Thursday, January 14, 2010 Yep - Still in Vero Beach

I’ll take these 60-70 degree days. What a wonderful change after all the cold weather. I’m not sure why, but I woke up at 5 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I took the dinghy over to the marina and traded a few books then came back.

We caught the bus into town to do yet more shopping. In talking to Marge and another fellow cruiser we discovered there are portable SSB units out there. We’d heard both good and well not so good things about them, but figured we’d give it a try. I’d forgotten what a great place Radio Shack is. I loved looking at the newest gadgets but couldn’t find a little robot that makes coffee in the morning. We did pick up a portable am/fm/ssb receiver though after fiddling around with 3 or 4 of them. The one I wanted was on sale but the only one left was the floor model (probably why it was on sale so cheap). So we got a smaller one that was a little bit more. They were all Grundig models and it will be interesting to see if we can pull in some weather in some of the more isolated islands where we don’t get VHF weather.

I’ll never get used to having to go to “special” stores to pick up alcoholic refreshments. At home we can buy it at the grocery store. Other states, like here, you have to find a special store to buy alcohol. We went to the ABC store and picked up a bottle of rum that Marge & Dave (Winfield Lash) was talking about. It’s a sipping rum that’s very mild on the tongue. The ABC had 1 bottle left so we got it and caught the bus to the transfer station, and then took the #2 bus to Low’s. There we found a solar light to our liking to replace the ones we lost last year. Then back to the bus and to the marina.

Beth (Mad Cap) was on the bus. She was coming back from the library so I sat next to her and chatted until we got back to the marina. Then we unloaded at the boat and picked up the scissors and comb so I could cut Wayne’s hair on shore. We were going to go over to the Riverside for burgers (hey if I can’t have the rotisserie chicken he can take me for a burger) after the hair cut but ended up back over at the Dockside Grill. Getting back out of the dink, my glasses went overboard. Oh my. Marge & Dave came by when I was almost done cutting Wayne’s hair and Marge loaned me her glasses. We decided that we’d head over to the Dockside for more of their “happy apps” with Dave and Marge. I was glad they were there – they lightened my mood – especially after 2 beers.


We took our hand held depth meter to get a reading on the depths over to the grill and it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get in there. Some of the depths (actual) were 3-4 ft. Most of the depths were 5-6 ft. Soooo we’ll have to be content with walking or taking the little dink over there. We tried calling Steph but got her voice mail. After enjoying the appetizers and going over Bahamas charts, we headed back to the marina – a race of the dinghies! We were going to meet them at the club house to watch so TV but Wayne fell asleep, so called it a night. By the way, the rum they recommended is quite good – Marti’s Rum.

Tomorrow I need to start packing the provisions, etc… Wayne needs to put the lights in to make sure they work.