APRIL 28TH – FT. PIERCE, FLORIDA (HEADING NORTH)

A long crossing and a very late night trying to get the anchor to hold in Ft. Pierce Inlet and before you knew it, it was midnight.
The next morning it was time to clear into US Customs so we decided to get a marina at the Pelican Yacht Club as we had to take a taxi out to the airport to clear customs. Clearing in was very quick and simple.
Pelican Yacht Club is very nice and the rates are quite reasonable. Beside the clubhouse there is a great pool, and it’s been a while since we were in one. As you can see, the place was deserted.

The fresh water at the dock was a flat $5 rate so the boat finally received a thorough scrub down.
After a couple days of relaxing it was time to head up to Vero Beach (aka. Velcro Beach). It got that name because a lot of cruisers come here and never leave.
It’s back to the ICW and brown water again.
At Vero beach we’re staying on a mooring operated by the Vero Beach City Marina. Very good shelter in here and the surrounding lands are very pretty and clean.
The bus service here is free to everyone and runs once an hour so we decided to take the bus into downtown Vero Beach. Good view of the mooring field from the bridge.

Once we arrived “downtown” we quickly realized that there isn’t one…. Just a lot of big stores and a mall…… not what we wanted so we went back to the boat and went for a walk around the local area. We followed that with our own self guided dingy tour of the canals around here. They’re kind of pretty actually.

This afternoon we took the bus again to the beaches. Now that’s more like it. There is a quiet waterfront street full of small shops and stores.

We crossed over to the beach but the red flags were out and it was too rough to swim.

Continuing along the beach we came upon the Driftwood Resort, built in 1964 out of, you guessed it, driftwood. There isn’t a straight board or cut in this unique place.

The bar and restaurant didn’t offer any shade so we decided to continue on up the beach.

A short walk later we arrived at the Costa de Este, owned by Gloria & Emilio Estefan. Yup, same ones, but you never see them there.

Now that we’re here, we may as well have lunch followed by a welcome swim in the heated pool with a couple poolside drinks.
After a couple hours of this relaxation it was off to the bus stop just outside Mulligans Bar & Grill for the 10 minute trip back to the boat.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, it’s north to Titusville and Cape Canaveral.