Velcro Beach

By Capt. Scott Buckley

Vero Beach is often called “Velcro Beach” because some cruisers go there and get stuck.  They don’t leave for the entire season.  It is very similar to Marathon but just a lot farther north.  There are very affordable mooring balls, fuel, water, a good dinghy dock, a free shuttle bus into town and the beach, showers, laundry and a descent cruisers lounge.  It would be pretty easy to get stuck here at Vero because they make it so easy.  Did I mention they have free WiFi.  
I hear it can be crowded in the peak season and they often moor a couple of boats up to each mooring ball.  While we were there it was not full and we did not have to share a mooring with another boat.


The Mooring Field

The Vero Beach Marina Lounge, Laundry, showers and the porch.

Vero Beach Office

A Fun Night That Became a Tense Night. 

SV Simpatico and SV Alice Mae also  moored up in Vero and we got together that night to play Mexican train dominos.  Something we had started playing in the Bahamas and it was soon becoming a favorite.  The skies that evening started looking dark and threatening so we rowed back to our boat before it got too late.  Shortly after we got on board the heavens opened up.  It was a long night.  There was a low pressure off the coast and it was spawning these thunder storms.  Wave after wave kept pounding the boat.  The winds would shift from different direction and the lightening would not stop.
   
The issue with lightening is while it is unlikely that the boat will get struck it does happen with terrible results.  Equipment is destroyed, often the boat starts leaking and people can be hurt if on board.  Add to that you have a 60 ft aluminum pole sticking straight up in the air with “STRIKE ME” written on it.  Try and get to sleep as the boat swings around wildly in the wind and the lightening and thunder are coming in rapid succession.  The  dinghy was tied off to the stern of Kooky Dance so I kept checking on it and adjusting its tether or painter as conditions changed.  It was a long and tense night aboard SV Kooky Dance.
The next morning all was forgiven and the dinghy was full of rain water.  I had to bail it out before rowing into shore for a shower and to do some laundry.  Did I mention they also have WiFi.

The next morning was headed to Cocoa Beach right next to Cape Canaveral.  Where NASA used to launch the Apollo and Shuttle missions.