The harbor next took on on element of frenzy. Hundreds of workers were moving boats, putting up booths, hanging signs and moving in
equipment for the boat show. They say it's the largest in-the-water show in the U.S.. The city installed about and acre of
temporary docks to accomodate all the new s that were being shown off.
Dozens and dozens of yachts, including luxury monohulls and catamarans, racers and dinghys were displayed.
So much shine and polish! After opening day we used
our free tickets to check out the boats and booths. Most of the boats were too big and most of the equipment was not
suitable for our boat or we already had it. Some yachts had waiting lines and many required
you to fill out an information sheet and take off your shoes before boarding. We went aboard a Hallberg-Rassy 46 that
was selling for only $650,000 and loved it.
There were hundreds of products and services shown and demonstrated in booths. We were interested in batteries
and wind generators (ours has a broken propleller). We did find out how to get a new prop for the wind generator. We were
also interested to see what our liferaft, fully deployed
(blown up), looked like. There is a picture of it in the slide show.
There were also lecturers who talked on subjects of interest to cruisers, like diesel engine maintenance, weather
forecasting and selecting the right equipment.
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