Vero Beach Marina, aka “Velcro Beach” as some may call it, is a little slice of heaven off the ICW in Florida. After spending just an evening there we can see why. It is made for us!

The rafting is very fun, as it makes a nice change of pace from never having an actual real neighbor to having someone attached at the hip, literately. Think of it as your boat

being turned into a condo, rafted together. Its quite fun for a few nights, you may get your own mooring or you may be rafted with two other people.

We were fortunate enough to get to raft with our friends on S/V Kundra. We had a great evening with them and the next day they headed for a few day break from the boat and we were “supposed” to leave for our next stop. Well with a real shower at the shore as well as the great boater’s lounge we decided to stay.

Vero has very easy bus transportation picking you up right at the marina and taking you either to the beach or to where all the shopping is. It’s a free bus too! They also have pick up and drop off of your propane tank if you need yours refilled among many other services that are much needed by the cruising community.

On Thursday nights they have a little happy hour where everyone brings a dish of food, their own beverages and everyone shares. If you play music, bring it! Unfortunately the night we were there, no other musicians showed up which was disappointing to Curtis who was all ready with his guitar.

The following morning we woke up early and headed to the fuel dock to fill the tanks and away we went. Our original destination was a small little island that was a great island to build a bonfire at but it was already being occupied and wasn’t striking our fancy. Friends of ours we had met in Vero were traveling behind us so we ended up joining them in a small anchorage at Dragon’s Point, Merritt Island.

We rowed to a little beach and tied the dinghy up and discovered that there was a Publix, multiple gas stations as well as a Bealls and a Chinese food place all within a block of this little unknown beach.

Our friends on S/V Shibumi who we had anchored next to invited us over for cocktail hour so we headed over there and had the greatest time getting to know them. We even had an impromptu photo session with them so they would have some good Christmas Card photos of them this year, and they turned out great.

It’s so great getting to know so many amazing people along our travels, the greatest thing about it is that we all have one thing in common, our love for living on our boats.