26 Days at Vero Beach

 White Pepper and Utopia share a mooring ball

Sharon and Davido

We sadly cast off the lines on Monday December 30, 2013 after 26 days at Vero Beach, FL. We were sad to leave our new friends and mooringball neighbors, Davido and Sharon, of s/v Utopia. We were sad that our buddies, Ken and Connie, of s/v Oz had left several days earlier. We were sad to leave the exquisitely beautiful weather that we had enjoyed for our stay. With weather like we had had, why go to the Bahamas​? But nothing lasts forever and we had to press on South.

White Pepper had accomplished much at Vero Beach. We had ordered and installed a new radio with AIS capability and a Globstar sat phone. I added two additional bow cleats. The long term project of replacing all of the interior lights with LEDs was completed. Mail drops were completed, prescriptions filled and final supplies for the Bahamas topped up. Jan's favorite rod was repaired at the local fishing supply store. Christmas was celebrated with a gourmet dinner on board Oz as both crews chose to avoid the pot luck this year.

Vero Beach has been aptly termed “Velcro Beach” with good reason. We met several couples who had traded their boats here for homes. They call themselves CLODs and meet regularly for breakfast. One CLOD, Harriet, graciously drove us to Lowes and Walmart.

Monday brought a long run down the ICW past Jensen Beach and St. Lucie's Inlet. We put the anchor down at Hobe Sound as the sun was setting. Hobe Sound is the narrow sound behind Jupiter Island. This place was once the richest Zip Code in America. Tuesday we only traveled 20 miles but they were aggravating because of five bascule bridges and the current at Jupiter Inlet. Finally we entered Lake Worth in North Palm Beach to celebrate New Years Eve.