Having fun in Vero Beach

We are enjoying our stay here in Vero Beach. The weather was beautiful until last night, when it hit 37, with blowing wind.  yuck.   But last evening was a beautiful sunset, looking over the mooring field.

Marina and I did girl-shopping a couple of days ago while Dave and Luke went exploring.  They headed for the National  Navy SEAL Museum  http://www.navysealmuseum.com/   Luke said they really enjoyed the museum. It's impressive to learn what people can be trained to do and survive - like clear obstacles off the beaches at Normandy, which lead to about 50% casualties, use the "Swimmer Delivery Vehicles", the black mini sub things, go after the Viet Cong command structure, and patrol the rivers in small open boats in the jungles of Viet Nam, etc. Apparently in Viet Nam, of 620 people deployed over a 10 year period, there were only 20 casualties.

But first, a stop for lunch for the boys at a little local place, Jim's Bait and Tackle Shop.  The regional newspaper had a great write-up on  the place, so they gave it a try....if you've ever eaten  at a bait and tackle shop, you know what it is....

On the way back to Marina & Daves, they stopped at the San Sabastian Inlet, watching the fishermen and bird life.  It's amazing to me - the wood storks here are plentiful like seagulls, all over the place, even standing on the sides of the roads.  These guys are waiting for fishermen's castoffs.

Think there is more than a little interest in the fishermen?  Just look at the big boys waiting, St Sebastian Inlet in the background.

And then!  When the scraps ARE  tossed, it's a free-for-all mad house!

Afterwards, Marina made a wonderful dinner for us and lent us her car for a few days!  Errands and grocery shopping today.  Luke got a haircut and we did about half of our provisioning for the Bahamas.  We plan to do the rest tomorrow morning.

All is not peaches and cream. Luke had a constant three day battle with an electrical problem, for which we finally called in a local contractor, recommended by the marina, to no avail. We had lost the ability to run our heat pumps, electric water heater, and battery charger from our auxialliary generator. Finally, after a 45 minute conference call with the electrical design people from Hunter Marine "seeing" what Luke had tested and found, they figured out a work around for a basic design problem, which Luke implimented, and all is well again.

It's still windy and has gotten cold again, 34 degrees predicted for tonight. Still beats the piles of snow that every state in the union  has, except Florida (so said the evening news).  The weather should be a little better in a few days, into the 70's but with an increased chance of showers.