New River Rendezvous with Family – Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale – One of my favorite stops on the water!

I love the boating activity on the New River, and the River Walk for an early morning stroll, or late afternoon explorations up and into Las Olas. I suppose the most fun we have is watching tug boats tow mega-yachts past the cockpit of our boat. We’ll sip cocktails and dream of all the places we could go in those big yachts. But, then we’ll say, “With that bigger yacht, first of all, you’ll need a bigger crew to get around, to clean and maintain. Secondly, loss of privacy would be a big downside.” Finally, we end up being thankful for our little tug. It’s perfect for us!

Everything a boater would want is within walking distance
of our marina on the New River.

Easy to get to grocery stores, restaurants, the Museum of Discovery and Science, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, boat yards, and shopping in Las Olas. It’s a great place to take a dinghy ride up or downriver and into the many canals nearby. Cooley’s Landing, our favorite marina in the area is on the New River, in Fort Lauderdale. Our slip is usually to the east of the 4th Avenue Bridge, at the start of the River Walk.

It was a fun weekend!

Last spring while helping our son, Skyler, plan a long weekend on the boat with his girlfriend, Meghan, Fort Lauderdale became one of two options we gave him for a rendezvous. (Fort Myers, the other.) Both locations offer airports nearby, they are easy to get to from the marinas we frequent. Either site offers activities to keep our guests entertained. Once we got the timeline down, we could finally talk about locations. Consequently, if they had come earlier, in January, it would have been Fort Myers. We try to launch downtown when we tow our boat to Florida after the holidays. They came later in the season due to their job schedules, which found us coming north from the Keys and heading to the New River later in the season.

Skyler and Meg, our first guests on the new Ranger Tugs R29, proved they can handle the small confines of the boat. We took boat and dinghy rides, we shopped, we ate on the boat and in town. My niece Megan and her family spent an afternoon with us on the boat. We made sure our guests enjoyed a romantic time to themselves. One night we made their bed and filled it with candles, DVDs, and edible treats as we went to bed early. Too much fun!!!

After we got to Fort Lauderdale, we rented a car to drive to Fort Myers to pick up our truck and trailer. On the way back to Fort Lauderdale, I drove the rental car while Jim lead the way in the truck.

   

We have previously stored our truck and trailer at the marina, however, we were not able to do that this time, so Jim checked around and finally found a guy who said we could store it in his driveway, close to the marina. Nice job, Jim!

Our view (above), from the starboard side of Kismet.

   

   

My niece, Meghan, found out we were in Fort Lauderdale. She had just gotten off a cruise trip with her husband Dave and three kids. We had a fun afternoon catching up and playing on the boat.

This (above) is one of the smaller yachts that cruise by our slip hourly. There is a constant array of mega-yachts that daily make their way up to a boatyard up the New River.

   

We had a tropical storm or two while Sky and Meg were here. One kicked up while we were out for a day cruise on Kismet.

   

Our friend, Mark (above-left), also a Ranger Tug owner, was doing a trade show in the area. He stopped by to say hi and brought two friends. Any excuse to celebrate!

   

The last night of their visit we celebrated with dinner on the beach by Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

   

Jim and I walked to the Post Office one day and I saw this strange carcass flattened out on the ground.

One of the highlights of staying at Cooley’s Landing is we get to visit friends Carolyn and Harry, also Ranger Tug owners who live close to the marina.