On The Road Again: Northbound

After being in essentially the same place for nine days as we negotiated TrawlerFest, it really really was time to move along. We enjoy hanging in fun spots for a few days, but otherwise we are generally happy when we are cruising around and exploring. So off we go.

Days 151 – 153, March 13 – 15, 2019

Stuart to Vero “Velcro” Beach, we are now retracing our steps from the trip south in the fall.

It is still “in season” here in Florida. Folks are entrenched and the Bahamas are busy. But we had the itch. This was the very early stages of our northbound journey but for whatever reason, we were ready begin the trek. We would be well ahead of the migration, and that was fine with us.

Stuart to Vero is a reasonable 38 nautical mile ride. We got a relaxed start after walking the pups, wandering the docks at Sunset Bay Marina, saying good-bye to friends, and indulging in one final Matcha Latte at Gilbert’s. It was a bright sunny day with temps in the 70s, but windy out of the southeast. We had a wet ride down the river, but once we turned north up the waterway we had a picture-perfect ride.

Leaving Stuart and the Sunset Bay Marina, we pass under the New Roosevelt Bridge and head south down the blustery St. Lucie River.

The course took us past Jensen Beach and the length of Hutchinson Island, then past Fort Pierce and the Fort Pierce Inlet. This is the southern part of the Indian River, wide and shallow, with a straight channel that is well-marked and relaxing to follow.

Along the way we passed a Tayana 37 that we recognized, as it had one of the few wooden masts that Tayana built. It had belonged to Bruce’s friend Gerry from West Brookfield, MA. We hailed the boat, Pendant, on the radio for confirmation, and yes indeed, it was Gerry’s boat, just returned from a winter run to the Bahamas.

We then picked out an American Tug headed southbound, the light blue Alamo, and had a friendly wave and hail from them also. It’s fun recognizing other boats on the fly and sharing a cheerful hallooo!

The familiar shapes of American Tugs are easy to pick out. This is Alamo. We don’t know them, but we had a cheerful wave.

Pulling into Vero was like coming home again. We like it here, as most cruisers do. And once again we were fortunate to be able to secure the end of the T-dock at the Vero Beach Cit y Marina, which is easy and convenient. We are not happy to raft with other boats, especially strangers, which is the main reason for wanting dock space in Vero.

Vero provided us with several lovely Flybridge Evenings.

We stayed for three nights, and had a nice visit. Most of all, it was so good to catch up with our gaggle of sailing pals who now live in Vero. We had a party of sorts aboard Esmeralde, which was good fun, and went out to breakfast at the Jaycee Park Seaside Grill.

We met our pals Antoinette and John at the Jaycee Park Seaside Grill for an indulgent breakfast.

There is always plenty to do in Vero. We availed ourselves of Uber to do the obligatory grocery, West Marine and Rhonda’s Fish Market trips. I sneaked in several good morning runs, which always makes me happy. The four of us enjoyed walking around “the beach”, which is very pleasant.

We did cut our stay short by a day, as the forecast a few days out was looking marginal and we wanted to make some tracks while the weather was cooperative.