Once Again, The Weather Tells Us Who Is Really in Charge

As we make our way down the ICW, our days are pretty easy. The weather has been wonderful with lots of sunny days, hardly a cloud in the sky most times. We have been moving Wild Horses almost every day but finally took a rest at Vero Beach to ring in the New Year with friends here.

Mike and Ocean exploring one of many anchorages

Some of the interesting birds of Florida

A fisherman throws his cast net

Yikes! These signs are all over Florida

A sea bird has his lunch on the bow of Wild Horses

A derelict boat? Nope! This boat is actually manned and underway along the ICW!

New Years Eve on board Wild Horses

Vero Beach is a wonderful spot for cruisers. It is right beside the ICW and it is only a short 20-minute walk to a cute waterfront with miles and miles of beaches and boutique shops. Perfect for cruisers, the city of Vero Beach runs a marina that offers fuel, water, showers, laundry and free bus rides for groceries and other supplies. For shopping, there is a lot that is just a dinghy ride across the ICW or you can take a free city bus that takes you even further and really find everything you need and more. 

The marina offers dock slips and mooring balls for a fee but it can be really tough to reserve a spot because of the enormous popularity of Vero and its marina. This year the numbers are down a bit so spots are free but we still chose to anchor out, which is just the way we prefer to do things.​

Our anchorage at Vero Beach

Dolphins greeted us every day

Just a 20 minute walk to the amazing waterfront at Vero Beach

Waiting for some yummy pizza at a great stop along the waterfront

We have been at Vero Beach for almost a week and the rest has been wonderful. We have enjoyed many walks to the waterfront, and in the beautiful neighbourhoods in between, a great free outdoor concert and, of course, we have spent a lot of time at the enormous and highly popular Vero Beach Dog Park.
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The Dog Park has been a real highlight for Ocean. She has been able to run, play, socialize and otherwise get her doggie fill of all things “Dog”. Her excitement is palpable as we dinghy up to the dock right outside the park! 

Want to see Ocean at her finest? Click the button "Ocean has a drinking problem" to see her getting some water at the Vero Beach dog park's water station.​

Ocean has a drinking problem

Ocean waiting patiently as we approach the dock for the dog park

The best dog park in Florida!

So many dogs...

...so much to do...

...there's even a line up at the water station!

Victoria happy to see Ocean at play at the dog park

That is one exhausted dog!

​Making the days even better, is the natural cadence that we have with our boat buddies on Tekana. Even when we are just doing boat chores (laundry, filling diesel, getting groceries), we tend to prefer to do it as a foursome (sorry, it’s a five-some if you count Ocean!). There is always lots of laughs and great conversation to make carrying a 20lb backpack full of groceries seem a little lighter.

Ocean waits on land while our boat buddies arrive to do some shopping

This is how we get around for groceries and laundry

Ocean guards our many bags as we step inside yet another store

Mike filling one of our diesel jugs at the Vero City Marina

Ocean waits in the dinghy while the fueling takes place

As great as Vero Beach is, we have made plans to continue our journey south. We will stay in the ICW until Fort Lauderdale and then we have a short 30 mile sail along the coast on the Atlantic Ocean that will take us into Miami. We spotted a nice weather window a few days out for our ocean leg of the trip. This would get us to Miami by the end of the week. After that, we are just waiting for the next weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We went to bed excited about our plans and ready to weigh anchor in the morning.

We woke up to dense fog. Ugh. This fog will clear in time for us to make our planned anchorage for the day but they are calling for more of this soupy fog every day this week. This will make it very challenging to have the long days we need to make our planned weather window.
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Yes, the weather is king! We will move onto Plan B, which is shorter days (after the fog has dissipated) making our way south and looking for another weather window. Miami and the Gulf Stream crossing will just have to wait. And that is okay too 😊.

Mother Nature handed us a whole lot of fog this morning, delaying our departure by 2 hours

But the day cleared up and we are on the move again!