Last month (before covid went rampant again), Scott surprised me with a quick trip to Fort Lauderdale. Other than passing through on our way to the Keys, I had never been to Fort Lauderdale, so I was excited to see what it was all about.
Fort Lauderdale is referred to as the “Venice” of Florida. After our visit, I can see why. All of the blue you see below is water!!
We’re definitely in a different boat world
Scott and I stayed at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Marina, located right on a canal. We arrived in the evening and after grabbing a bite to eat, we decided to walk around and check things out. Immediately, it was obvious that we were in a different type of “boating world” compared to the Pacific Northwest. Across from the hotel was a business center and most of the businesses were yacht groups and brokerages.
As we walked down the street, we stumbled upon the big guys!
Check out this open air indoor Ferretti Group showroom that is under construction! This is absolutely beautiful!
A few blocks down, we came upon an indoor boat launch under construction. Turns out this is a luxury indoor storage facility with access directly on the water. Check out F3 Marina for more information. This is such a cool project!
Scott and I proceeded to walk down a random street to see what the neighborhood looked like. Boat life is very different in Fort Lauderdale compared to the Pacific Northwest. Granted, we have some very large yachts on Lake Washington and a few marinas, but there were huge yachts in Fort Lauderdale everywhere you went.
Exploring Fort Lauderdale
With only a few days to check things out, we did our best to try a few nice restaurants and go visit the recommended spots. Most of the time, we found ourselves on another canal. Their canals are basically like our roads.
The only difference is these water “roads” have some serious luxury yachts parked along side them.
Looking at this dock, it appears they also can have accidents along their water roadways – yikes!
The following morning, we found a quirky diner, called Joe’s Diner in the middle of a shopping center, about four blocks from the hotel. The food was good and the service was great!
Looking for a public marina to walk around
Since we have public marinas here in Seattle that you can walk around and check out boats, we wanted to know where those were in Fort Lauderdale. I texted a broker I know and he said to go to Bahia Mar or Harbour Towne. Since he was showing his boat at Harbour Towne, we decided to go their first.
Bobby had a gorgeous Manhattan at the dock that he was showing. We could have gotten a quick tour, but he had a full day and we didn’t want to intrude on him.
Hoping to find a boat we might be able to board, we walked up and down a few docks, but unfortunately there wasn’t much to see.
Ironically, Charles & Jess from Folsom Ocean Views had just had their catamaran worked on in Harbour Towne on this dock and we missed them by just a few weeks.
As we were waiting for our Uber, I was excited to see this Intrepid 47 that had just arrived. You can do some serious fishing on this beauty!
Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale
Since this is Fort Lauderdale, there has to be a huge public marina we can walk around. Right? Well, taking Bobby’s advice, Scott and I headed to Bahia Mar Marina. This marina is home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show held every October. The Uber driver dropped us off at the hotel and we decided to first grab a drink and a snack at Bo’s Beach Bar.
From Bo’s, we walked back towards the Double Tree hotel, hoping to find some boats we could check out. Looking at where we walked, we managed to miss the brokerage docks. However, we did get to see some mega yachts, up close!
Even the Restaurants are Boat Themed
That evening, we walked across the street and grabbed dinner at the Boatyard. We had tried making reservations online, but they were full. Luckily, we walked right on in!
The food was fantastic! This is a definite stop if you are in Fort Lauderdale.
Touring a 1980 Hatteras 53 in Fort Lauderdale
The following morning we met with a local broker (she is also the owner of Luxury Yachts Int’l), to tour a 1980 Hatteras 53 liveaboard. The oldest yacht we have toured (for purchase) would be a 1995, so we were curious to see this particular boat. It was located on a canal and was a current liveaboard. She stated that the owners of the dock were willing to negotiate another liveaboard contract if we were interested in making an offer.
This yacht has a beautiful profile, one that will never go out of style. As we boarded, she had warned us that it was not tidy and man, she was not kidding! As a clean freak AND a marketer in the marine business, I had a hard time looking past the mess. Then Scott reminded me that is all cosmetic and to look at the architecture of the boat.
The Interior
The salon offered the comforts of home and the covered aft deck offered plenty of entertaining space. From the salon, we headed down to see the galley and staterooms. The galley was a bit tight and I was shocked to find a dishwasher under the stovetop!
The front V berth offered bunk bends and is currently being used for storage and as a work shop. It had a large hanging locker too.
Walking down the hall, you’ll find engine access on both sides, allowing you to easily work on them. This yacht is equipped with twin Detroit diesel 871-TI engines and each engine has 2500 hours.
Moving down the hall, you’ll find another guest stateroom with twin beds. There was also a washer and dryer located in the hallway.
The guest bath had plenty of counter space, storage and a separate shower.
This Hatteras has a nice large master aft cabin with plenty of storage, a makeup vanity and a hanging locker that is larger than some apartments!
In the galley, there was a hatch for battery and tank access.
Since we couldn’t do an official tour with proper photos (because the broker and her assistant were with us), I ended up not going up to the fly bridge. However, Scott did a full tour in the YouTube episode, so be sure to watch the complete tour below.
Overall, this was a great layout and could be an awesome project boat. However, we live in Seattle – not Florida, so this was not an option for us today. We certainly appreciated Linda for taking time to meet with us and let us tour the boat. It was an interesting three days in Fort Lauderdale and surely not to be our last. We had planned on attending the Tampa Boat Show in September, but due to the fact that the virus is now rampant again in Florida, we’ve decided to cancel and figure out a different adventure – so stay tuned.
As always, thank you for following our journey! Please be sure to subscribe to our blog and vlog to stay updated on our search. In the meantime, we’ll continue to bring you adventures on the water. Check out our social pages @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney.
Cheers, Scott and Ally
