Saturday, January 16, 2010 Vero Beach

The boat at anchor next to us is still here. I was getting worried because I hadn’t seen him since he anchored. Wayne was wondering if he dropped anchor and died, but I saw smoke coming from his hatch, so he must have been in the entrance having a smoke. If he’s smoking, then he’s still alive :)

On the Dinghy ride to shore, I noticed that Marge & Dave left the anchorage. Hope they beat the weather that’s supposed to come in tonight/tomorrow.

Once we got to town Wayne & I split up . He headed for the Home Depot & Lows and I went to the Dollar store for reading glasses, then over to TJ Max (since I was alone and didn’t have to worry about Wayne being bored) to do some window shopping, and then to the Publix for some fresh vegis, etc… While I was sorting and repacking my bags for the trip back to the boat, I heard someone calling & looked up to see Ellen & Dave (Cordelia). They’re in town looking for boat repair stuff too. It sure seems like when you start something, you need to keep running back into town for more stuff LOL.

The bus stops by Publix twice – once heading to the transfer station and once returning from it. I decided to get on the first one (heading into the station) so I could grab a spot and sit. I met some nice people waiting for the bus that got in last night (sv Denali) and we chatted a bit about Vero Beach in general, the bus system and how it works. They’re off to do some exploring & wanted to know if we were going to the cruisers get together at the marina at 4pm. I wasn’t sure & told them if we were, I’d look for them. [I think I have a burger and slaw with my name on it over at the Riverside Café :)] Wayne got on the bus at the transfer station & we went back to the boat & started looking at the charts.

Looking things over, it looks like we’ll head down to Lakeworth (W. Palm Beach). From there (weather permitting) we’ll plot a course over to Xanadu over to the Bell Channel and into Lucaya to check into the Bahamas. Then to the Berry Islands (we haven’t really visited the Northern Berrys yet, then over to Eleuthera & Spanish Wells, then from Eleuthera down to the Exumas or Long Island/San Salvadore…. After looking at the charts, we headed over to the Riverside Café and on the way saw Cordelia (Ellen & Dave). They enticed us over to the Cruisers happy hour (after our burgers) with music. Dave is good! Such talent on the guitar! Roan (Raven) shared the tambourine with me, but after one song I thought she handled it much better and gave it back to her LOL. We chatted for a bit with fellow cruisers (I was happy to see Madcap there too) then headed back to the boat before it got to dark to see. We hadn’t put the light on the dink, thinking we were only going for a burger and it was getting dark. Our timing was good – it started to sprinkle when we got back and I couldn’t see but had to feel to unlock the boat.

I’d left the computer plugged into the 12 volt to charge it all day, but guess the cord was loose. I still had a dead battery and had to wait a couple hours for the battery to charge. Luckily the winds are whipping up so the wind generator is making power for the boat and my computer…