Day 288 – 298; 3/2 – 3/12: It has been another 11 days since our last post. Carol has spent so much time in zoom meetings or on phone calls, it’s been tough to find time to sit down and write the blog. It’s been a trade off of the “must do’s,” trying to enjoy the trip and the “other to-dos.” What’s going on you might ask? Well, Carol had a face to face BOD meeting in Boston from 3/5 – 3/7 for one BOD and countless calls and meetings in between from her other BOD. You know what they say …. “when #$&^* happens”…..it creates lots of meetings and calls!
So back to our adventure….3/2 was day 288 of our journey as we left Fort Pierce, FL and headed to Vero Beach, arriving around 12:45 pm at the Vero Beach City Marina. It was a bit of a strange sight as we approached the marina passing the mooring field. Each mooring ball had 2 boats on it, rafted together. At first we thought perhaps friends were sharing the cost of one mooring ball, but as we got closer to the marina and looked up the cove, they were all this way. We’d never seen that before.
Anyway, we digress….it was a beautiful sunny afternoon so we got on our bikes and rode to the beach for a little stroll. Gary’s knee was bothering him a bit so we didn’t walk too far on the beach, but we did enjoy the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair. The ride there was quite nice – of course very flat, but also quite scenic passing old style FL homes and beautiful mature trees. The Main Street downtown was lined with high end shops and restaurants that we had hoped to come back to, but didn’t get a chance. Gary is quite skilled at steering Carol away from those shops!
Dinner was on the boat as we settled in to watch the Baltimore Blast game against Milwaukee at 6:00 pm. Sadly, Blast lost 7-1.
Sunday, 3/3 began a few days of getting back together with old friends! Nancy and Carol worked together back in the Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems days in Linthicum, MD. It’s been 16 years since Carol left NGC, so 16 years since we saw Nancy and Phil who now live on North Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce a short distance from Vero Beach. So thankful that Facebook is what reconnected us some years ago and Nancy has been tracking our journey. It was so great to have lunch and an extended afternoon with them and so gracious of them to take us to the grocery store!
We were back on the boat by 3:00 for another Blast game. Those guys had to be exhausted – they played in Baltimore on Saturday at 6:00 pm, finished the game, showered and boarded the bus at 10:00 pm to drive over 5 hours to Utica, NY. They arrived in the middle of the night to turn around and play again at 3:00 pm. They did look a bit tired and lost 10-2. Not their best day.
Monday, 3/4 was another travel day for us, heading to Melbourne, FL and the Eau Gallie Yacht Club (EGYC). It was about a 4 hour run and for over 1.5 hours, we had dolphin escorts on the port, starboard and in the bow! While this group of dolphins wasn’t quite as acrobatic as others, we’ve never had a group run with us for that long. It was spectacular and good to see our “dolphin magnet” was still working! We definitely attract more dolphins than most boats and love to see them; it never gets old.
Check out the videos below where again we were surrounded on all 3 sides – dolphins on port, starboard and in the bow. We divided the video into 2, it was so long.
The club is closed on Mondays so we were not able to check out the restaurant and bar, but did walk around on the grounds. A lovely spot with an equal focus on boating and tennis that is undergoing some pretty extensive renovations at the main club. This place is going to be very nice when done. Carol needed to pack for her trip so it was a quiet evening of packing and a movie; no Blast games!
8:30 am Carol was off to Orlando airport – destination Boston – and Gary was off to get a rental car – destination golf course! Gary’s 3 days were highlighted by 2 rounds of golf, dinner at the home of our looper friends Tom and Diane and 1 day cleaning the boat. Carol’s time away was highlighted by 2 days of meetings and an amazing dinner and tour of the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. While the main purpose of being there was to honor 2 colleagues who were retiring from the Board, we did get to take an abbreviated tour of the exhibits including the current special exhibit “Service and Sacrifice” which focused on JFK’s early life at Harvard and service in WWII (PT 109). What a fascinating place and journey to the 1960’s. If we could only roll the political state of our nation back to those days!
Oh….. one random travel tip…. When you pack toiletries into those little pockets in a toiletry bag, don’t put the tube of toothpaste and the tube of Icy Hot in the same pocket…. Yah, they are the same size and from the back side of the tube look the same. Yuck!!
Flights went smoothly and Carol got back to EGYC around 7:00 pm on Thursday, so we decided to head up and check out the bar. Met some lovely members who we chatted with for a couple hours, getting some of the history and hearing tall tales about boating and fishing!
Friday, 3/8 brought more of Carol’s endless calls, but we made the most of it and relaxed by the pool in between calls and a trip to the store to provision. By 5:00, we shut down electronics and enjoyed a cocktail on the boat with Pam and Ed before heading to Hotel Melbie for dinner on their rooftop deck. What a great view and fun time catching up with Pam. We worked with Pam back in our California Northrop Days! We were all in contracts and pricing together working on the B2 program. We moved from CA to NY in 1995, so have not seen Pam in 29 years! Since then, she’s a Gramma 4 times over and still looks like she did 29 years ago! It was so fun to catch up. We were back to the boat in time to catch the 10:00 pm Blast game in Chihuahua, Mexico where they lost a heart breaker 8-6, the 8th goal on an open net with a 6th attacker on the field.
3/9, in addition to being Michael’s birthday, brought us a reunion with more friends, these being loopers! Tom and Diane (Beachside Cruising) invited us, Jeff and Pam (Sea the USA) and Matt and Tonia (Lil Sudden) over to their beautiful canal front home for brunch. A great time was had by all as we spent the entire afternoon there. We are the only ones still looping (they have all “crossed their wakes”), so we got some great advice on places to stop and things to do as we head up the coast. Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we headed back to EGYC and enjoyed a late dinner on the patio with Matt and Tonia.
3/10 was another reunion! Carol and Leni worked together at Northrop Grumman (NGC) in Bethpage, NY and hadn’t seen each other since 2008…..so 16 years. Back in 1995, Leni and Carol were peer managers and Leni welcomed Carol with open arms as we moved from CA to NY with a 2 year old and newborn. Everything wasn’t wine and roses with the merging of 2 companies and cultures as Northrop bought Grumman, but that didn’t stop our friendship. We became fast friends and rose in the management ranks together becoming peer CIOs at different NGC Sectors. When Carol left NGC in 2008, we headed in different directions, but reconnecting was like yesterday! Steve and Leni graciously invited us to their beautiful waterfront home in Indialantic for an amazing brunch. We could have chatted all night, but again didn’t want to overstay our welcome.
We left them late afternoon to catch the Blast Game in Monterey, Mexico at 5:30 pm EST. Monterey is undefeated this season, so we knew it would be tough. Blast lead for a good portion of the game ending regulation in a tie, but losing in Overtime 5-4 on a penalty kick. Those who know soccer know that a defensive foul “in the box” in front of the goal results in a penalty kick (PK) for the offense. And those who know soccer know that the odds are heavily in favor of the shooter and not the goal keeper on a PK. Sadly, Blast lost in OT dashing their hopes of handing Monterey their first loss of the season.
Monday, 3/11 came and with that….. you guessed it… more meetings and calls! We ran a few errands, returned the car and regrouped to get ready to head to Titusville in the morning. Titusville would be a 3.5 hour run (with 1 meeting in the middle of it). There we look forward to visiting the Kennedy Space Center, never having been there.
chashurley
Remind me to tell you a great story about the Kennedy Library. Chuck