Mai Thai Wanderings: Holiday Boat Parades

12/5/10

Holiday Boat Parades

We have been very fortunate to have several opportunities to see some awesome boat parades and festivals over the years. From the magnificent Tall Ships that visit Boston every decade to the famous Winterfest Boat Parade in Fort Lauderdale, these boat parades and festivals are truly one of a kind. Hopefully, our videos here will impress you enough to attend or participate in one somewhere.

One December Saturday in 2005, we found ourselves in the center of a boat parade. We were anchored at Bimini Basin in Cape Coral, off of the Caloosahatchee River. Overlooking a lovely park and gorgeous homes, Bimini Basin is one of our favorite anchorages. It has a free dinghy dock, and is a short walking distance to supermarkets, restaurants and a laundromat, all things cruisers love. On this particular day, we were expecting two sets of friends on their Endeavor catamarans to come in for the night. After they set their anchor, we dinghied over to socialize with them. We saw the crowd in the park growing bigger and the music wafting through the anchorage getting louder. Something was definitely up. As more and more illuminated vessels drifted in, we realized we were smack in the middle of some festive boat parade. How lucky were we? We had a blast!

Now, fast forward to last night. Our marina (Hales Bar) had a chili cookout, followed by a mini-boat parade. A small fleet of five boats went out, two of which were all decked out with impressive lights and holiday decorations. We went all the way to the U.S. Hwy 41 Bridge (and heard some honking on the bridge) before turning around. It got windy when we returned to our slip, but oh what fun!