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| Mansions on the ICW north of Vero Beach |
Yesterday was blustery and chilly, with winds out of the north at a steady 17 knots. It was the day I decided to head north from the Vero Beach City Marina on the Indian River (also known as the Indian River Lagoon and forming a part of the Intracoastal Waterway) to Sebastian, Florida. It's a short, 14 mile trip. The charts show the channel meandering through mangrove islands, but just north of Vero Beach it passes by beautiful mansions on the barrier island to the east, estates you never see driving north on highway A1A past the high concrete and hedge fences, past the gated communities.
There were several pods of porpoise, there were cormorants coming up in front of the boat with wiggling fish in their beaks which they flipped around until the head was pointing down their throats and then down-the-hatch so to speak, and a manatee, my first sighting of one. It was a dark grey hulk just below the surface. I'm not entirely sure that's what it was.
I tried something new this trip. In addition to the 5-inch display on the Garmin GPS showing the boat position and the channel ahead, I used the Garmin Blue Chart app on my iPhone which also functioned as a backup GPS. Using both paid off after about two hours of cruising when I realized I should be getting close to Sebastian. I was able to pan the iPhone app to the west and pinpoint Capt. Hiram's Marina/Restaurant and the anchorage field just off the docks.
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| The anchorage in front of Capt. Hiram's |
The anchorage has a reputation of being a local weekend party destination, but this being mid-week, it was peaceful. I launched the dinghy, an Achilles LT-2, about the smallest real hapalon inflatable I could find to buy. It sits nicely inflated on top of the engine box and the lazarette seat. Did I mention the wind was out of the north at 17 knots! It was a fast, wet row to the dock where I climbed up about 6 feet on a metal ladder.
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| Capt. Hiram's Restaurant |
Capt. Hiram's has good food and a nice view of the anchorage. I ordered a "Cuban Sandwich" -- ham, turkey, cheese and mustard on flat bread -- and a draft Yuengling.
The wind and chop had picked up a bit for the return row back to the boat. I almost went for an unintentional swim getting back on the dinghy. I stepped on the wooden floor to the stern of the seat, and the dinghy squirted away under the dock. I was still holding on to the ladder and the painter and was able to muscle the dinghy back under me. Whew, I don't want to do that again!
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| Lil' Green Tug at anchor |
Evening arrives quickly in the winter, so I settled in for the night around 6:30 p.m. It was a bouncy, windy night and I slept fitfully. The wind calmed down by 3:00 a.m., but it was cold -- 48-degrees F (9-degrees C). By 9:00 a.m. I took a cold sponge bath, got dressed and rowed back to Capt. Hiram's for breakfast. I ordered two eggs over-easy, bacon, hash brown potatoes, buttered toast and coffee. I get hungry just thinking about how tasty it was.
I repeated the misadventure boarding the dinghy again (I can't figure out a good way to avoid it!), and rowed back to the boat. I deflated the dinghy, checked the engine oil and battery voltages, started the engine and headed south back to Vero Beach City Marina.
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| Sunrise Day 2 |
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