2023 South: Vero Beach FL

13 November 2023 Monday

No boat travel.

Exhausted after all the busy days at the GAM followed by a day of travel, we were ready for a rest. We went to bed early and slept until 9:15 this morning! It felt so good not to have anywhere we needed to be for a few days.

We are staying at a friend's dock (Anna and Don), and we have other close friends in Vero Beach (Cathy and Franklin). Cathy put together a lovely dinner tonight for the six of us. 

14 November 2023 Tuesday

No boat travel.

Today we had chores to do. The main event being digging out from under several weeks of laundry. We had rainy weather with the next few days predicted to be worse. We had covers over the wood railing in the stern. With high winds predicted, I figured I better take them off. I found them to be wet and dirty, so I added them to the laundry pile. 

Anna is a gracious hostess and made lunch for us. Her lunches more closely resemble dinner as she likes to eat her big meal of the day at noon time. 

I received a text from Cathy in the morning saying that with 30 to 40 knot winds predicted for tomorrow (Wednesday - the day we had agreed to go grocery shopping), we should go today. Since she knew I was buried in laundry, she suggested 3:00 to pick me up. I finished the laundry at 2:50!  Expecting to leave in a day or so, I stocked the boat ready for travel.

15 November 2023 Wednesday

No boat travel.

The high winds and rain predicted for today arrived as scheduled. 

16 November 2023 Thursday

No boat travel.

The weather in the surrounding area continued to get worse. Looking at the radar at 7:30 this morning, it looked like a mighty dragon was coming our way. The bright reds near and around Miami looked ominous!

Puff the Magic Dragon?
I don't think so!

Bright Red, Orange and Yellow just off shore

I decided to stay on the boat and do a blog update of our time in Melbourne. 

As I have spent time with Anna, Clark, besides talking a lot, worked some odd jobs with Don around the house. Today's job involved installing a device to measure and display power usage. They had all sorts of wires coming out of the electrical panel as they worked. 

When I was out shopping with Cathy yesterday, she commented that she wanted to avoid going to the store today because, as she said, "... 30 to 40 knots is almost a half a hurricane!" From my perspective, having been around Clark too long, I consider 30 knots to be "a little windy"!

Our plans to move along on our trek to the Keys stalled out with the bad weather. Clark had even made plans to meet up with friends of his at our next major stop in Pompano Beach. However, the weather looked like it was here to stay for a couple of days. Anna decided that we should stay for the dinner party she is having on Thanksgiving day. Clark was able to rearrange plans for Pompano, and we agreed to stay. 

Given Anna feeds us every day, I wanted to do something to show our appreciation. She mentioned that she had some necklaces in need of repair, and I offered to take care of that for her. She took me upstairs to show me what needed repair and what items she had on hand. When I offered to work on them, I did not know what I was signing up for. At the end of the conversation, I had six necklaces in need of restringing, and one set of beads that had never been a necklace but that she wanted made into one. Clearly I would be entertained for the next couple of days.

I took pictures of the items, so I could determine what supplies I needed to effect a repair. I went down to the boat to see what I had brought with me from home. I do not usually bring jewelry-making items and tools along but did this year for some unknown reason. (It's fate!)

When I walked back to the house after checking the inventory on my boat, Anna grabbed the car keys, and we were off to Michael's to buy parts. We were fortunate in that we managed to get from the car to the store and back again in between rainfalls.

I dove right into restringing the necklaces as soon as we got back with the supplies. I finished two in the afternoon and took them up for Anna to bless before continuing to work on any more. She gave me strict orders to not work on any more today, which after dinner, I ignored and completed one more before calling it a night. This one however fought back, and I had to restring it twice!

17 November 2023 Friday

No boat travel.

Having fought with the third necklace last night, I waited until after breakfast to work on any more. Some of the necklaces, like the one last night, had very tiny holes for stringing. As I gained more experience (i.e. remembered some techniques I haven't used in a while), it got easier, so I finished two before and two after dinner today and was done.

I was not paying attention, but I looked up just in time to see the last of the sunset.

Almost missed the sunset

18 November 2023 Saturday

No boat travel.

Boating friends of our, Bev and Dave, have been stuck in Fort Pierce for more days than they planned due to the yucky weather. They have a sailboat with a very tall mast. Due to high water levels, they could not travel because they could not fit under the fixed bridges (65' clearance) even at low tide!

Although we still have high water in the area, the rain has moved on, so today's weather was beautiful. Given that and with today being Saturday, I wanted to get off the boat and go somewhere - the Fort Pierce farmer's market being the logical choice. Clark agreed that if I was the one to ask to borrow our friend's car, he would drive me to Fort Pierce. 

I dropped off the last of the seven necklaces as I walked out of the house with the car keys.

Our friend quickly offered up the keys to his car. Our boating friends in Fort Pierce said they would like us to come, and they were currently at the farmer's market. We jumped in the car and drove the 30 minutes to go see them. We were exceedingly lucky in that we found a parking spot a short walk from the market.

All ready for Christmas in Fort Pierce

We roamed around the farmer's market. Since my fridge is still stocked with food I bought expecting to be traveling by now, we did not buy any veggies and such. We strolled around the arts and crafts section but did not find anything that jumped out and said 'buy me'!

At 11:30, we decided to go find a restaurant for lunch hoping to beat out any farmer market crowd that decided the same thing presumably closer to noon. We had lunch together and then walked around town a bit, but there was not much to look at. 

Toasting with water -
our standard beverage of choice

We found a "mall" to explore - a verry small one. Most of the shops, other than a manicurist, were closed. I told Clark to get a picture of the unique ceiling decoration in the mall.

We fond an historic monument outside the courthouse offering a biblical quote regarding the law.

A law office had this "Lady Justice" statue on a second floor balcony. Lady Justice is an ancient symbol representing fair and equal treatment under the law.

Across the street from Lady Justice, I noticed a bull's head sticking out of a wall. Clark got a picture for me. The display is associated with the restaurant -- "The Fort Steakhouse". It certainly was eye-catching.

Thursday night Anna and Don went out to dinner and the theatre to see someone sing Billy Joel songs. The theatre below is where they went for the show. Other advertisements included shows similar to the one they attended. One was for a Lucy and Desi look alike couple who would be performing a comedy routine about the Ricardo family.

Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce

We ran out of things to see, and Bev and Dave had a family video call set up for later, so we took them to their marina where their boat is docked and returned to Vero Beach.

Lots of birds of various species here

As a result of the recent weather, some Vero Beach streets were heavily flooded and cars damaged. The street where we are staying did not flood; however, the water in Bethel Creek, behind Don's house, has been extremely high. 

Sadly, "Sunset Delight" has suffered some major scratches, removing some of the Flag Blue paint along the hull. The side of the boat came too close to a piling and rubbed on it for far too long before we noticed. Unfortunately, Clark does not currently  have any of that paint on board to do a touch-up repair.

Around 4:00 I looked out the back of the boat and saw Don, Cathy, and Franklin sitting on the patio. I yelled to Clark that they were there and we went up to join them for chitchat. There was some confusion as Don had invited everyone to go out to dinner on the 19th, but Franklin thought it was today. They came expecting to go out to eat. 

19 November 2023

No boat travel.

Clark spent some part of today working with Don to put up Christmas lights.

as seen from stern of our boat

Today was the day for the dinner outing to Bonefish Grill. I knew folks were gathering at 4:00. I had been reading but kept almost dropping my book as my head nodded while reading. At 3:00 I decided to take a nap. Clark's guitar occupied the sofa, so I decided to lie down in bed. If I dropped the book, it would land safely and I could sleep. At just before 4:00 I heard Clark and saw that it was time to get up and get moving.

The guys sat outdoors to talk, Anna, Cathy and I stayed in the kitchen. They talked house and boat repair. We talked food. Anna prepared a selection of appetizers for us to eat with docktails. It was enough for me to be my meal. She prepared plates of food and gave them out to each of us instead of having it buffet style. 

After the mini meal I had at the house, I could not eat a big dinner, so I got an appetizer and a side. 

Don, Anna, Franklin, Ev, and Cathy
in front of colorful lights outside Bonefish Grill

Somehow, after we got back home, when Anna offered ice cream, I made room for that as did everyone else. I think I shocked Franklin by saying yes to a small glass of cognac! I could not figure out why he refused to hand it to me until I realized that he thought I did not know the proper way to hold a cognac glass. I told him I knew how to hold a snifter, and he relinquished hold of the glass but not without coaching me on warming the beverage with my palm! Afterwards, he could not believe I actually drank it. Clearly, he is not familiar with my wayward youth.

 

Clark and I have been binge  watching the "White Collar" series. After dinner and dessert, we knocked off three more episodes.