VERO BEACH — Skip and Marty Snyder started coming to Vero Beach in the 1970s to visit their parents who lived on the island.
“Skip’s parents moved to Reef Lane in 1968 and my parents bought a condo near the city marina in 1975,” says Marty Snyder, who leads volunteer recruitment and training at the Vero Beach Art Museum and is active in bridge circles and several literary societies.
“We fell in love with area,” says Marty’s husband Skip Snyder.
When Skip retired as head of the investment department of a bank in Wilmington, Delaware, the couple’s affection for barrier island life focused in on the Moorings, a diverse, nautically-inclined community with 1,160 homes ranging from modestly-priced condominiums to multi-million-dollar waterfront mansions.
“We rented a condo in Harbourside for a month that winter,” says Marty. “I remember waking up and hearing the birds singing and a lawnmower in the distance and thinking how nice it was that the grass was being cut but that we didn’t have to cut it. It was a luxurious feeling!”
Harbourside is one of 18 distinct communities within the Moorings. It consists of four, 4-story octagonal buildings with a sleek, modernist look situated at the end of a point that projects into the Indian River Lagoon.
The Snyders were fond enough of the 2-bedroom, 1,900-square-foot unit and of the Moorings lifestyle that, even though the rental condo wasn’t on the market, they contacted the owner through a broker and made an offer.
“We enjoyed the golf and the clubhouse ambiance,” says Skip, a dedicated golfer who won the Moorings club championship last year. “But the thing we liked the best was how friendly everyone was. We immediately felt at home.”
Their offer was accepted and the Snyders settled into a pleasant snowbird existence, spending winters with new friends at the Moorings, summers in Delaware, the Poconos and a fish camp in Canada.
After a few seasons of golf and club life in Vero, the couple got a hankering for a boat and decided to move to a waterfront condo in The Pointes, another Moorings community.
Located just across the Bay Road from Habourside, The Pointes includes several cottages and 39 condominiums in three riverfront buildings overlooking a marina.
The Snyders had a water view and a dock for the Grady White they bought and used for some serious fishing.
“My wife is a very good fisherman,” says Skip. “She usually catches the biggest fish, but she doesn’t like cleaning them.”
With their two children grown and married and grandchildren arriving, the Snyders decided after a few years to move again to get a bigger place with a bit more privacy where they could entertain visiting family members. At the same time, they made the move from winter visitors to Florida residents.
Moorings Realty Sales Co. Broker Marsha Sherry calls the 3-bedroom 2.5-bath home they bought “a waterside jewel.”
The immaculate 3,000-square foot house is beautifully situated at the end of a cove in a section of single-family homes call The Anchor.
The first thing a visitor sees entering the front door, looking through the foyer and across the living room, is an inlet of the Indian River Lagoon called Pirates Cove.
All the main rooms, including the roomy kitchen, high-ceilinged living room and master bedroom, are open to the backyard via sliding doors and have views of the cove.
The spacious yard, which slopes down to the water, is lush and green. There is a pool and up-to-date dock with a lift and 12 feet of water.
“There is very good fishing from the dock,” says Skip. “We have gone out in the boat before and sometimes not caught many fish and then come back here and done much better in our own backyard. There are sea trout, mackerel, sheepshead, red fish – even got a grouper one time. We catch a lot of jacks.
“There is a 20-foot hole just offshore the fish really like. Charter boat captains bring their boats in to fish that spot all the time.”
The house has a formal dining room, large laundry room and two-car garage.
The master bedroom is on one side of the public rooms while the two guest bedrooms, with a Jack and Jill bathroom in-between, are on the other, which gives the Snyders and their frequent guests plenty of personal space and privacy.
Because the back yard is bordered by hedges, the house seems to sit in splendid isolation on the shores of the fish-filled cove, even though sociable neighbors are close at hand.
The Snyders recently decided to move again to a home that requires less maintenance and is easier to close up when they go north to visit family and friends in Delaware.
Naturally, they chose a home in the Moorings.
“We bought another place at the Pointes,” says Marty with a smile. “It is very spacious and has a wonderful view of the water.”
“It is on the third floor, so we can keep all the windows and sliding doors open without fear of intruders,” says Skip. “When we are ready to leave town, all we have to do is lock the door and get in the car.”
The Snyders new place – a 3-bedroom, 2-bath with an expansive lanai that seems to hang out over the lagoon – is identical to the home they owned in The Pointes at an earlier stage of their Moorings odyssey.
It has an intimate view of the marina on one side and an expansive river vista on the other.
“We had the dining table on the lanai before,” says Marty, “but I am going to put a seating area out there this time, with a couch and chairs. That is where we will live.”
The Snyders may be slightly unusual in the degree of their loyalty to the Moorings, but they are not unique. Broker Marsha Sherry says several other residents have lived in five or more homes.
“Daina Sakalas Bertrand, who is a sales agent in our office, grew up in the Moorings. Her parents, Dr. Romas and Dana Sakalas, moved here in 1978 and own a home in The Anchor. Since 1978, they have owned three houses, three lots, and two condominiums in the Moorings! I love it that Daina is now selling the lifestyle she and her family have enjoyed for the last 34 years.”
“There is no better place to live if you are a boater and fisherman and want to enjoy all the other amenities our community offers,” says Dr. Sakalas.
The Snyders say their new place at The Pointes will probably be their final Florida home, but if they get the urge to move again there are still plenty of options at the Moorings they haven’t tried yet.
So far the couple has always lived on the river side of the 500-acre development, but there are cottages, court homes, villas and three styles of condominiums on the ocean side if they ever decide they want a sixth home in the Moorings.
“I am happy and excited about our new home,” says Marty Snyder. “I will be even happier when our house in The Anchor sells and everything is wrapped up there.”
The Snyder’s 3,000-squre-foot, Bahamian-style home at 190 Spinnaker Drive was just listed with The Moorings Realty Sales Co. for $1,295,000.
