2020: Pompano Beach to Vero Beach FL

3 May 2020

Depart: Pompano Beach FL Private Dock 9:00

Arrive: Vero Beach, FL Private Dock 7:45

Distance: 94 nm

I slept well until just before 7:00 a.m. when the small boats decided to start their Sunday travels. With each wake that they generated, I heard clunk, clunk, clunk right beside my head as the anchor chain swung into the side of the rope locker. As soon as it quieted another boat would go by and it was clunk, clunk, clunk all over again. I decided that this could be used as a good form of torture for someone like me who desperately wanted just a little more, undisturbed dozing time.

Before we left, Steve came down to say good morning and see us off. We departed at our planned time of 9:00 a.m. It turned into a hurry-up-and-wait situation as we had to hold position for several minutes waiting for the 9:15 opening of the bridge at the Hillsboro Inlet.

Once through the inlet and out into the ocean, I steered while Clark set some waypoints in the chart plotter. Our plotter is old and slow. It took an hour for Clark to define a route and get the autopilot set up to navigate the route. Refreshing the screen on this Raymarine equipment is painfully slow.

On ocean looking at Florida shoreline

Clark likes his boat to be as ship shape as possible. Some birds decided to "decorate" our boat while docked in Pompano Beach, and Clark could not stand seeing it dirtying his boat. He decided to take a bucket of water and a sponge out the window of the flybridge and onto the roof of the pilot house to do some cleaning.

1 Mile offshore - Florida in the distance

"There's some up here too!"

Scrub, scrub, scrub

Time to climb back in

We saw several more sea turtles today, and Clark even got a couple of camera shots off to help prove it.

I swear that the 2 brown spots are turtles!

Big ole Turtle head sticking up

 At almost every inlet we passed today, we found lots of little boats out enjoying the water. Many contained folks with fishing poles, but an equal number, or more, showed dive flags. Clark had to keep readjusting his course line to go around the boats that all seemed to be set to make him have to detour his route.

An interesting sight on today’s trip …

Kite / Balloon in air

We made good time on the water averaging at least 9 knots and decided to go all the way to Fort Pierce Inlet with the plan to anchor in Bethel Creek for the night. We could see that at least some beaches appeared to be open to the public.

After Fort Pierce we entered Vero Beach ...

Boats anchored in background.
Sea Tow pulling a Canadian sailboat off a sandbar in foreground.

Boats moored at Vero Beach Marina

Vero Beach City Marina

 We got into Bethel Creek before dark and our friends, Cathy and Franklin, stood on the dock to greet us at Don’s house. Don was there too, on his boat Mariah. Since I had items to give to Cathy and Franklin, we contacted them as we approached, so they could meet us upon arrival.

Clark pulled the bow of our boat up to the dock, and I handed the bag with the gifts in it over to them via boat hook. As a good surprise, they had a gift bag for us as well, so I hooked that and brought it back on board.

Social Distant Special Delivery

 Picture delivered

Cathy and Franklin's boat, Home Too, that I painted for them

We talked briefly and then just as the sun was setting, we pulled away and dropped anchor.

 Sunset at Bethel Creek

No sooner did we have the anchor down than we could hear first Clark's and then my phone ringing. It was Franklin calling to tell us that we could tie up to their neighbor's dock. I thought Clark would stay at anchor, but a good night’s sleep, tied to a dock, held too much appeal, so up came the anchor and out came the lines and fenders.

This gave us an opportunity for more chatting – them on the dock and us safely distant on our boat. By the time we finally came inside to make dinner, it was past 8 o’clock and I was definitely hungry. Fortunately, I had planned out our meal along the way, so I had it on the table in, as Clark’s mother would have said, “jig time”!

                                                                 

Since we have satellite TV, at 9:00, we watched California’s 6 o’clock news, and at 10:00 we watched 60 Minutes. After that Clark watched the Florida local news at 11:00, and I went to bed!