Our Very Crazy Time in Vero Beach

 We arrived in Vero Beach on November 10th. We love to spend time in Vero. This time around we had some things we wanted to accomplish. The first order of business was to go to Brunswick, GA to pick up the truck. We had come up with a crazy plan on our way down the ICW. My parents had decided to make the trip from Colorado to the Dallas area for Thanksgiving. This would mean that both of our parents would be in the area at the same time. That was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we planned to rent a car and drive it to Texas and then stop by Brunswick on the return trip to get the truck and then drive back down to Vero. Unfortunately, that did not work out. My parents were dealing with some illness and did not feel up to making the trip. We understood but were disappointed that we would not be able to see them. 

We decided to cancel the trip to Texas and just rent a car to drive up to get the truck. On Novermber 17th we took the dinghy to shore and met the city bus. We made one transfer to get to the Vero Airport to rent the car. When I tried to rent the car, everything changed. As it turned out my driver's license was expired! We quickly changed plans and Kim rented the car, but that would mean that she had to drive the car to Georgia and back. That turned out to be about 10 hours of driving. Other than driving in rain much of the day, the trip went off well. I was concerned about driving on an expired license, but I kept the speed down and had no problems. We were pretty tired when we made it back to the boat that night. 

During the trip in the car, I was working on how to get my driver's license renewed. It came down to the only good solution was to go back to Missouri. Thanksgiving was the following week, so we decided to see if we could get flights during that holiday week. Allegiant Airlines has direct flights from Orlando/Sanford to Springfield, MO. We were lucky and got two tickets departing on Monday, November 20 and returning on Friday November 24. We called the kids and let them know we were coming.

Our time in Missouri was a blur, but we did get the license renewed and were able to spend time with all of our kids and grandkids. My favorite part was playing football with three of my grandsons. I am sure I threw over 1000 passes in 2 days, but I loved it. 

When we got back to the boat on the 24th, all was well except we needed a ride out to the boat. The marina did not want us to leave the dinghy at the dock while we were gone, so they gave us a ride to shore in the pump out boat. The marina was closed when we got back, but Kim asked another boater and we now have some new friends. 

We rested after the whirlwind trip and started looking for a weather window to make the trip down to the Marathon in the Florida Keys. 

This is one of the mooring balls in Vero Beach.

Very calm night in Vero.

You can see the two catamarans that are rafted up on one ball.

I love it when it is calm like this. You just have to be aware of the bugs.

 After we were back for a few days, we also got a rafting partner. Kurt and Libbe on SV Epiphany were heading to the Bahamas. They were having some issues with their dinghy. I was able to give them a hand and in return they invited us over for an amazing dinner. Meeting interesting people is the best part of this lifestyle. 

I had been watching the weather for a while for an opportunity to sail south. We could do the ICW through Miami, but we knew there were over 40 bridges we would have to open. It would be slow and tedious. The weather looked great for a departure on December 4th and sail overnight and make it to Marathon on the 5th. We had some things to get done to be ready to go.

We went to Walmart to provision and got the boat ready. The day before we left, we decided to take one last walk on the beach. When we got to the truck, it would not start. The truck has run perfectly since we had it fixed back in June. We have put more that 5000 miles on it without any issues. I was frustrated and decided it would be best to take a walk and develop a plan. I walked by normal 3 miles and as I returned to the marina, I saw a guy working on a Ford Diesel Pickup. I stopped to talk to him and he offered to help. We tried lots of things, but without a good explanation it finally started. It ran perfectly and I moved it to where we were going to leave it. I tried starting it again and it started right up.  We took Omar and his wife Heather to lunch to thank him for the help. It was a crazy day. 

Our plan was to motor on December 3rd from Vero the 13 miles down to the Fort Pierce Inlet and anchor there for the night. I was very nervous about leaving the truck, but I had no good option. I also had a 2 day offshore passage to think about. It was one of those times when I had to focus on the present and pray that all would work out. In my next entry, I will tell you all about what happened next. The good news is that as I write this, we are safe and sound in Marathon, Florida.