Road Trip - Miami Boat Show

All six of us were in the van and ready to go by 8:15. The ride up to Miami was about two hours and took us all the way up the Dixie Highway through much of south Miami. We arrived at the AA Arena where we were able to park in an underground garage just a short walk from the Water Taxi that would take us to the Strictly Sail (in water) part of the Boat Show. (a lot more fun than the school buses that take you from the Navy stadium to the Annapolis show!) We were surprised that the number of sailboats didn't come close to equaling the numbers we've seen in Annapolis. There was a small tent of vendors to pass through on the way to the docks, and we browsed a bit before heading to the Catalina dock to see who and what was there. Gerry Helldorfer met us there and we also were happy to see Yachta, Yachta friends Lyn and Paul Erb manning the Catalina store booth. We had decided not to try to stay together (likened to herding cats) for the day, but we did all get together to share a lunch with Gerry and swap tales.

After lunch we spent a little more time on the docks and happened to run into Erik and Marti Lostrom (my godson and his wife) who were down from Kent Island, MD to check things out and meet with some of their vendors, kind of a working vacation. We also made sure to visit the Presto 30 called Thorfinn because an old friend from my Maine days, Ben Emory, had told us he and his wife Diana are buying #7 and his son, Thor, has #2 which he raced in the Ft. Lauderdale-Key West race last month and come in 2nd. It's a very interesting design, worth googling. We missed Thor, but got to look her over. We then took the shuttle to the Miami Convention Center for the indoor portion of the show. WHAT A DEJA VUE experience that was! We walked in and stopped and looked at each other. The atmosphere was exactly like the good old days at what we always knew as THE boat show - at the Coliseum in NYC. We were a little disappointed at how much of the indoor show was taken up with smaller power boats, engines and fishing gear. We still managed to make a complete day of it and didn't get back to Marina del Mar until 8:00 pm where we headed to Sharkey's for their famous Friday Fish Fry. A little too noisy, but the fish was excellent. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

The water taxi whisked us quickly from the parking garage to the strictly sail portion of the show.

This is what greeted us when we headed over to the Miami Convention Center for the indoor portion of the show.