Vero Beach - Part 3

--Blogpost written by Bob

This blogpost covers our last few days in Vero Beach while we wait for a weather window for  crossing the Gulf Stream from West Palm Beach.  This blogpost covers our visit from Wednesday, December 13, through Friday, December 15.  Our next blogpost will cover our 2-day trip from Vero Beach to West Palm Beach and, probably, a waiting day.

Wednesday, December 13

Finally, the cold snap seems to have broken down a little--it only got down to 46 degrees early this morning.  Its funny that it seems like such a big temperature increase from 39 and 40 degrees a day or two ago. 

Crossing Weather Window Update: As of today, next Monday (12/18) or Tuesday (12/19), with a slight preference for Tuesday because winds are more southerly, still looks good according to Weather Underground and WINDY.   We are currently planning to leave Vero Beach on Saturday morning but will continue to monitor this weather window and make adjustments as necessary.  We need to be prepared for crossing on either day. 

A screenshot from WINDY showing our weather window on Monday
and Tuesday , with a slight preference for Tuesday with
more southerly winds.  The line below the wind
direction arrows, contains the forecasted
wind speed in mph along with a
color code (light blue).

I realize this blogpost is heavily focused on the weather but it plays such a huge part in our upcoming crossing of the Gulf Stream.  If there is any northerly component to the wind, the sea is very rough because it is against the direction of the Gulf Stream.  Wind from the east would be against our forward motion in the crossing.  A westerly wind would be behind us and make the boat squirm uncomfortably--we experienced this last spring.  A light-to-moderate southerly wind is perfect.

Our last two packages came in today--our replacement outdoor utility lighters and our TDS meter to measure water quality.  I tried out the TDS meter on city water in our tanks that was put it here in Vero Beach.  Our tank water measures 150 ppm solids.  

This portable TDS meter is made by HoneForest
and is available on Amazon for under $15.

We picked up two new lightning-to-USB cables to charge our iPhones and my iPad prior to leaving for the Bahamas.  (Maggie's iPad uses an older style Apple connector.) 

This afternoon I ran the engine (with its 120-amp alternator) about 45 minutes to get some extra charge to the batteries. The limited available daylight at this time of year doesn’t seem to offer enough solar energy for our 300 watts of solar panels to fully charge the batteries. (Last year, we were being re-powered during this time of year.)

This graphic image from Weather Underground shows 
the limited amount of daylight available today.

In addition, the higher capacity fan that I recently installed for our composting toilet probably draws more electrical energy—we have tried to minimize its running time by turning it off during the night. We’ll see if this has any negative effects on the composting when we empty the solids container in Marsh Harbor in a couple weeks. 

Thursday, December 14

It was 47 degrees when we woke up this morning--it seemed downright comfortable compared to the last few (slightly colder) mornings.

A view of the north mooring field at Vero Beach City Marina.

Crossing Weather Window Update: Tuesday (12/19) still looks good according to both Weather Underground and WINDY with southerly winds of 7 to 11 mph.   Predict Wind is showing the same light wind but from a westerly (instead of southerly) direction.  We are currently planning to leave Vero Beach on Saturday morning so that we can make it to Lake Worth by Sunday afternoon.  Monday will be a day of waiting and resting for a very early departure the next day.  Like last season, we plan to leave around 3 AM and get into West End for a late lunch.  With 7 to 11 mph southerly (or even westerly) winds, it will be a comfortable ride on autopilot all the way.

I had two excellent margaritas at
Fishack this afternoon.

After dropping our Canadian friends off at the bus station we stopped at Fishack for a late lunch--it has quickly become one of our favorite restaurants here in Vero Beach.

This photo was taken looking in the opposite
direction from the setting sun.

Friday, December 15

It was 58 degrees early this morning--a great temperature for sleeping!  It is forecasted to get up to 77 degrees this afternoon!  Today, we are doing our last minute provisioning of (perishable) groceries at PUBLIX.  This is also the last day we will have our rental car here in Vero Beach.

Crossing Weather Window Update:  We are all set for a Tuesday (12/19) Gulf Stream crossing unless the weather window all of a sudden disappears.  The high temperature for  our crossing is forecasted to be 80 degrees.  The wind direction has changed to the ESE in the morning and southerly by the afternoon and the speed has dropped to less than 7 mph.  The following three days are forecasted to have light winds too--so, we are going to continue traveling across the Little Bahama Bank after one night in a slip at West End.

There is some degree of excitement about our upcoming crossing and some degree of anxiety--it's always a mixed bag of feelings.  

Ferns are growing on a live tree trunk about 6 feet
off the ground in the marina.

I'm not sure what these tropical plants are but they are
growing on a live tree trunk in the marina.

This afternoon I cleaned and polished our solar panels while Maggie did laundry.  It was an afternoon of getting things done before we leave tomorrow morning. 

I polished our flexible solar panels with Novus #1 and #2.  They
were really getting cloudy and I was concerned
about the output being reduced.

It turned out to be a beautiful day today--almost 80 degrees!  The Enterprise driver who brought us back to the marina after we turned in the car explained that the last few days were "winter" in Vero Beach--that's all the winter they get.

That's all for this blogpost...stay tuned for our journey down the ICW to West Palm Beach...


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