Saturday 12/2/2017 South Melbourne to  Vero Beach

I've been waiting two months for this day.  It's 25 miles to Vero Beach - my destination for traveling home for the holidays.  Like usual (finally), it was warm and sunny by 7am.  It's sure nice to be in the warm weather.  I haven't had any bad weather for a couple weeks now.  I could get used to this! 

As I approached Vero Beach, I was looking out for a small channel just north of the City Marina where I was planning on anchoring while I waited the 9 days.  I had lots of plans and catching up.  Active  Captain shows two anchorages in the channel and I was hoping no one would be there.  Boy, was I surprised when I passed the channel and spotted a large group of sailboats lining the channel. My heart sank!  Where would I go??  I motored south to the marina and then back up through the mooring field.  There were LOTS of BIG boats in the mooring field - over a hundred.  And almost every mooring ball had two or three boats on the mooring.  I sure hope they will have room for little True Blue!!  Luckily, I found a "vacancy" in the anchorage and dropped the "hook".  It was still pretty tight and after a couple hours I raised the anchor and moved west about 75'.  This was perfect.  Very secluded, no waves, very little current, 7' deep, less than a foot of tide.  Paradise!!  I spent the next two hours dragging the dinghy out of the quarter berth and getting it up onto the fore-deck.  Then I inflated it and assembled all the parts.  Having the dinghy in service was my next milestone that meant I'd be "cruising"!!