Christmas & New Year in Florida
03 January 2017 | Christmas in Vero Beach & New Year in Miami
sailing down the Florida coast
IMAGE various photos from Christmas & new year
Wednesday 21st December we started our 1st journey for the season – better late than never!!
The Jacksonville Main Street bridge is like many bridges – too low for us to pass under with our 58ft mast height. The 1st daily morning bridge opening is at 6.45am, with not another one until 12noon – so on a cold and foggy morning we set off.
We had the tide with us for our motor out of the St Johns River. By the time we got to the river mouth at Mayport there was a light – 10 to 15 knot south wind. We motor-sailed a little and when the wind picked up we then goosewinged it all the way down the coast – 200 miles to Ft Pierce to enter just at the beginning of the incoming tide – midnight on 22nd. We had a brief visit/boarding of the US boarder protection guys as we motoring into the entrance!! Thankfully we had entered Ft Pierce previously so had a chart-plotter track to guide us through the entrance and into the anchorage.
Friday 23rd - at 1am we were at anchor in Ft Pierce, having a coffee to congratulate ourselves on our successful sail – all the systems worked well ( 1 electronic B & G unit wasn’t totally happy) – and the weather was warmer.
After a good sleep we were up at 8am and motoring the 10 miles back north on the ICW ( Intercoastal Waterway) to Vero Beach City Marina. Vero is a popular cruisers handout. All good for our arrival and our plans to spend Christmas here. We were allocated to share a mooring with ‘Gertie’ – as it turns out they were some on the organisers of the Christmas lunch so we were in good hands. All our arranged post was at the Marina office – so that also worked out very well. In the afternoon we enjoyed a long, hot shower and got 2 loads of laundry completed – the downside is that the internet here is rubbish – so no long chats with everyone via Skype for Christmas, but I did manage to get a brief Christmas email out to everyone.
Saturday 24th – a beautiful, warm sunny day. We got going early to the supermarket via the free local town bus network to get our Christmas party food purchased. I wanted to try to get to a church service for Christmas and found some info on a nearby 1st Presbyterian Church – phoned the assistant pastor who confirmed that the church van could collect us from the marina at 6.15pm for one of their evening services. In the afternoon we took the local bus to the beach for a walk and explore – and lovely area with a good feel about it. The beach area felt a lot like Oz .I phoned Mum – she sounded well, chatty and happy with her Christmas events and my flowers present. We enjoyed the walk back to the marina from the beach before a short nap, shower and off to the Christmas Eve church service. The assistant pastor and head pastor were very interested in our journey, very friendly and we enjoyed their traditional candlelight service very much indeed. The music, choir and traditional service made it feel like Christmas.
Christmas Day – James cooked a lovely smoked salmon and scrambled eggs breakfast whilst we enjoyed our traditional Piano Guys Christmas music. Our contribution to the Christmas Pot Luck was 2 salads and a store bought sticky dessert. About 50 people from approx. 20 boats attended. We shared a table with a British couple and an Aussie couple – they all came later for mince pies and Christmas cake to La Aventura and we all chatted into the night.
Monday 26th – another busy day - I got the 1st morning bus to the supermarket and James did a few more loads of laundry before we set off back down the ICW to Ft Pierce. We anchored overnight – ready for our sail to Miami the next day.
Tuesday 27th – we upped anchor to get doing with the outgoing tide for our 120 mile sail to Miami. Unfortunately we had light winds and the adverse gulf stream to contend with – again all went well. Overnight as we were passing West Palm Beach we noticed the patrol vessels now in place off the Trump family estate keeping all passing vessels well away from Donald and his family!
Wednesday 28th afternoon we arrived off Miami – lovely warm weather – but still light winds. We had entered Miami previously so were familiar with this busy entrance and headed straight to our previous excellent anchorage near the Venetian islands off the Sunset Harbour marina.
Thursday 29th – back in a familiar anchorage always feels good – and we are in a great spot. In the afternoon we rode the dingy into the nearby town dock and a short walk to the supermarket, which is very handy for its internet – slow, but better than nothing to pickup my emails etc.
Friday 30th – as forecast a northerly blast arrived overnight – cold weather back again – not good as we had washed all our winter clothes in Vero and packed everything away! We spend the day onboard doing a few boat jobs. Unfortunately the checks and tests we had done on our problematic B & G display unit had not solved its freezing problem – so we now need to arrange for this we be sorted whilst we are still in the USA.
Saturday 31st – I had chosen our New Years Eve menu – sushi, steak and key lime pie as dessert - so it was off to the busy supermarket for our supplies. We posted our B & G unit off to the repair facility in Ft Lauderdale – so hopefully we can get it back next week before we would like to move on. Our NYE dinner under the stars on our floating home was very enjoyable indeed.
As expected at midnight the skies lit up all around us with firework displays as we toasted the start of 2017. This should be a good years for us – James will be 60 in February, and we will spend the first half of the year exploring the Western Caribbean which we have been planning and looking forward to for far too long.