10 November 2025
Depart: Titusville, FL anchorage 7:05
Arrive: Private dock, Vero Beach, FL 2:30
Distance: ~ 63 nm
We woke this morning at 5:00 a.m. to the sound of pouring rain and went back to sleep until a somewhat more civilized time of day. At 6:45 when we pulled ourselves out of bed, we had overcast skies with the sun trying to peek out from behind the clouds. Clark thought the boat shown in the picture below was one owned by a friend of ours traveling south at the same time as us. Turns out, it was not his boat, but it makes a great picture anyway!
As we traveled, we could hear a scratchy-sounding voice on the VHF radio haling other boaters for slow passes. I said, "That sounds like Dave", and it was him. Instead of being in front of us like we thought, he eventually caught up to us from astern. He left his marina in Titusville later than we left the anchorage, but we travel several knots slower than he does.
Along the way, he found us and as we motored along for a short distance, we grabbed photos of each other's boats.
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| "Uptick" |
The forecast for today / tonight sounded miserable with gale force winds predicted and temps dropping into the 30s or 40s in Florida depending on location. The winds never hit the levels predicted and it turned out to me a nice morning for traveling inside. We were very glad we were making our way to our friend's private dock where we would be secure against the wind and have electricity for heat during the night. The winds picked up a little in the afternoon.
Tying up at our friend's dock always takes a chunk of time to get lines and fender boards in place. Thirty minutes after we pulled up to the dock, we finally had everything set to our satisfaction.
11 November 2025
No boat travel
My friend Cathy, who lives in Vero Beach, took me on a much-needed food shopping trip to Publix this morning. We were out of several important items like potato chips! Seriously though, we were down to two slices of bread and that is totally unacceptable! Cathy wanted to stop at Fresh Market as well. I headed straight for their bakery department and grabbed up a Blueberry-Raspberry pie for Clark and some scones for me as special treats!
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| Decoration at entrance to Fresh Market |
After returning from the shopping trip, I did all the tasks that come along with provisioning like packaging the meat into meal sizes and freezing, for example. When I was done with that task, it was time to go out to lunch with our hosts and our friends - Cathy and Franklin.
Our hostess chose the Tequila Azteca Mexican restaurant. They served us enough salsa and guacamole appetizers to be our lunch, and it was too delicious to pass up. By the time my taco salad came, I was already pretty full.
After lunch, having not seen a washing machine since Carolina Beach, NC, it was time to catch up on laundry. That kept me busy until the sun had gone down. In between washes and dries, I ordered up Advent Calendars for my grandchildren as I do every year. The choices were seemingly endless, and I had to search diligently for ones that seemed age and interest appropriate.
12 November 2025
No boat travel.
Our friends, Sandy and Bill, whom we know from our time spent as boat neighbors at Faro Blanco in Marathon, FL, live north of Vero Beach but close enough that they agreed to drive down to see us while in town. When they arrived, promptly on time as always, they gave us a choice of hanging out in Vero Beach or traveling north to their apartment to watch a rocket launch from their porch. We opted for the rocket launch. It was scheduled for 2:00, so we had plenty of time beforehand.
When Sandy and I were together in Marathon, she had a car and would drive us to a farmer's market in town on Saturday morning, and then we would go shopping together at Publix afterwards. As we traveled north today, Sandy suddenly pulled off the road, and I looked up to see she had stopped at a permanent Farmer's Market on the side of the road. It felt like old times!
After buying our vegetables, Sandy had a restaurant in mind for lunch called "Morning Glory".
The restaurant does not look very impressive from the street, but they are actually located on the water and have outdoor seating with a nice view. Unfortunately, Bill said that 68 degrees was too cold for him to sit outdoors, so we ate inside. I got one of my lunch favorites - an omelet with whole grain toast. It came with crunchy home fries that were great as well.
While there, I stopped into the ladies' room. Normally I do not take pictures in a restroom. I made an exception today.
On the way to the restroom ...
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| Fall Specials |
Anyone interested to let the restaurant know how far they traveled to eat here could stick a pin in their chosen location. The pins surrounding NJ were so plentiful, I did not bother to add another.
After lunch Sandy drove us to her condo. Since we rushed home from Vero Beach in the spring, we had not seen this place that they moved into in March. Very nice! From their living room we could see the launch pad for the rocket launch and see the rocket ready to go. The liftoff was scheduled for 2:00!
When we checked the status about 20 minutes before launch time, we found that the ULA rocket launch had been canceled around 10:00 in the morning due to particles in the atmosphere related to the solar flares that were causing the amazing Northern Lights display in the U.S. (We later learned that the launch took place the following day.)
While there we got to tour their condo. It is lovely and spacious with a nice ocean view.
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| View from their balcony / patio |
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| View of pool from the condo |
We stayed until 4:00 when it was time for Sandy to take us back to Vero Beach before the sun retired for the day. As we drove south, I tried to capture a sunset picture out the car window. It was the only shot I was going to get.
13 November 2025
No boat travel.
Cathy and Franklin invited us to their home for dinner this evening. Until then we had the day to do as we pleased. Sandy had told me about a gourmet food store down the road from the place we are staying, so I decided to take a walk and check it out.
The route to the store took me past the local park. Since I was in no rush to get back on the boat, when I got to the park, I decided to walk the boardwalk before going to the store. To get there I have to cross the highway. Fortunately, they have a traffic light for peds to cross to the park. I pushed the button and magically all the traffic came to a halt. I am sure none of them were thrilled with me being there.
View of park from across the highway ...
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| Jaycee Beach Park |
The walk along the boardwalk started out a little more interesting than I expected. The town had a fleet of dump trucks busy replenishing sand washed away due to recent storms.
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| Dumping the sand |
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| Pushing it off the "cliff" |
Beach erosion has taken its toll here. They appeared to have just started the project and have a lot of work to do!
With the pictures below, I tried to capture the dearth of sand currently at the beach.
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| Deep gully where sand should be |
I walked the length of the boardwalk and back again taking pictures along the way.
In the picture below, Grandma and granddaughter were chased by the waves.
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| Is she waving at me? |
After walking the boardwalk and back through the park, I stopped the traffic once more to cross over to go to the market. As it turned out, I was not the only one stopping traffic on A1A. A flag man took advantage of the fact I turned the light red to stop traffic coming the other way to let his dump trucks in and out of the park.
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| Dump trucks lined up to dump their sand loads |
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| Next in line backing up the road to the dump spot |
When I walk the boardwalk, I pass a lot of tall buildings. Walking to the market, I got to see them from the other side! They are lined up one after another, I just snapped a couple of pictures as I walked by.
Finally, I reached my target destination. Sandy had recommended I check this place out and what a great suggestion. I found the item I was looking for and a lot more besides. Good thing I brought a tote bag with me to carry it all back to the boat.
Before returning to the boat, I saw a couple more things I liked.
Back on the boat, Clark was busy doing emails and boat maintenance. He was also learning more about the autopilot reversing hydraulic pump.
Cathy and Franklin invited us to come to their house for dinner. We borrowed a car from our hosts and drove over there. Cathy always puts on an elaborate spread, and tonight's dinner was no exception from that tradition.
We tried sitting outside, but Clark and I were not dressed warmly enough for that. Although Franklin was in shorts and was comfortable! We climbed onto the boat at 10:00! We watched the TV show "Elsbeth" and then went to bed.
We plan on leaving at 8:00 tomorrow morning to catch the out-going tide at Fort Pierce inlet.
14 November 2025
Depart: Vero Beach, FL Private Dock 7:25
Arrive: Lake Worth, FL anchorage 3:20
Distance: ~ 63 nm
Clark set 8:00 as our goal for departure, and we beat that big time. We were out pulling in our lines and getting ready to leave before 7:00 and on our way shortly afterwards. As we left Bethel Creek, I took a few pictures.
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| Creek Reflections |
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| Boat named "Miss Fit" |
Look closely at the picture below and you will see a Blue Heron in the driver's seat.
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| Vero Beach Marina |
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| Marina through the bridge supports |
Non-boaters might be interested in the "road signs" boaters see.
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| "Idle Speed No Wake" |
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| Road sign / advert for "Vero Marine" |
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| "Slow Speed Minimum Wake" |
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| Floating Billboard for Pizza Delivery |
More bridges coming up ...
The two pictures below are 1) approaching the bridges with the sun in our faces and then
We passed by a curious boat anchored on the water near Fort Pierce that we have seen here in the past. I decided this time to Google the boat name. The article about this racing sailboat that suffered catastrophic damage during a race it was winning was interesting to read.
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| "Elim' Emotion" |
After that it was time to head out through the Fort Pierce inlet into the Atlantic Ocean for our trip to Lake Worth. As we made our way out into the ocean, the water looked very calm until we got to the mouth of the inlet where the waves were fast and steep.
However, once we got out there we found a following sea that made us work hard all the way down the coast. Depending on the wave height, we were pushed either to port or starboard repeatedly. Keeping a straight line without a working autopilot is exhausting in our boat.
Finally after about 5 hours on the ocean, we arrived at the Palm Beach Inlet.
Lots of folks were soaking up the sun.
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| Cruise Ship |
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| Boats and Tall Buildings |
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| Big Houses |
I saw a boat going by and struggled to read the name. "Pickle Rick" appears to be a floating gas station.
As I was working on this blog update, I looked up and had to run out to take more pictures. In the opposite direction to the sunset, the clouds were pink!
The mast on a sailboat here was impressive!
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