Velcro Beach, Florida
Vero Beach, FL is fondly referred to by the cruising community as “Velcro Beach.” This is because the Vero Beach municipal marina is set up very well to accommodate cruisers. It is so easy to stay here that the area acts like “Velcro” for cruisers as people end up staying here for much longer than originally planned. While we were in Vero there were over 120 sailboats moored in the marina.
There are many reasons why the living is easy at Vero for cruisers. First and foremost is cost. It costs only $14 per night for a spot on a mooring ball. This fee is a drop in the bucket for anyone’s cruising budget. Mooring balls are shared in Vero with up to three vessels to a mooring. But sharing a mooring just makes it that much more fun as you are forced to interact with other cruisers. Some people stay here all winter on a mooring ball, but most people’s ultimate destination is the Bahamas. They are waiting in Vero for a good weather window to make the Gulf Stream crossing.
Vero Beach Marina Mooring Field (Odyssey is in the center of the picture with the yellow horseshoe life preserver on its portside stern)
Other reasons why Vero Beach is so easy is you are just a few blocks from the beach. You can walk to the beach area and have a meal on the water and stroll along the beach. But the main reason people spend a lot of time here is there is free bus transportation to all the important shopping areas of Vero Beach. This is important to cruisers who do not have any wheels to go to West Marine or get to a grocery store.
The Vero Beach Municipal marina dinghy dock is about 150 feet long with dinghies three deep tied off to the dock. Since everyone here is on a mooring, there are always dinghies zipping around everywhere (see adjacent photos).
Travel by Dinghy in Vero Beach
Another important aspect about being in the middle of all these cruisers is there are people here who are glad to spend hours helping you with any boat problem you may have. This is good for us as we always need help.
An example of how helpful people are at Vero Beach is Ed from Seattle, WA. Ed is a Patent Attorney who is single-handling his vessel “Summer,” a very nice 42-foot Hallberg-Rassy center cockpit sailboat. Ed is moving “Summer” down the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW) to Ft. Lauderdale where he will meet up with his wife before they jump over to the Bahamas.
Dinghies can vary
We first met Ed in Norfolk, VA and have run into him at several points on the ICW. This was Ed’s first time on the ICW and he did not like it very much. His boat is a serious offshore boat and has a 6.5 foot draft which makes it easy to run aground. Also his boat has a 64-foot high mast. A 64-foot mast is a headache on the ICW as all the fixed bridges are designed to be 65 feet above the water at mean high tide, but some of the bridges are not exactly 65 feet high and sometimes high tide is a little higher than mean high tide. Anyway since Ed did not know about the Vero Beach Marina, so we suggested he should stop there. Ed got to Vero the same day we did and so we rafted up our vessel Odyssey with Summer.
Tied off to ‘Summer’ at Vero Beach
The two days before we got to Vero Beach I had noticed our engine was vibrating more than usual and that something was not right. Ed, knowing more about sailboats than I, suggested that perhaps our propeller had picked up something causing the propeller pitch to be slightly off. The only way to know for sure was to go under the boat and check the propeller. I told Ed I could not hold my breath that long. Ed told me not to worry he has an air compressor and a regulator I could use. He said to give him a couple hours to get the system set up and then I could dive under our boat.
As the adjacent pictures show I donned the fins, weights, mask, and regulator and dove under our boat and checked out our propeller, propeller shaft, the zinc anodes, the cutlass bearing, and the rudder.
Rigging up to dive under boat at Vero Beach
I have to say the water was not very clear compared to the Bahamas. I could only see about 2 feet in front of me (which is about 18 inches more than the Chesapeake Bay). But I spent about 20 minutes under both Odyssey and Summer checking everything out.
Unfortunately, our propeller and shaft were completely clean; there were not even any barnacles on the propeller. This means the vibration is coming from somewhere else.
We had planned to stay at Vero for 3 days, but because of weather and other reasons, we ended up staying 6 days. It was very hard to leave all the great people at Vero Beach but we wanted to get to the Bahamas as soon as possible.
Diving under boat at Vero Beach
Mile 951.7 to Mile 999.0 (47.3 miles): We left Vero Beach at 0920 hours got some fuel and water and continued down the ICW. At 1640 hours we anchored out in Hobe Sound about 25 yards from the ICW channel in 8 feet of water. Anchoring here would not be good in high winds, but it was a very calm night. Even the boat traffic did not make for much wake. We passed the Ft. Pierce inlet and the St. Lucie Inlet. These are the first inlets that people go out to the Bahamas. But most of the time, because of the strong northern current of the gulf Stream, most boats go further south before making the crossing to the Bahamas.
This is what happens if you do not tie off your vessel properly
Mile 999.0 to Mile 1014.2 (15.2 miles): At 1040 hours we picked up our anchor and headed for North Palm Beach. This day we encountered a lot of bridges where we needed an opening to pass through. Even though we traveled only 15 miles, we had to wait for 5 bridges to open. The first two opened upon our request, but the last three bridges only open at certain times. We pulled into the marina at 1420 hours.
We are currently docked at North Palm Beach Marina which is about 3 miles north of the Palm Beach Inlet. We will perform some maintenance and provisioning here while we wait for the right weather window to open up for our Bahamas crossing.
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