A Day in Vero Beach

Today was a relaxing day that we all deserved.
Yesterday we began just before 7 and after covering more than 70 miles, we arrived at the Vero Beach City Marina mooring field at 5pm. Our day was spent motor-sailing down the Indian River - a generally shallow body of water just inland from the sandy coast, with a 10 foot dredged channel running through it - with the company of many dolphins, all manner of sea birds, and even a pair of manatees crossing our path. By the time we arrived and rafted on a mooring ball with a 45' Down Easter "Orion", darkness was descending, and shortly after the wind picked up as predicted. We had considered stopping and anchoring earlier to make the day shorter, and were now glad that we had pressed on. There are not any protected anchorages along this stretch of the ICW, so our blustery night would have been spent out in the open.
This morning we all began our day with showers. After a few days of showers onboard, it is so nice to have plentiful hot water and not worry how much the water pump is drawing from the batteries. On our way back from shore we stopped by to say hi to the family on "Hi-5", a catamaran that we met in St. Augustine whose home port is also in the Toronto area. We chatted for a few minutes, making tentative plans to go dinghy exploring tomorrow afternoon.
Then back to the boat for a bit of schoolwork, cleaning, radio fixing and reading. We spent the afternoon with Greg's Uncle Art and Aunt Mary who are in the area with their Airstream. They too are escaping an Ontario winter, and it was fun to chat and compare notes with them about traveling in small spaces, discovering new places, and the joy of traveling as a journey not solely a destination. We had a great walk along the beach, then shared a simple dinner with them on the boat.