Cocoa to Vero Beach

After a brief return to Houston to take care of some bidnez, we got back on the boat this Wednesday. Spent Thurs. provisioning and preparing to head south but had to wait on some repairs by Al's Mobile Marine Service. I told you about the fire suppression system previously---Al came down to Cocoa to finish that job and install a new battery charger (When he was on the boat last we discovered that the charger was not working correctly and was "frying" the batteries--That's why I had to replace one battery bank while we were in Cocoa. Soooo--we installed a new genius battery charger that won't do that-----we'll see. Al came in on Friday and we worked together for about 4 hours to get everything in shape, including my replacing the V belts on the engines (had changed out the engine oil on Thursday. I'm really becoming quite the mechanic (apprentice). I like to work along with the experts--it's a great way to "learn the boat".


Capping off that Friday was a SpaceX rocket launch from Cape Canaveral that we were able to view from the deck of the marina:

It wasn't as big-a-deal as the one we watched a year ago but impressive nonetheless.

Oh yeah-----forgot-----before we left to go back to Houston we enjoyed a 9 hole round of golf at the Cocoa Beach Country Club:

The "Admiral" tee's off

Not much of a track but it was good to get out and get some exercise

FINALLY---after an interrupted week in Cocoa Village, we departed on Saturday, heading for our next stop down the "ditch" to Vero Beach. Last year we found a beautiful, mostly protected anchorage not far from the famed Vero Beach mooring field. The mooring field is owned by the city and it's one of the places that cruisers hang out and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and head over to the Bahamas. Needless to say it gets quite busy and crowded when the weather doesn't cooperate. We took a dinghy ride into the mooring field last year just to check it out and found 2 and 3 boats tied up to single mooring balls (a mooring is a permanently placed floating buoy that is anchored to the bottom, usually by a really heavy concrete chunk. The balls are spaced evenly around the field and you call ahead when coming in and get assigned to a ball. You then creep up on it from down wind until your mate can get a boat hook on it and grab a line that is tied to the ball. You then pass your line through an eye and secure it to your boat. These are popular as an alternative to anchoring because they "may" be more secure in a blow and they

are always located at marina facilities--you have to dinghy in to the facilities.

Marathon, in the Keys, for example is one of the largest mooring fields with several hundred balls. I understand that they have been full almost all winter with boats waiting for the weather to allow them to head over to the Bahamas. Several years ago, on Assisted Living, we spent 10 days there waiting on the weather before we could head over to Bimini.

The Vero Mooring field from our anchorage.

Where you pay to park.

    Where we park for free!!

Tomorrow it's on down the ditch toward Lake Worth--North Palm Beach--maybe a stop along the way at an anchorage known as Peck Lake. We'd like to spend a day or two there as you can dinghy over to the Atlantic and the beach. But the weather may be getting disagreeable and a marina might be more comfortable. We'll see. The Admiral really wants her A.O. fix (That's "Atlantic Ocean") and some time on the beach. We just play it by ear.

The immediate goal is to get down to Ft Lauderdale where we can spend some time with my cousin, Jane, who lives there and see our friends Chuck and Nancy who are currently on their boat back at good ol' Burnt Store Marina in Punta Gorda. (We'll' either drive to them or vice versa)

That's it for now. Time to read a book and fall asleep at 8PM