Cocoa, Vero Beach and Stuart

Hello again.  I know some of you have been wondering if or when I would write another post.  I'm sorry for the lapse.

We've been having a great time as we've continued to travel further south down through central (east coast) Florida, which is also called the Treasure Coast.

We went to Cocoa on my birthday and enjoyed a two day stay there in a beautiful anchorage just in front of this beautiful marina and the quaint little town of Cocoa.

 From Cocoa we traveled on down to Vero Beach, which has been nick-named Velcro Beach because all the cruising boaters love it so much that once there you do not want to leave - and it is true!  We ended up staying there almost two weeks!  The marina is great, so is the beach and really great shopping!  They have a free bus system that stops right at the marina office twice each hour - once for a trip to the beach and once for the route that takes you right to all the good shopping.  It was the easiest place to get around that we have visited and that is so nice when you have no car!

Finally, all the snowbirds started catching up to us while at Vero and we met so many nice people from all over the northeast who make this trip south every year!  Many of them will stay in Vero until after Thanksgiving and then wait for a nice weather window to make the crossing of the Gulf Stream and on to the Bahamas for the winter.  Others will go the Keys for the winter and then there are also some who will go through the St. Lucie River, across Lake Okeechobee and on to Fort Myers on the gulf coast.  It's been really interesting to talk to different people who have many years of experience doing this trip and we are learning a lot!

The mooring field at Vero Beach.

Vero Beach

I forgot to write about the manatees that we saw at Titusville.  We have been traveling in Manatee Zones, which basically just restricts power boaters from traveling at high speeds because their propellers are dangerous to the manatee for several weeks now.  We have not really encountered any near our boat while motoring but we sure got a good closeup look at several who hang out around that marina!  They love to drink fresh water - as opposed to saltwater and when we washed our boat one afternoon we had several - I believe we counted five one time coming up around the bottom of our boat to drink the water running off when we rinsed it!  We snapped several pictures but honestly it was difficult to get a really good shot but here are a couple.  They are really ugly creatures!

 Here they are between two boats on our dock.

Once we finally left Vero Beach we made our way on down to Stuart and just before arriving there on Rick's birthday we saw the most beautiful emerald green water!  We were at the St. Lucie inlet and it is the most beautiful water we have seen so far!  It should just keep getting prettier and prettier as we continue going south!

Stuart is a great little town and there was lots going on over the week-end with a reggae concert on the waterfront as well as a farmer's/craft market.  They have revitalized the downtown waterfront section and it is filled with wonderful shops, art galleries, restaurants and bars.  Very nice place to visit!

I may not write much of anything until after Christmas and New Years but I will pick back up after the busyness of the holidays is over.  We will be spending our Thanksgiving with ex-next door neighbors in Youngsville who now live in West Palm Beach!  We are really looking forward to seeing them!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!