Securely Moored in Vero

Vero Beach
N 27 39.627 W 080 22.257

Well we made it. We are tied up to the same mooring we were tied to last November. We are paid up for a month’s stay. We have a date on Thanksgiving week to receive a visit from my sister Marilyn and then to have Thanksgiving dinner with my brother Ed and sister in law Sally. We’re looking forward to that.

In the meantime, we won’t be idle. I’m making up a list of maintenance and improvement chores to do on Tarwathie. Last year’s list had about 35 items. I’ll publish this year’s list when it is complete.

This morning we traveled the very familiar waters between Fort Pierce and Vero Beach. I don’t know how many times we traversed that passage -- a lot. One of the nice things about it is that there seems to be more dolphins per square mile than any other place we know. Last spring I saw a boat with three fishermen and three small boys in it. They were feeding the dolphins and the dolphins responded by taking the food out of their hands.

Today, Libby and I spotted a big commotion in the water. It was dolphins. At first we thought it must be dolphin whoopee. Tee hee. Then, we saw three dolphins jump simultaneously. Nope, not whoopee. They may have been just frolicking, but the most likely explanation is that they were torturing a fish. Yes kiddies, those lovable dolphins from marine world and the Flipper TV show and who would never hurt a flea are predators. They take great delight in torturing their prey and prolonging their death agony before they eat them.

By the way, I miscalculated in yesterday's post. It took us 59 hours to sail the 320 miles to get here, not 71 hours as I said yesterday. Our average speed was 5.4 knots.