Oliver Sails South: Vero Beach

May 13 we took off from North Palm Beach. We took the intercoastal to Jensen Beach where we anchored for the night then continued to Vero Beach. Arrived the 15th in the afternoon.

This is where we have stopped. We had planned to stay at the municipal marina for a while to check out Vero, but looking at other options we found a Loggerhead Marina that is hurricane "safe". Safe is a relative term as a category 5 direct hit is not a good thing anywhere. We should do okay with the usual variety. We have spoken with people here who went through the 2004 and 2005 direct hits and things were scary but everyone made it fine:, some torn canvas and scraping on pilings which we got in Lake Macatawa with a storm. Our plan for a storm is to spider weave the lines, take down the genoa and canvas and run to a hotel that allows pets. I have already researched that one. We had tropical storm Andrea already and it was very mild in this lagoon. The scary part is my iPhone alerted us to a tornado warning and again we were on the boat saying "oh sh...". The tornado hit where we were in North Palm Beach. Missed that one luckily. We had 2 tornado warnings in Ft Lauderdale and were lucky, so keep praying.

The Loggerhead marina is nice and very vacant as most people have headed north. We have since had 2 more sailboats come in and the people are friendly. We plan on Friday happy hours by the pool. We also had fellow ICW sailors Skip and Harriet from Baltimore here for a while, but they have since bought a house here . We did share a lovely dinner out with them. The marina is surrounded by expensive homes, condos and golf courses. The wildlife is amazing. We have seen every bird imaginable, alligators, a Florida panther, manatees, barracudas and other fish, a dolphin and others have seen black tipped sharks. Sunday morning, early, I get on the bike to grocery shop and get a Sunday press. A new store went in right past the Grand Harbor neighborhood. I have to get there by 8:00 or all the papers are gone. This past weekend, I saw an alligator sunbathing. I stopped the bike to get a picture, but by the time I dug out my phone, the gator had gone into the water and ate something. Oliver loves the walks around here, but I keep him on the roads so he isn't gator bait. Dale on the other hand is no see-ums bait. When it is still, they are relentless and prefer him to me. Ollie is protected of course with his Vectra. Why can't they come up with something like that for humans? The Skin So Soft stock should rise.

We took the dinghy out for a spin yesterday. It goes 15-20 miles an hour which Ollie loved. He came back to the boat with a wet head and paws from leaning over the side.

Anyway, we plan to make this our base. We signed a year's lease and it allows us to stay at other Loggerhead marinas for free, except for electricity. There are quite a few on the east coast and one in St. Petersburg . We would still like to make it to the Bahamas, so we shall see how Oliver is next Fall/Winter. Then we can play the weather game again. Dale is headed home at the end of June for his physical and will drive the SUV back so we have transportation. We did rent a car for a few days and my bike is great if ride in the early morning. Florida in the summer is pretty hot and humid. Luckily we get some ocean breezes. As my friend Laura said, even her eyeballs sweat. Thank goodness for AC. We had Ollie shaved which is helping him and the long walks are at night. He has made many new friends, 2 legged and 4 legged and seems to like it here as long as he can have "off the boat" time. Love to all!