Goin' to the Big Boat Show

Back in June we read about a rendezvous of the America's Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) at Joe Wheeler State Park in northern Alabama at the end of October. We knew that this was the group that could help us with the many questions we had in planning our loop trip and really wanted to attend. Jane called the park and got us reservations. We weren't members of AGLCA, but decided that we would join when we attended the rendezvous. WRONG! At the beginning of October we were looking at the AGLCA's website and noticed that the rendezvous was closed. Not really sure what that meant, we called only to find out that there was a limit to the number of attendees and since we weren't members we essentially missed the chance to attend.

Well, we really needed a road trip and looked around and found the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show over the Halloween weekend and made plans to attend. We wanted to go to a show that hosted a lot of vendors so we could look at and compare some of the products that interested us. We are particularly interested in upgrading Bavarian Cream's electronics such as new chartplotters, VHF radios and an autopilot. So we jumped in the car and headed to Ft. Lauderdale. We left Louisiana and went to Ft. Walton Beach and spent a night at our place. The next day we drove to Ft. Pierce and stayed at the same motel we stayed at when we went to Miami for our honeymoon cruise two years ago. In fact, we stayed in the very same room that we had for our honeymoon journey even though we only requested something on the ground floor! Talk about coincidences. Anyway we had a couple of drinks by the pool then decided that we should head down to Ft. Pierce's waterfront to see the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that we would be traversing in two more years. What a delight! Ft. Pierce has a magnificent waterfront. We walked through the waterfront park, listened to some musicians, then strolled to the Ft. Pierce Municipal Marina. What a fine facility. We listened to the harbormaster talk another boater into the channel leading to the marina, then decided to get something to eat at "The Original Tiki Bar."
It was an open air restaurant and tiki bar with a band, good food, and waitresses in scanty Halloween outfits! We will definitely put this on our list of places to stop and spend a couple of days when we're looping.

The next day we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and went to the boat show. This is a really big show with six venues spread over the waterfront area with shuttle buses taking the participants from one venue to another. We started out at the main convention center. This was where the small boats (up to 40 feet) were, but we were mostly interested in furnishings and gadgets for our boat. We looked at outboard motors for our dinghy, and bought an anchor retrieving system. Jane got some nautical clothing and jewelry cleaner (they have just about everything!). We collected lots of information on marinas we will encounter on our loop and the ubiquitous array of safety literature. We had trouble finding the "electronics tent," and wandered into the "manufacturer's tent" which housed mostly naval architects interested in designing a multimillion dollar boat (or is it ship?). With about an hour to go before the show closed, we finally found the electronics tent and Larry was able to talk to the Garmin and Standard Horizon vendors about their products that he is interested in. We have a neighbor on the Tickfaw that has an approximately 38 foot fishing boat with four (4) 250 hp outboard motors. We thought that this had to be the maximum fishing platform, but on our way back to the convention center, we saw what looked to be in the ball park of a 40 foot open counsel fishing boat with five (yes, 5) 350 hp Yamaha outboard motors. Everyone was taking pictures, but it just didn't occur to us to pull our camera out, but it was a beast. We'd hate to pay the fuel bill for that outfit! We shuttled back to the car and on our way to the motel we passed an auto dealership that specialized in European cars. They had no less than 7 Lambourghinis in various colors and a Mercedes Benz gull wing sports car that Larry saw on MSN Carpoint for $360,000. Jane saw a baby blue Bentley driving on the road that she really liked and we saw a big black Rolls Royce. It's just so different in south Florida compared to Killian, LA! On our way to the motel we stopped in West Palm Beach and had a great dinner at a place called Island Jack's (also with waitresses clad in scanty Halloween clothing!). The next day we drove back to Ft. Walton Beach to chill out out for a couple of days. The trip was a real hoot!