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dinghy chap patterning

Marking the pattern for dinghy chaps

Vero Beach March 14 – March 21
Almost as good as our first stay, but not quite as sticky and many fewer boats. We missed our old raft-up group; just not the same without Chris and Tom on Polar Pacer. They are headed to Cuba right about now. Sanuk popped in for several days and we did the “get together on the big cat” thing a few nights. The wi-fi was great and we used it heavily.
We stayed a week for a few reasons. One, to work on making our dinghy chaps; two, to celebrate Russ’s birthday, and three, not in a hurry… yet.
The short version of the not exciting parts of our stay is thus: laundry, myriad small boat projects, tax return struggles, returned old chartplotter, finished up the zipper cover strips for the side strataglass panels, created pattern for dinghy chaps and cut the fabric and spent hours on printing, printing again and signing the various documents for the house closing on April 4. A bus trip was needed for our pre-departure provisioning, a stop at the UPS store, Fedex dropoff box to return documents and last but not least a haircut for Russ.
If it sounds like we did not have much play time, you are right. We met some cruisers and exchanged info and stories. We gave a boat tour to one couple, currently on a 36′ PDQ Catamaran , who are looking around for a replacement. Celebrated Russ’s birthday Sunday with grilled lobster tails; they were delicious! Also walked to the beach and enjoyed a drink and conch fritters at Waldo’s; a must visit for birthdays and any time we want a beach bar experience.
Monday at 7:30 we bid farewell to mooring #22 – loved this ball- it was closest to the dinghy dock and we could see all that was happening around us.

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Lake Worth-less, not

I don’t have many compliments for Lake Worth (often called Lake Worthless) and the West Palm Beach area where we anchored. Just not very scenic, unless you like container ships, work barges, tugs and plenty of pleasure boats. During our two day stay (waiting for good wind to sail north) just to prove me wrong, we enjoyed two nice events. Don’t get excited; remember we live on a boat and little things matter. I was working on a sewing project and looked out the front window to see a brown object in the water that I was sure (quite hopeful) was not one of the those blobs of brown weeds that clump together and float about. Work break!

sea turtle Lake Worth

Looking for the East Australian current?

Yes, a sea turtle. All 12″ of him or her. Got some good close-ups and you can see that this really is a turtle. The water was very clear and visibility was good.
Shortly after the turtle entertainment, we began noticing monohulls sailing around the anchorage and a large bright orange ball had been placed in the water as a turning point. Seems the local sailing club was enjoying  Saturday racing and we were smack in the middle. Pros all and none smashed into us. Spinnakers up and down and so pretty; those were the ones I wanted to photograph.

Spinnaker

Spinnaker up!

The CoastGuard was having a field day; stopping boats left and right. One poor guy in a Sport fishing boat had the bad luck to be questioned. The CoastGuard radios him with a bunch of questions, e.g. where did you come from, where headed, no. of people on board, your DOB, spell your name, boat doc or reg #, and the killer- any weapons on board? The guy says yes and describes them. He does not have a permit as he’s from North Carolina and maybe does not need one there, but in FL- oh boy. He gets boarded. The CoastGuard does not enforce state laws, but I’d bet big bucks that the local authorities were notified.