One warm day at Vero Beach, three cold nights, and "home for the holidays" at Loggerhead Marina in Stuart

Missing you at Mulligan's in Vero Beach

The weather had warmed up by Wednesday, 8 December, so that we could set off for lovely Vero Beach and the famed mooring ball harbor at the Municipal Marina there.  After spending about $70 a day in Melbourne, it was great to be paying $13.95 a day on a mooring ball. 

 

Sevilla and JoHee on the mooring ball in Vero Beach





We rafted up on the ball next to a 20’ Pacific Seacraft with an interesting captain named Roger and his cat, “Kitty,” who had just had her front claws removed.  Roger lives and works on his boat and is contemplating circumnavigation.  In the meantime, he’s getting his transmission worked on and then heading to Boca Chita, near Key West, for the winter.  I spent a lovely warm day at the pretty beach on Ocean Ave, getting a manicure and a hair cut at the nice salon next to Mulligan’s, a very cool seaside bistro.  Glen met me there later for happy hour and dinner.  He’d had a rough day finding and replacing one of the engine/alternator “belts.”  We were grateful that it broke while we were just running the engine when on the ball.  Don’t want to think about it going bad at sea or while trying to dock the boat…..  Vero made it easy to get around, providing free bus service all over town.  Quite amazing.  I’m curious to see if other Florida cities have such amenities.  Vero got hit by a strong cold front on our second day, and we really shivered that last night.

The ride to Stuart was fairly short and quite beautiful.  My camera crashed due to a warped battery that couldn’t hold power, so my photos are pretty much I Phone quality.  We enjoyed the islands of bird sanctuaries.   More and fancier homes were evident; and large condos and hotels along the oceanfront were visible from the ICW.  We found our marina after several rechecks of the nav charts.  Loggerhead, about 6 miles off the ICW, down the St. Lucie River on the way to Lake Okechobee, will be our “home” for a month, while we wait for our companion boats to regroup and join us for the trip south to Key West.

Loggerhead used to be named Harborage.  It is a huge marina where a lot of people live on their boats for the season.  The cost seems quite reasonable:  those boats on the floating docks, could pay $11.00 a foot per month; on the fixed docks where we are, the cost is $14.50 a foot.  The electricity is metered.  And we have cable.  Finally, decent reception on our new digital, LED TV.

Our location is quite close to the main Marina facilities--pool, locker and exercise rooms, restaurants and bar; also to the parking lot where we keep our rental car.  The location is convenient to shopping and getting to main highways like the Florida Turnpike and I-95, as well as the airport at West Palm Beach. The views of the harbor are striking and the sunsets are full of color. 

With nine days till Christmas, it has finally warmed up this morning after record breaking cold.  We’ve seen three nights with temps below freezing.  We bought citrus fruit a few days ago and the grower said they had managed thus far to avoid losing their crop, but it was dicey.

It's time to put the solar colored lights up on the boat, but the golf course was calling.  We played Hammock Creek today with a lovely couple from Jupiter.  I had my first Birdie in ages!We got home in time for Happy Hour at the marina and laid plans for a Saturday afternoon Pot Luck supper on our dock.  Got to get those lights up for the party.

                                                                                                            Glen and Maureen