December 1-15 Vero Beach

Our time in Vero Beach is always a good time. It is a great place to visit with cruisers, shop, sightsee and walk! The free city buses here are great! They pick you up at the marina and if you need a transfer you get the bus you want at the bus depot. When you are finished your shopping or sightseeing, you catch your bus back for the marina. We also enjoyed church services both Sunday’s we were here which was a short walk from the marina. And of course, we got a lot of maintenance done on Persuasion.

The weather was ok. We probably had more good days than bad. But we did have cold fronts go through that brought wind and rain. Waking up to 10C meant running the buddy heater and a couple of times in the evening to warm up the salon. There were some days of 25 – 30C, which for our US friends is 77-80F. Those were the best!

Here are some photos of our stay here at Vero Beach.

Vero Beach entrance

The dinghy dock which is usually packed with dinghys; this was a good day with lots of room

Vero Beach Yacht Club beside the marina

The bus depot and the cruisers store of choice

A favourite restaurant where the cruisers dinghy to on Monday evening. You get a cheeseburger platter for $5.99. One Monday there were 20 cruisers and the next Monday there were 55!

We also met up with a couple of cruisers who we met and rafted up to for days at the Dismal Swamp in NC. Dagny is from Cornwall and they were here when we arrived. They have already left for the Bahamas. Emerald Dragon is from Maryland. They were going to spend some time in a slip here to do some boat work but there was none available so they headed to Stuart. They are now in Boca Raton and planning to go to Marathon for the winter. Photos of them leaving the marina.

We met the owner of this Nordhavn 46; Bill is 85 and his stepson, Turner helped him bring the boat here from Boston as his mom had to stay back for some appointments. She is 85 too. We first met Turner on our way home from church and then again on the bus a couple of times. We had a tour of the boat and it is beautiful! They left for Stuart last week as Turner’s mom was flying in and he was flying home. Hopefully we will meet up again in the Bahamas.

The next photos are of walks to and from church:Streets lined with live oak trees

Neat little swings for the grandkids

Love the names on the streets

Lovely homes: many with palm trees

Pretty flowers and manicured lawns with palms

A golden retriever having a lazy Sunday morning

Christ by the Sea United Methodist Church

The church is beautiful, the music very good and the people are friendly. The stained glass windows are gorgeous. My cousin Nelson, will enjoy these. He does beautiful stain glass work. What started out as a hobby for him has developed into a little business now that he has retired. If you are in NB, you can see some of his work at CraftologySJ in uptown Saint John or contact him directly. You will love buying a unique, special gift for yourself or loved one. He has some beautiful pieces that he has created on his website at http://www.nellyglass.com. You can also see photos of many of the trips that he and his wife Monica have taken. Take a look and enjoy! Here is a photo of a stained glass tree that he sent me one year and one of a cardinal that we had him make for my dad this Christmas.

We took the bus one day to the closest post office which is at Vero Oceanside. Nice quaint shops and of course the ocean. We walked back to the marina and got our steps in; almost 17,000. Captioned below are some photos of that day.

A windy day at the beach

The water was rather chilly too

Loved watching the sandpipers

Lifeguard station and park restrooms

A lovely playground

An open market is held here on Saturday mornings

Resorts

Shops along the main street

Little Free Library

Restaurants and eateries; photographed just a few, there are many more

We had a diver who lives on his boat here at the marina, change our anode on the propeller shaft. He only charges $10.00. What a deal! He also swam over to do another boat so captured him in his diving suit

We got some shots in the mooring field too

This boat is from Halifax, NS. (He will be staying here for Christmas so he will keep an eye on Persuasion when we go home)

Also had a lovely sunrise and sunset to view from our boat

Other things we did these past couple of weeks include:

Time for another haircut

Some maintenace on Persuasion:

Oil change, transmission fluid, fuel filters and air breather

Cleaning the bilge

Taking the stove out to clean underneath and to cut a hole to spray extra insulation in for the fridge

So our 2 weeks here were busy and fun. We leave today to go home for the holidays and are so looking forward to it. We missed another birthday; our daughter Amber’s on December 4th. We will celebrate when we get home, my dear. 😍 This family photo was taken the day we said good bye to the kids and headed off on this adventure and we have surely missed them.

We will return to Persuasion by the end of December, will provison her and wait for a good window to cross to the Bahamas. New updates on the blog will begin again late December or early January. Mike and I would like to thank you for following us in our adventure. As you gather with family and friends, may the miracle of Christmas bring you and yours much love and many blessings!