It’s been quite a week in Vero Beach. We’ve been to town a couple of times on the bus and walked to the beach once. We were doing well with the boat we were rafted up with for a couple of days when they had to leave unexpectedly because their schedule had changed. We figured we would definitely get another boat rafting up with us so we kept our VHF radio on all day so we could hear when they were assigned to our mooring. We never heard anything and then it got dark so we figured we would be alone at least for another night. We were sitting down below, working on our finances, when we heard something that sounded like a bow thruster nearby. Bill went out to look and saw a large boat coming up to our side, ready to raft. Since it was so dark we turned on all our deck lights and worked with the boat to tie up with us. This boat is from Canada. We had never met them before but now, of course, we are fast friends!

Our most important task this week was to figure out what was wrong with the watermaker. We spent many hours working with the company’s phone support to try and track down the problem. It wasn’t going well. We were fairly certain we would have to take the boat to Ft. Lauderdale, which we hadn’t planned on doing, to have the tech there figure out the issue. Finally yesterday the tech told Bill to swap out the filter with a brand new one and that, along with a few pump adjustments, solved the problem. Thank goodness! The other thing he told us was that we shouldn’t have been using it on the ICW. We should get water from marinas and only make water with our watermaker when we are in the ocean or salt water like the Bahamas. That will change some of the things we’ve been doing.

Another important task has been trying to get me well. I still have this ear infection and I’m pretty sick of it. We’ve made an appointment with an Ear Nose and Throat doctor for Monday and I hope he has some better insight into what is wrong with me. Being sick is never fun, being sick when you live on a boat is even less fun.

Yesterday we went to town to attend the weekly CLOD Breakfast. CLODs are Cruisers Living On Dirt – people who are no longer cruising and, in this case, are living in houses in Vero Beach. We thought there would be more cruisers there but of the thirty or so people there only four of us were currently cruising. The CLODs are the ones who donated, and cooked, the turkeys and hams that we ate today at the Cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck. The town of Vero Beach donates a building near the marina and stocks it with tables and chairs so we have some place inside to have the potluck.

There was a flea market outside the building that the potluck was in this morning so we went over to see what was there. The dinner was set for 2:00pm. When we looked in the building at 11:00am almost all the seats had already been reserved and set with dishes. We had no idea that was how it was done. If you didn’t know that little trick you didn’t get a seat. We went back to the boat and got our dishes and managed to get some of the last spots. There were about one hundred to one hundred and fifty people at the pot luck. It was nicely organized but it was lot of people in a not so big room. They had the tables numbered and randomly called the tables to come up and get the food. Of course our table was last. A lot of the food was gone by the time we got there but there was still plenty to eat. Although it was fine I’m sure the food at my daughter’s Thanksgiving dinner was much better. The room was noisy and as you see in the picture above we had to stand in line to get our food. I’m glad we did this but I’m not sure I need to do it again.

We need to stay here in Vero Beach until at least Tuesday. We thought all the packages we had shipped here would be here by now but the last one won’t make it until Tuesday. Then we hope to take the next weather window over to the Bahamas.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!