Vero Beach to Stuart, FL Jan 16 - Feb 5th

 

Sunset view from the back of the boat

 

 Our three weeks at Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach were full of sun, visits with friends and family, good food, trips to Vero Beach Bookstore and The Lemon Tree Restaurant, walks through the beautiful nearby neighborhood, and Saturday's Farmers' market.  A new Publix supermarket has sprung up nearby and, in the same shopping center, a killer muffin/bagel store.  Believe me, we need those walks!  Again, this year, we saw some of Florida's unique flora and fauna and made new friends (human and canine) in the close knit marina community.

 

 

This is our neighborhood for the next three weeks.

 

Hibiscus flowers - always a welcome part of a Florida winter

The monthly pot luck dinner in the marina's Captain's Lounge

The Marina pool on a typical winter day.  It looks inviting but it's pretty chilly.
 Still, though, a welcome place for a foot soaking after a walk in the neighborhood and some
 brave souls took a dip on our warmer days here.

Every Saturday there's a well stocked Farmer's Market near the beach.

 

Re-upholstering the lounge seat on the aft deck

The Cushions on the seat had deteriorated over time and the stains from Florida mildew could not be bleached out.  So I started the complete replacement of the seat covers.  It was decided that the new seating would be stapled to Starboard (synthetic plywood).  The original cushions were zippered covers that were held to the seat base with Velcro.

 

Existing seats

I found a piece of Starboard at the marine surplus store that was just barely larger than I needed.  Great luck - no waste.



Seat bases had to be cut.  Each of the three seats were of a different size.





Seat bottom ready to cover



Glue the foam to the bottom board.

Fit and stitch....Fit and stitch

A whole lot of stretching and stapling



Trimming the excess vinyl material



Two sections completed

 

All three seat bottoms completed.
How in the world do I recover the backrest.
Well...just get started.

 

Backrest removed and existing covering removed

 

Fit, sew, stretch. Fit, sew, stretch.
You get the picture.
Then stretch and staple

 

The finished seat!
Almost....still need to make small fillers to cover the two posts.

 

 Quilting Time



Just a small portion of the 1,823 pieces that will make up this quilt

While Wayne was replacing the back desk upholstery, Colleen was finally piecing a quilt top that has a checkered history.  I began it at a workshop two summers ago.  The instructor told us to use a "scant quarter inch" seam so I carefully sewed pieces together all afternoon per her instructions.  After several hours, I began trying to put blocks together and discovered that the seam I had made was too small, putting all the remaining pieces out of whack.  It was so frustrating that I shelved it and finally decided to take the seam ripper to my hours of work and try to finish it this winter.  So, after many hours of ripping all I had stitched, I finally began the miles of sewing that it would take to put all the pieces together properly.



Pinning, pinning and more pinning

The iron is as essential as the sewing machine.  The rows begin to go together.




I've been here for hours!  Please, can I stop now?

 

Ta daaaa!!!!  I have no plans to quilt it on the boat.  That will have to wait until we return to North Carolina.

 And a Few More Projects -






Potato bags, mug buddies and a snap purse for friends along the way.

 

Fabric rosettes that are hot glued to headbands.  Great gifts for the grandgirls from an idea on JoAnn's Fabrics website.

Looks like a purse but it carries my iron and opens up into an insulated ironing surface.




I love this fabric of "fruity" ladies.  I sewed a little stuffing
into their behinds on this beach bag to give it an interesting 3D look.

Chameleon Fiber Arts

In Vero we met Joyce and Alan.  Their granddaughter has cystic fibrosis and Joyce makes and sells beach bags and purses to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  I couldn't resist this one.  Check her website at www.chameleonfiberarts.com to see some of her other creations.



Joyce made this large bag.  Lots of pockets and a zippered pouch.

 Loggerhead Wildlife and Scenery

 

This is our walking path, well stocked with a variety of birds, turtles and, maybe, an alligator or two.



Is this sandhill crane playing golf?  He definitely liked to hang out at this particular hole.

 

 



I loved the way this heron's reflection showed in the water......

 



And the grace he showed when he took flight.

A view across the golf course

Wayne decided that it was time to make a cover for the flag.  Saves taking in the flag each night and it was always in the way of something else. 



Laying out the flag cover

 Thirty minutes later the flag cover was ready.



Finished flag cover

There are anchor windlass foot switches on the deck to retrieve the anchor.  One for up and one for down.  The rubber covered switches have flip-open covers made of plastic.  Our boat being a 1997 model the covers are showing their age.  The hinge of one broke apart several months ago and mold stain was embedded into the white plastic.  After contacting the factory, I was referred to a distributor website in Connecticut.  Three days later we received new switch covers via US Mail.

To fight the black mold that forms in FL, we replaced the white covers with black ones.

Stuart, FL Boat Show
A very hot day and crowded with people.  So many sales people and show visitors that it was difficult to See the boats.  I stayed only about 1 1/2 hours.


A fisherman never has enough power!

A favorite stopover on land is Marine Connection Liquidators in Ft. Pierce, FL.  Here are a sample of photos taken there.  Contrary to the photos shown most of the store is inside two large warehouses.  They have everything, new surplus and new items.  Almost everything comes from surplus from boat builders.  If you need a part, look them up online.  They are really good at what they do.


Wayne's favorite marine surplus store!



The back lot



More stuff coming in

Walking Vero Beach in January

It was in the teens in Charlotte this day.

We needed another large bag for laundry and other bulky carryings.
A couple hours and scrap Sunbrella canvas and her is the result. 
Thank you Rick's Custom Canvas in Cornelius for the scraps used to make the bag,

 

 

A beautiful day in Vero Beach

Friends from Charlotte, NC, Hal and Young, stopped by for lunch and a visit.



  

SUNBONNET SUE QUILT GUILD

 

 

The ladies of Vero Beach's Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Guild have welcomed me the past two winters.  They get together every week to work on charity quilts, plan their every-other-year quilt show and work on personal sewing projects.  This year I wanted to share photos of their hands at work and they generously allowed me to take their pictures as they knitted, crocheted, appliqued, quilted and embroidered, demonstrating skills many of them

have developed over fifty or more years their lives. 

 

 

 Moving on to Stuart

On Monday, February 3 we left Vero Beach for our trip down the coast and into the St. Lucie River to Stuart.  It looked like it was going to be a perfect cruising day - for about the first hour-and-a-half.  Then we noticed black clouds off to the west that gradually drifted across our travel path and, inexplicably, stayed right with us, our own personal rain cloud.  We slogged along through sprinkles and then more intense rain, navigating with the GPS, our now working radar and referring often to our charts.  Wayne finally decided to try to outrun the weather and sped up to ten miles an hour.  We edged out from under the cloud and away from the rain.  But then we had to make the turn into the St. Lucie River and travel northwest to Stuart - right back into the storm which was now blowing 25 to 35 mph gusts and dumping huge buckets of rain.  In nearly zero visibility we moved out of the channel and dropped the anchor, only about a mile from our destination and waited it out for the next forty minutes.


A welcome rainbow as we finally settle into our marina.  The rain turned a four hour jaunt into a six hour trek.

 

And the sun comes up in Stuart on Tuesday, our jumping-off point as we prepare to cross Lake Okeechobee.

You can see where our travels have taken us so far.  400+ miles by water.