Bellatrix

Manatee Pocket, Stuart, FL

2 November 2014

We spent the last 2 days in Vero Beach on a mooring ball at the Vero Beach City Marina. A very nice marina, free public transportation, free wifi, and $14 a night. And they have a free pumpout boat that will come to your mooring, how about that for an amenity at Bowleys?

We went to the local West Marine and picked up some things we needed for the Bahamas, fuel jerry cans, extra zincs, big fish lures, engine oil, and a Hawaiian Sling for spearfishing.

As we waited for the bus, the sales guy at West Marine finished his shift, saw us waiting and gave us a ride back to the marina. More nice people.

We caught up with Sue and Dan aboard Tranquility, a Grand Banks trawler. We met them originally in Oriental, NC, then again in Morehead City, NC. They are from Connecticut, Dan was born in Morehead City, NC and seems to have family everywhere. They are really nice people, we spent yesterday walking Vero, getting flu shots, having lunch and enjoying great conversation, finishing the evening with wine and cheese.

We hear the weather is unpleasant in Baltimore and I can’t say it is great here, (but it is better than there, hee, hee). A cold front came through yesterday, wind at 20, 65 degrees during the day and a low of 44 last night. Blankets, hoody, and long pants today. 75 tomorrow.

We motored to Stuart and anchored in Manatee Pocket. Along the way we watched an airshow in Stuart that featured the Geico Skytypers, a precision flying team using vintage WWII aircraft, an F-22 Raptor, a Harrier “Jumpjet”, (made famous in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film “True Lies”, with a great seen with Jamie Lee Curtis, the guys will remember), and my favorite, Vietnam era UH 1 Hueys. I’m sorry we didn’t know about it or we may have tried to get here sooner. The water is interesting. It’s very clear and the bay/river about a mile wide. There is a channel in the middle that is about 50 yards wide and about 12-15 foot deep, outside the channel is from 2-4. A lot of water with no water…

We are anchored in Manatee Pocket for the night and hope to catch up with John and Bev Stehman tomorrow. Kabobs and wine tonight on the boat and maybe Raven’s football if we can pick it up on a network channel.