The New River is a strange thing to non-FLers, and we are a mile up it. You can see the stylish Santa off to the right in this snap. Fort Lauderdale has been called the Venice of America (perhaps a stretch) due to its web of interconnected rivers and canals.

I am a sailor, not a barge Capitan. Driving a 26 foot wide catamaran a mile down a narrow river with 5 bridges and hair pin turns, not to mention big commercial vessels and carefree mega-yacht skippers, was a new challenge.

Hideko and I decided that we should survey the route at least once before the maiden voyage. So we did it, we suffered the full cheese of the round trip jungle queen tour. The Jungle Queen is a large double decker river boat looking thing that departs from a marina on the Intercoastal Waterway and makes a short stop just past our marina before returning. It was actually a lot of fun and gave me a good look at what I was in for the first time out in our new boat.