Vero to Cocoa

Cocoa and Vero – We blew out of Stuart with the sunrise and waited at the mooring to see the railroad bridge finally lift after the two early trains. We made our way back out the St. Lucy River to the ICW and north to Vero Beach Municipal Marina Mooring Balls – a scenic stop after a longish run – mercifully uneventful in every mechanical way.  I even managed to snag the ball without too much drama. This marina is called the Velcro marina because people stop and get stuck.  The bus has a stop in the park where the marina is located which conveniently provides access to important stuff like Publix and West Marine.  Although we did not need those services or even the excellent laundry available. we did enjoy a few hours of social life on shore at the mixer organized by the local marina hosts for the cruisers. We got to meet and search the brains of more experienced travelers and kept our feet on dry land longer than 15 minutes.

Then we pushed on to Cocoa a delightfully restored village on the Indian River.  This was a long run, but we made it in great time and again no mechanical hiccups to speak of. Because we had an excellent mooring inVero at the far end of the field just minutes from the ICW under the lite bridge linking Vero Beach to the mainland, we were able to drop the ropes and get a very early start. The early start meant more time to enjoy Cocoa which was as picturesque as its billing – with an extensive array of shops and restaurants to choose from in the 50s retro architecture. 

One of the high points of a visit to Cocoa is the Travis Hardware store.  Steve spent a mere 30 minutes and only a few dollars, but had to drag himself away from this warren of dusty aisles filled with every conceivable tool and widget known to man. The photos only hint at the delights since I think I missed capturing the rusty pressed tin ceiling tiles hung with a corroded version of Spanish moss.  They were happy to let me take pictures as long as I didn’t steal their ambiance. (Their word.) Some of the multitude of helpful worker bees were intensely interested in my Ipad – from the look of the stuff in that store, they may not have discovered the computer era just yet. Greg Cobetto these photos are for you! We think this is the store for you if you haven't already been here.

Our friends of many years from Aramco, Norma and Tim Akert, popped over from Orlando with last minute notice from us when we realize just how close to them we were going to be on a non-working day (we are having some trouble remembering what day of the week it is, although thanks to the phone we usually know the date.) Tim and Norma came to Cocoa – in spite of delay to repair a nail in their car tire – to have lunch with us and catch up. They are timeless and never seem to age like some of us who shall remain nameless.

 

In Cocoa we actually tied up to a dock for the first time since Jan 24^th. It took me a few minutes to remember what I had to do with those ropes – and of course I still have not mastered all the knots Steve thinks I need. (Ask him about the pump out man in Vero who had to tie off his boat because I couldn’t do it well enough for everyone to feel secure! – but my story is the guy also sprayed our boat while executing the pump out so do we really trust him anyway?  Oh, yes, Steve was in the dink during all of this and here is his photo… need I say more?)

At the Cocoa Village Marina we also enjoyed a gathering of cruisers and again gleamed several great stopover ideas and made new friends like the Fullens who most kindly lent us their Prius for an early morning Publix run. A lot more supplies can be stuffed in a trunk than on even two bikes!

We plan to move on to Titusville and visit the Kennedy Space Center – beware my next entry might be educational!