Vero Beach

The morning light exposed my neighboring anchored boats. I have no idea what make boat this is? I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it?

I’m thinking the boat pictured below is a Nordic Tug?

I have no idea what this trawler below is but I think it’s pretty cool looking. Boat make identification is much harder than cars. We often talk about the style of the boat as being a pilothouse or trawler or Sportfisher, etc but it takes practice to notice the subtle details within the styles to be able to name the boat maker or brand.

Leaving Titusville, I pass under the Max Brewer Bridge.

Before I make it to Vero Beach I slow down to minimize my wake as I pass workers diving on a bridge.

I’m now approaching the Vero Beach marina that I reserved for Saturday and Sunday night. However, I won’t check in till the AM so I must find a suitable anchorage. The anchorage I planned to stay at turned out to be to small to fit me so I pushed on into the night until I found a more suitable anchorage. However, my first attempt at anchoring had my 88# Rocna anchor dragging when I backed down at only 730 RPM. I motored around the anchorage to try and find another spot but found much of the anchorage too shallow for me. It was dark and I was getting tired of circling around the already anchored boats so I just decided to drop again in the same spot. This time I successfully backed down at 800 RPM for a solid 2 minutes while I waited to see if the anchor would budge. It did not so I shutdown the diesel and tucked in for the night.

The morning’s light showed a calm water’s surface.

I hung around enjoying the view and my coffee while I waited to be sure that the marina crew would be there to accept my arrival. Soon I was passing under the Merrill Barber bridge. This area is a manatee zone so you must move very slowly to prevent an accidental strike with a manatee.

Once at the marina I only had to wait an hour or so and Teresa and Nathan were pulling into visit for the weekend. Soon we were off to the Bonefish Grill in Vero Beach for some seafood and drinks.

Chopsticks don’t work well for drinking IPA

The next day we just hung out enjoying each other’s company and watched different boats come and go.

Nathan and I caught the Patriots game and the Jets game.

Marty’s Patriots Game followed by Nathan’s Jets game

The journey to Vero Beach looked something like this.

Vero “Velcro” Beach

Our route down from Titusville to Vero Beach looked like this.

Suntex Marina

We booked a slip in VB’s Suntex Marina for a week. The plan was to install the watermaker and fans for the Bahamas. The install was taking me longer than expected so when we went to add a second week, we learned that a two-week stay cost the same as a month. When the month ended and I was making probably my 6th Uber ride to Lowe’s to buy more needed plumbing & wiring parts, we added another two weeks, oh wait … make that another month! That’s why we like to call it “Velcro Beach”!

Friends

During our time in Vero Beach we enjoyed visiting friends and making new ones.

Watermaker Install

The watermaker is a nice addition if you plan on spending lots of time in the Bahamas where water can cost upwards of $0.50 / gallon. More than the cost is the convenience of being able to fill our 440 gallon water tanks while on anchor. Now how do we install a diesel maker onboard?

Watermaker high pressure pump is an actual pressure washer that uses the water to cool the electric motor

20 micron then 5 micron filters incoming seawater. Carbon removes chlorine when flushing system with municipal water

Product water flow meter, total dissolved solids meter. High pressure gauge and pressure vessel end-cap.

Check valves keep saltwater and fresh from mixing

Product water manifold to send fresh water to either tank or the swim platform for filling water jugs for other boaters

Components mounted using starboard brackets onto pressure vessel

High pressure gauge with pressure adjustment knob

Other Purchases & Install Projects

Electric Receptacles with built-in USB charger ports

Cabin fans – 4 in Master, 2 in guest, one in head, 2 saloon

Satellite communication device to text while out of cell rage as well as track our location

Kelly is Baking Bread

Bread bowl

Home-made pizza

Vero Beach Heading North

After coming out of the Okeechobee Waterway we anchored just off Hutchinson’s Island. This anchorage is just inside the St. Lucie Inlet and while it’s not an official anchorage, it worked for us.

Our crew was was looking a little banged up. Kelly with a broken toe (again)

Chief Martin Brody with a sore paw after ripping a claw off one of his toes.

Thankfully the captain survived to patch the crew back up.

As departed Hutchinson’s Island and made our way North towards Vero Beach I did some quick math on our speed and expected time of arrival. We had told the Suntex Marina in Vero Beach that we would be there before 5PM. With the late start that meant that we were going to have to burn a little fuel and step up our speed from a leisurely 6 kts to something North of 8 kts.

Having dolphins on your bow is something that happens daily in Southern Florida.

Soon we were docked in Vero Beach and it was time to go out to dinner with Lori & Jim @ the Bonefish grille. The food was great and we always have a blast hanging with Lori & Jim.

Back at the marina I found another North Pacific 43. This couple is from Canada and they have some interesting modifications to their NP43. For one they added backup mirrors to the outside of the life rails (I wonder if you can actually use these backing in from the pilothouse?).

I also found a fellow boater from Duxbury, MA here in the Marina.

While we were in the marina the weather turned stormy. Sitting in the pilothouse you could see the wind blowing hard over the water’s surface.

From our aft cockpit you could stay dry as the rain poured down.

We even got some hail hitting the boat and landing in the cockpit.

We had lots of fun in Vero Beach but alas we must keep making our way North to get home and see more family and friends. As we headed out onto the ICW we past many beautiful homes that reminded us how nice Vero Beach is to visit.

Jensen Beach – Stuart, FL

We left the marina in Vero Beach and started heading South again. We enjoyed the marina and the gated Grand Harbor community of which it is a part.

Suntex Marina in the Grand Harbor community

We will be closing on our old home tomorrow. Good bye home.

95 Sheldonville — Home for the last 13 years

The plan is to sell the home and cruise the East coast till we find an area where we want to settle down. Vero Beach was nice but it was also the first location that we stopped at for an extended time.

We plan to be in the North for Spring, Summer & Fall with our family and friends. However, the question of “do we buy a place up North and live aboard while fleeing winter down South or vice versa?” We don’t know the answer yet. We plan to cruise the South looking at different locations and imagine what it might be like to live there.

Maybe we should use Ben Franklin’s Pros vs. Cons style of decision-making?

The North has a king & queen:

King Snow

Queen Ygritte

Wait… this king & queen

The South has

Beaches

and boating

trawlerbahamas — a trawler enjoying the clear blue water

We believe North or South will figure itself out as we explore more locations.

Yesterday’s trip down to Jensen Beach looked something like this:

Jensen Beach

Jenson Beach North of Stuart & St. Lucie Inlet

Once anchored, it was time to put our feet up,

watch the sun set,

and the bridge light up.

Other notable stories this week was the story of a young couple who were chasing the simple life. After dropping out of work, selling everything they owned and buying a $5,000 1969 Columbia 28′ sailboat similar to this one.

6295120_20170902122323566_1_XLARGE — 1969 Columbia 28′ sailboat yachtworld listing

They sunk another $5K into the boat, a few sailing lessons from a one of the couples’ Dad and they set sail. Only two days into their quest to sail the world, they ran aground in John’s Pass near Tampa, FL and sunk her loosing everything they had.

Social media is alive with people calling them idiots. I don’t feel that way however, I will slam them for creating a GoFundMe page to cover expenses that they alone are responsible for. Was their plan risky? Could they have benefited by gaining more experience? Should the boat have been more seaworthy? Should they have saved more money? Yes, of course but life is about experiences and if we wait till everyone tells you you’re ready, you’ll never leave the dock. Boating couples come in two varieties:

Couples who buy huge million dollar seaworthy boats only to leave the dock once a year on the fourth of July to make a safe loop around the harbor
Couples who buy a decades old boat with a few dollars and want to sail the world.

Most boaters are somewhere in the middle but I don’t see a problem with either of the extremes. Life and boating are pursuit of happiness. It’s your life and nobody else is going to live it for you so do what you like and do it soon.

Click on the picture below to find Nikki Walsh’s Facebook page here and see their pug that was rescued along with them.

Click on the picture below to read the full story

What are your thoughts on their story? Leave your comments.

Home Be Gone

“Sell everything but the boat and have the simple life”. We did it. We sold our home in North Attleboro! Well almost. The closing is only days away.

The listing

When Kelly & I met we each sold our own homes and purchased this home together. We loved the home from the moment we saw it. We joked that … “if the current residents had ever seen us driving by each night after work they’d declare us stalkers”. Not having kids (of the 2 legged kind), it was more home than the two of us needed yet over the years we spent a lot of time updating the home & landscaping.

When you own a home, everyone conspires to trick you into believing you need to be doing “projects”. Projects like, installing a new irrigation system, wall-mount TVs, recessed lighting, new countertops, hardwood floors, a new shed, lawnmower, snowblower, leaf blower, surveillance system, smart home additions, and so on…

You’ll be standing in the lonely isles of Lowes or Home Depot reading some marketing display listing the PSI of a gas-powered pressure washer. You’ll spend countless nights searching the far reaches of Amazon to find the perfect WiFi connected smoke & CO detectors. You’ll open innumerable boxes and have to cut them up into ridiculously small squares to keep the town’s recycling from skipping over your barrel. You’ll do all these things during those precious moments when you are home from work. We finally asked ourselves…why?

We loved boating and we found ourselves getting depressed every year when it was time to put the boat on the hard. The boating season in New England is insanely short. We’d spend a month getting the boat ready for boating season and then hope Mother Nature cooperated so we could enjoy those few precious weekends during the summer. Then before we’d know it….it was again time to prepare her for winter and put her on the hard.

Well, we finally decided to do it! To really do it! We embodied the name of our boat, “The Simple Life” and sold everything! The last thing keeping us somewhat tied to terra firms was the house and that is soon to be gone too.

We’re back in Vero Beach (where we left our boat) after clearing out the house for the buyers. Now we think it’s time to start checking off items from our bucket list and the Florida Keys is on that list!

This is going to be quite the adventure!

Vero Beach with Friends

Well we made it to Vero Beach just in time for Christmas.

We had not decorated for the holidays and with it being almost 80 degrees and sunny it was not feeling quite like the Christmas for us Northerners. What to do? Put up a Christmas tree. OK, the boat is not that big so we settled on a small Xmas display instead.

We are staying in a Suntex Marina (formerly Loggerhead Marina). Suntex’s HQ is in Texas and they recently purchased 11 Loggerhead marinas in Florida. The marina here is surrounded by high-end condos in a gated community. They have a beautiful pool and waterfall as well as a captain’s lounge where the captains enjoy coffee together each morning.

The trip South down the Indian River from Melbourne Beach to Vero Beach started with a beautiful sunrise.

Followed by large homes and the occasional trawler passing by.

The highlight of our stay was getting to spend time with Kelly’s Auntie Lori and her husband Jim who have an amazing home here in Vero Beach. Thanks Auntie Lori & Jim for being such great hosts! Here is a selfie from happy hour with our waitress Savannah (whose personality matched that beautiful smile).

The weather has been warm and sunny but Chief Martin Brody and Happy don’t seem to mind.

PS. Don’t tell them it’s not real grass in the cockpit.

We have been hearing about the 8 degree weather back home so we hope all our friends back home are staying warm.