Ft Lauderdale boat show.

The wind is still blowing. Looks like we will be able to work our way back to St Pete on Thursday. Some of the boats that are from the east coast have departed Key west and were able to make it home but all the Gulf coast boats are sitting and waiting on the wind to subside.

Yesterday the crew from the Sea Hawk let us ride along as we road tripped up to the Ft Lauderdale boat show. The Lauderdale boat show is enormous. There are literally thousands of boats. they range from small to mega yacht. I have worked on boats most of my life and I still get excited going to the show. Just walking the docks and seeing the yachts stacked in as far as one can see is impressive.  I got to see lots of people from the industry that I have not seen in a while. We boarded an array of boats. Chris Carrerre from Galati yachts took us aboard the new Viking 66. It was quite impressive. I have built 4 Vikings in the past and it seemed to have the best of everything Viking has done. We saw Baylis, Merrits, Americans and Jim Smiths, But...By far though the Spencer boats we saw were my favorite. I was fortunate to sit and talk with Paul Spencer for quite a while. He is a very layed back gentleman. He did not brag on his product at all. He did not need to. His demeanor was very matter of fact. When he rattled off the fuel burn numbers and performance of his boats, he did it with an honesty that is not to be questioned. His boats speak for themselves though.  After walking around the show for hours and covering what seemed like 20 miles, the weather started to threaten. I had not seen my brother at that point. He works for Allied marine group and was there selling boats. We ran by and saw him on the yacht he was showing. I felt bad but we just breezed through. Before heading back, we rode over to a nearby marina and looked at a 66 Spencer that was there. Wow. Paul Spencer was right,it was worth the extra little time before we headed back.

The drive back was uneventful. Well other than the fact that The fair style food we ate for lunch at the show seemed to have some unsavory effects on my mate. There was quite a bit of window venting on the ride back to Key West.


Kyle, My trusty mate.