vero beach, FL.

did we get to see anything of the infamous velcro beach, FL?  nope, not really.  we took a slip at the loggerhead club and marina which is a bit outside of vero beach.  it turned out to be one of those condo development types - very la-di-da - but definitely not in town.  however, it was biking distance to the publix and that first day, tom and i decided to bring home some chinese take-out.  nothing defrosted, too lazy to cook and chinese is just so very convenient.  this was after the boat had been cleaned up and everything.  neither of us can understand how we manage to get so dirty on the outside but i didn't even have to ask tom to hose it all down.  even he couldn't stand it and his threshold is much higher than mine.  i stay on top of the interior but even so.  still, it seems kind of sad that we go into a marina and then have all this work to do instead of going about town and seeing what there is to see.  in this case, however, we were nowhere near town.  in any case, it was a really nice place to walk and bike around - very manicured - a golf course development.  they had all kinds of birds hanging out in the ponds.  the white pelicans are HUGE and when you see a number of them all bunched up together, they look even bigger.  there were ibis and storks and herons.  it was really very pleasant.

members of the SAIL rally

white pelicans

wood stork

great blue

our last briefing for the leg from vero beach to coconut grove was held at loggerhead so the others had to be bussed in.  there were only four of us from the rally at loggerhead and everyone else was either at vero beach marina in a slip, or on a mooring or anchored.  we heard that they were rafted up in the moorings even!  not really my style so even if we didn't exactly get to see vero beach, this was good enough.  we will pass it again and again, i'm sure.  in the meantime, we were able to provision with the publix being so close by and we also found out that one of our propane tanks was empty and ended up getting a blue rhino replacement at walgreens of all places.  we also found out that the tank would fit in a milk crate lashed to the back of tom's bicycle and that tom could manage to bike back to the boat with that tank back there - these are good things to know! 

the marina had  a potluck that evening and we were invited so that was an added treat.  in any case, from here on, we will be anchored since everything down this florida way is so expensive. 

oh, and it finally got warm enougn to wear shorts!  nights are still pretty cool though. in any case, we are on the homestretch now and tom and i will soon be FREE :)