why everyone appeared so friendly today. I enthusiastically waved back.
Right after one small boat loaded with a bunch of people flew by us, we slowed down to pass a sailboat. As we passed, the man at the tiller yelled to his children (inside the cabin) and pointed at our boat. He clearly wanted them to see something. I walked back to see what all the fuss was about and saw nothing of interest. Meanwhile, the small boat that had sped past us had come to an abrupt stop to also gawk at our boat.
The man at the helm explained that we had dolphins playing in our wake but they were gone now. The dolphins prefer to play in our wake at 9-10 knots, so they left when we slowed the engines to pass the sailboat. That was okay, because there appears to be no shortage of dolphins in this area. We had multiple occasions to watch them enjoy our wake today.
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| Yet more dolphins playing in our wake |
One big old dolphin gave us quite a show. He clearly enjoyed having an audience. To show enthusiasm for his antics, I waved at him repeatedly to give encouragement. He kept one eye trained on me as he played in the water. I have seen dolphins tip sideways to look up to see us, but this is the first time I have seen one do a roll in the water. Multiple times he rolled so his belly was facing up. He was quite a show off.
Thank goodness we had Mr. Auto Pilot along on the trip to drive the boat as Clark and I both stood looking over the side to enjoy the show. He stayed with us for quite a while. (Every once in a while we would peak to make sure the boat was on course with no obstructions in the way.) There was a companion dolphin swimming by him - much smaller in size - Mrs. Dolphin? Suddenly, he must have decided the show was over, I saw him take a deep dive and the Mrs. followed suit. I knew he would not be coming back up for an encore. The show was better than Sea World!
We know someone with a house in Vero Beach, Don, who is so very close to completing his Great Loop adventure. He offered to let us tie up to the dock at his house. Mutual friends of ours are staying at his house - actually the people who introduced us to Don! When we pulled up to the dock, our friend Franklin was there to grab our lines and welcome us. What a great surprise as we did not expect Franklin and his wife to be in Florida!
Franklin and Cathy had plans for the day, so Clark and I decided to pull out the bikes for some much-needed exercise. We rode to the Vero Beach Marina first to see what was happening there and then rode into town for an ice cream treat.
As we biked to the marina, we passed one of those signs that tells you your speed in a slow speed zone. Both Clark and I were surprised that it measured our speed as we passed. We circled around a couple of times to get a good picture. I was amazed to see that I was cruising along with little effort at 12 mph.
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| My speed on the bike - 12 MPH |
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| Landscape at Vero Beach |
When we arrived at the Vero Beach City Marina, we found a bit of action taking place. The Vero Beach Yacht Club nearby had commandeered the city dock to hold and observe a boater's parade. (my photographer forgot to take pictures). We saw two SUPs - one with two dogs on board and several small craft.
What I found amazing was the full-dress uniforms of the yacht club members. They all had on their nautical dress jackets with white slacks. I noticed that the first one I saw had on white spats. Then I noted that all the others had white shoes as well. The variety of white shoes left me chuckling especially when the Chaplain walked by wearing white clogs.
We saw two boats at the marina waving Gold Looper flags. Clark spoke to one boat owner briefly who told us he completed the loop in 2012. However, he was quite involved with working on a boat repair, and clearly was not in the mood to chat.
From the marina, we biked into town to see the beach.
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| Vero Beach |
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| U.S. Flag proudly waving offshore in Vero Beach |
With a strong, chilly breeze I was surprised to see people playing in the surf.
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| Playing in the surf at Vero Beach |
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| View of water through a local restaurant |
After the ice cream, we biked back to the boat to hang out until dinner, which I cooked on board.
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| Sunset over Vero Beach |
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