Life Aboard SERENADA: Fort Lauderdale's Lighted Boat Parade

It was a crazy busy day on the ICW and the canals and waterways in and around Fort Lauderdale yesterday. So many come from near and far to watch their annual boat parade…. we heard that a million people come to see this (is that possible?).

Not surprisingly, the already crowded anchorage we were in at Lake Sylvia, got even tighter and louder (very festive atmosphere). We counted 30 boats at one point. Meanwhile, Jorge & Kim were making their way here on the very busy ICW. Though we’d hoped there would be room for them in this anchorage when they reached us, it was not to be. They wisely elected to anchor a few miles north of us, where they would have a good view of the parade. Gil & I therefore planned to dinghy up to their boat, where we could watch the parade together, and finally catch up with each other! Unfortunately, that was not to be either L. What we didn’t know was that the ICW is “closed” prior to the parade, to clear the waterway. We got almost half way to CS’ta Time, when we finally got stopped by the authorities and told to anchor L. We were pulled over twice before, but were allowed to continue. Third time was not the charm. So Gil & I watched the parade from “Patches,” our tiny dinghy, amongst all the bigger boats. The parade itself was a spectacle!