04: Cruising: US East Coast
Velcro Beach

Velcro Beach

We’ve heard talk of this place from the very beginning of our journey. Velcro Beach: a mythical land where hot showers never run cold, trash is easy to dispose of, buses run frequently and are easily accessible; locals stop on the side of the road to offer you a ride to the grocery store and wine flows from the drinking fountains between the hours of four thirty and seven o’clock in the evening. Well that last part I made up but the rest is true!

Vero (Velcro) Beach is just eleven miles north of Fort Pierce on the ICW. They call it Velcro Beach because it is so “cruiser friendly”; cruisers stop on their way south and end up spending a lot longer than anticipated because it’s just such a great place. We chose to go to Vero not because of its reputation, but rather because of the TRUE treasure of Vero Beach: Papa and Mama Stew. Pa & Ma Stew are Sarah Logemann’s parents (see “The Logemanns Visit” entry) and Stéphane’s and my very special friends.

We arrived at the Vero Beach City Marina Tuesday morning. I couldn’t believe how many boats were crammed into such a small space – two and three boats to one mooring ball!

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The mooring ball field @ Vero Beach City Marina
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Rolling three deep…

 

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It’s all in the name.
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Our friends Bob and Anne from Baloo are here! So fun to see the boats of friends in a new place.

We worked our way through the mooring field to the other side and anchored outside of it with a few other boats in a nice, protected spot.

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We’ve been hanging with Pa & Ma Stew all week and are having an absolute blast. The Stewarts are avid boaters and have a pretty amazing collection of boating stories that they shared with us over many wonderful meals.
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Some very major math and serious measuring went into the hanging of these paintings.

For the first time since we bought Free Range three months ago, we spent a night on land, Chez Cabana Stewart. The Cabana-Stewart-@-The-Beach-House was so quiet and STILL. I took a very long, very hot shower (and no, the hot water did not run out)- it was simply fabulous.

It’s Friday and we’ll spend another few days here, heading back to Fort Pierce on Sunday and from there either further south along the Florida coast OR we may jump off to the Bahamas with a few buddy boats. We’ll keep everyone posted as to our plans for leaving the country!

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