Started day: mile marker 943
Ended day: mile marker 951
We slept in a bit this morning (Sunday, Dec 5th at Sebatian Wabasso Bridge), but were quickly awakened with all the Sunday boat traffic. The anchorage finally calmed down last night, but the weekend boaters were out and about again. Stew did some fishing and we fussed around a bit before heading off to Vero Beach.
We pulled into the fuel dock to get our mooring assignment and to fill the diesel and water tanks – neither required much. The mooring is a flat fee of $20 which you have to pay anyway to use the dinghy dock, so it seems like a waste not to just get a mooring. The municipal marina doesn’t turn any boaters away, instead they have you raft up on the mooring. We have done this on a dock, but never on a mooring.
We had no trouble getting rafted to Symbiose (owners Luke and Mary from Montreal). A very nice couple. Once situated we gathered the laundry and Stew took me over to the marina in the dinghy.
Stew’s mission now was to solve the engine problem – that raw water intake leak was still leaking. He took things apart while I did laundry – the problem was an impeller water gasket that had deteriorated. Luckily he had a replacement! He tested the engine and it seems to be working fine, but we will know for sure once we leave Vero Beach.
Monday morning we planned to head to the beach on the FREE “GOLINE” bus, but it was raining so we decided to grab some wifi and do some business.
I’ve talked to a few boaters here and this seems a good spot to stay for a while. Many boaters spent months here and several are leaving soon for the their yearly trip to the Bahamas. Really wishing we could go this year… but it would be my luck that we would get trapped over there with this new variant, Omnicrone – I need to stay in the states for the time being.
Once we finished the laundry and dinner, we went over and explored the marina area a bit and took some much needed showers. Boy did the shower feel good!
The next day, Dec 6th, Monday, was a bit overcast so we spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the captains lounge using the wifi. Later we walked to Vero Beach and enjoyed a remarkable sunset. We had alot of fun finally using the Pete (the dinghy) as we motored back and forth from the boat to shore.
Dec 7th, Tuesday was super hot – we took the bus to Publix and CVS and walked a few other places. The bus got us close to where we needed to be, but we ended up walking several miles as we tried to track down a few parts we were looking for. Another beautiful sunset!
