March 24th -28th

We arrived Thursday at the city Marina and Mooring Field in Vero Beach. The distance from our last anchorage was probably about 40 miles and it took us 6 hours at 6.5 mph,  alternating engines.  It was a pretty uneventful trip except for the fire in Ft. Pierce.  It looked like it was right behind a ridge of houses but it didn't appear to get to them in the 40 minutes or so that we could observe it.  There was a helicopter getting water out of what must have been a small lake or something on shore between the fire and houses.  We don't have tv so don't know if it did damage or not.

When we got to the dinghy dock to sign in people were headed in with drinks and snacks, whoo hoo, just in time for happy hour!!  We met Ed from Ohio on his trawler and Barbara & her husband (can't remember his name) also on a trawler and from New Jersey and got two opposing opinions on the intracoastal through Georgia.  Ed said nay and Barbara & ? said yeah.   Believe me happy hours can be a font of information!!

They have a great bus system here which has two stops at the Marina, one a quarter to the hour which goes to the beach and then swings back at quarter after the hour to go to the mainland and shopping.  So on Friday we went to Publix, we wanted to go to Wal Mart but I forgot the shopping bags & back pack (which is my new essential accessory that I can never remember to take) But I digress, we went to Publix and West Marine and picked up a few essentials.

Then Saturday I went on the bus to a great Farmer's Market at the beach.  After our trip to Publix the day before where fresh vegetables are priced outrageously high...I believe they all come from Mexico or South America I refused to spend $4. a pound for tomatoes at Publix.  The farmers market had fresh picked tomatoes for $1.79 a pound.   We had to get back to the boat by 1:00 for the pump out boat and as they are a pretty loosely run outfit here  they couldn't give us a time.  "Could be 1 or could be 4, don't know".  We were ready to spend the afternoon waiting but lucky us we were number one since we are on the first ball....so off we headed to the car show in the park about a 1/4 mile from the Marina.  Great show.....a couple of hundred cars.

Today we had planned to go to Wal Mart and Lowe's and woke up to rain.  It is going to rain for the next few days so we decided to go anyway. Took us 4 hours start to finish, but Gary has a new pillow to lay his head on, and he got the supplies John Mackie suggested to make a filter for the vent on our holding tank.  Hopefully it will stop the noxious odors when you flush.  It is just a piece of pvc pipe that you fill with a filter material from the Pet Supply store and attach somehow to the hoses below.  TOO MUCH INFO for me.....just fix it!!