A Backyard Dock on the New River, Then Millionaires Row
The DAFFY ties up behind a two story gray house on the South Fork of the New River, so you board in a residential backyard. Four hours belong to you from the moment the lines come off, and the captain asks what you feel like doing before he picks a direction.
The DAFFY is a thirty-nine-foot Catalina 387 sloop, and she lives well inside Fort Lauderdale's canal system, a few bridges back from the beach. Her slip is on the South Fork of the New River, behind a house. The operator counts three miles of waterway between that dock and open ocean, and covering it is most of your first hour.
Downriver you pass through downtown, the yacht basins the operator calls Millionaires Row, and then the Intracoastal Waterway on the way to the cruise port at Port Everglades. Whether you continue through the inlet and put up sail on the Atlantic is decided that morning. The operator's own route notes say it in capital letters: always weather dependent.
One booking covers the whole boat up to six people, and the per person rate steps down as the party grows. The calendar carries a morning and an afternoon departure every day of the week.
4-Hour Fort Lauderdale Sailing Charter with Sailing DaffyFour hours dock to dock on a thirty-nine-foot sloop with a licensed captain, down the New River and the Intracoastal toward Port Everglades. Up to six travelers per booking. Bring your own food and drink.www.viator.comFinding a House When You Expected a Marina
There is no dock office and no parking lot sign. The address is 750 SW 12 Avenue, and both the listing and the operator's own directions warn about the same trap. Enter the zip code 33312 with the address, or your phone will route you to Pompano Beach instead, which is a different part of the county altogether.
What you are looking for on arrival:
- A two story gray house with no fence
- A red fire hydrant out front
- A sailboat on the mailbox
The operator suggests approaching from the south, off Davie Boulevard and north on SW 15 Avenue to SW 7 Street, then right to the dead end, right one block to the next dead end, and left. Confirmation is instant when you book, and the four hours are measured from leaving the dock to returning to it, not from the time printed on your ticket.
The River Decides Before the Ocean Does
The first stretch is sheltered and slow. You work down the South Fork and onto the New River proper, past Rio Vista and Harbor Beach, the Stranahan House and the Riverside Hotel, with the bascule bridges opening as you go. The listing names the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Intracoastal among the sights, and cruise ships sit at Port Everglades near the end of the run.
Past the inlet the character changes completely, and so does the calculation. Sailing the Atlantic is the plan on a good day and not a promise on any day. The operator writes that the DAFFY is never locked into any set plan and that boating is weather and people dependent. If the ocean is unfriendly, the hours get spent on the Intracoastal, or docked, or stopping at one of the waterside restaurants the boat can reach. The captain will offer you the wheel at some point regardless of which of those happens.
Six Seats, and the Question of Who Else Has One
Six is the ceiling, and it holds on both sides of the paperwork. One booking takes up to six travelers, and the operator's own rates page describes the half day trip for up to six passengers.
Exclusivity is a softer thing. The operator says most of its cruises are private with no other guests aboard, and the booking record does not classify this as a private tour, so a full boat to yourself is the usual outcome without being a guarantee. Booking all six seats is the only way to settle it from your side.
One detail matters for families. The booking form carries a single adult band that opens at age two, so a four year old occupies an adult seat at an adult rate, and there is no separate child price to look for. Children under two cannot be added to a booking at all.
Everything Edible Comes From Your Side
Food and drink are yours to bring, and the operator is unusually direct about it: bring whatever you want to eat and drink, beer, wine, liquor. There is refrigerated space aboard to keep it cold, along with shaded seating, a restroom, life jackets, and a music player you can pair a phone to.
One point is worth packing around. The booking listing counts complimentary bottled water among the inclusions, while the operator's own rates page states plainly that it provides no food or beverages. Bring your own water and treat anything waiting aboard as a bonus. Gratuities are not included and are left to you, and the listing also mentions a freshwater shower that the operator's own pages never describe.
Cancellation runs on the standard window, with a full refund up to twenty-four hours before departure and nothing inside it, and the operator can call a trip for bad weather. The morning departure puts you back at the dock around lunchtime with the afternoon still intact. The later one hands you the part of the day when the light goes long over the river and the mansion docks start switching their lights on, and the drive back into town from SW 12th Avenue takes about ten minutes.