Residents determined to make cancelled boating parade happen

An annual holiday event that hasn’t happened since before Ian is once again canceled.

This weekend’s possible severe weather is to blame. Since last year’s cancellation, neighbors have been looking forward to the return of Cape Coral’s holiday Boat-A-Long and Christmas movie.

The city said it’s a done deal and won’t be rescheduled, but neighbors aren’t ready to give up.

Neighbors said they were ecstatic as they planned to participate in the Cape Coral Boat Parade this year.

And once they learned the city canceled it, they called it a gut punch, saying the event was desperately needed for this area as a return to normalcy after Ian.

Now, one neighbor is taking it upon himself to organize another boat parade once it’s safe to do so.

“I look forward to this year when my schedule comes out for the year. I was like, okay, gotta take this day off because that’s the boat parade. Only day I take off a year,” said Greg Longstaff, Cape Coral resident.

Cape Coral neighbors, including Longstaff, were looking forward to Cape Coral’s annual boat parade, saying this area needs this Christmas event.

Now people like Longstaff are looking for a new way to continue the tradition on their own, separate from the city’s event.

“So, even if we didn’t get out on Sunday, we’d pick another day. We’d go Friday. I just want to get everybody involved, and I mean, this is such a big thing to the community, especially since we haven’t had one in a couple of years,” Longstaff said.

WINK spoke with people at Cape Coral’s sail and power squadron. The organization promotes boating safety through education. Some members said they’re on board with the idea of doing their own boat parade as long as safety comes first.

Karen Collins was decorating her boat as a tribute to Jimmy Buffett for the parade and hopes a new parade will still happen.

“So many people put a lot of time, money, and effort into decorating their boats, and it’s just one of those festive things in the boating community that everybody looks forward to, so anyway, yeah, we’re kind of disappointed. We’re hoping that they reconsider. Maybe do Friday the 22nd,” Collins said.

Longstaff said he’s hopeful that the private boat parade can take place along the normal route this Sunday evening, with people meeting at the Bimini Basin at 6.

However, there are still expected to be small craft advisories in effect then, so he said the parade could also happen the Friday before Christmas if safety is a concern.