The Party Barge

I got something neat in the mail today.

WAY back in December, I volunteered the boat to work the Winterfest Boat Parade. I was a "control boat" and was supposed to do something. I was not really sure what, but I figured it could not be too hard. And it was not. I just had to hang out in an assigned spot and watch the boat parade. Really hard stuff there.

I got an orange flashing light and some boat banners and all sorts of good stuff. I think I am supposed to return all that stuff. But since I had never worked this event before I had no idea when or to whom I was supposed to return the stuff to. So I still have all the stuff. Somewhere.

And then to compound matters even more, I am NOT a Ft. Lauderdale / Broward County person. I have no idea what the hell is going on up there. Where is Commercial Blvd in relation to Sunrise Blvd? Beats me. If not for my truck GPS I would not have any clue. And then there is the traffic. Ah yes the traffic. Unless you leave Dade County at a magical time, the traffic to get north is horrible.

All these reasons conspired to cause me to still have all the stuff.

But volunteering for Winterfest had some side benefits! First off, I was able to check out a new waterway. I got to see Port Everglades from the water, and the ICW up there is not like the ICW in Miami. The waterway is more like a salt water canal with large expensive looking homes all over the place. There are many businesses / bars / restaurants that are on the ICW and are boat friendly and offer docking for patrons to arrive by land or sea. And then there are the many many MANY large yachts.

The crappy part is it is all a no wake / slow speed zone. So it takes forever to get anywhere. I might as well have been in a sailboat. It was that slow.


But I got an invitation in the mail today for the volunteer party. So it seems they have not forgotten about me and my little boat barely worthy of being in the Broward waterway. The parade has big name sponsors, and apparently generates some coin. I suspect this because the party is going to be on Tikki Beach.

So what the hell is Tikki Beach? Why does the one reader I have from Broward County not know where the heck Tikki Beach is? Because Tikki Beach is not a geographic location.


This is Tikki Beach. As you can see it is an ugly old barge, dressed up into what could possibly be the coolest floating party platform on the planet. There are two decks, the upper deck being most visible in this photo. The barge is 100 feet long, and has a beam of 30 feet. In relation to my boat, if you took out all the bars and tables and tiki crap and stuff, you could fit 30 of my boats on board. 15 on each deck.

This is one massive party barge that is not playing games. You want a floating party platform? This is what you need. No question about it.

It seems that volunteering to trailer the boat to Ft Lauderdale so I could help with the parade thing was a wise thing to do.