A Florida family got a surprise greeting when they sailed into town along the Napanee River and docked at Conservation Park last Tuesday.

Greater Napanee Mayor Gord Schermerhorn was there to welcome them, along with the town’s recreation director Kevin Hill.

When someone comes as far as away as the southern United States to stay in Napanee, and anchors at a dock the town is trying to promote as part of a tourism initiative, it’s not a bad idea to visit personally to say hello, the mayor explained.

“We want people to come up and use our waterway and see our town,” Schermerhorn said, upon greeting the family. “We’re certainly glad to have them here.”

The family was Bob McLeran, his wife Judy Young, their son and daughter-in-law Andrew and Rebecca and grandkids Avery and Alyssa. They are from Merritt Island, on the east coast of the Sunshine State.

McLeran and Young said they have spent much of the last 10 years sailing throughout eastern North America on their Defever 41 trawler boat, called Sanderling.

But they had never received a greeting like this one in any town they stopped in along the way.

“We’ve never pulled into the dock and had the mayor show up,” McLeran said. “That was unusual; a nice gesture.”

The couple said they will happily spread the word that Napanee is a nice town at which to dock. In fact, their stop in Napanee on Tuesday was their second in four days.

They docked at Conservation Park on the previous Saturday night, while travelling from the Thousands Islands area to Belleville. They enjoyed Napanee so much they thought they would spend another night in the town, before heading back to Kingston and then up the Rideau Canal. They said they loved Conservation Park.

“When you have kids it’s nice to have places to play and do things, instead of staying in the boat,” said Young.

The greeting from town officials was set up by Kenn Morrison, a Napanee business owner and boater who frequently docks his vessel at Conservation Park.

He explained that he and the McLeran belong to the same email list for trawlers. He saw a post by McLeran, saying he was looking for a spots in the area he could dock in. Morrison suggested Napanee and ensured he had proper instructions to get to the area.

The family’s quick conversations with the mayor and recreation director has the town already looking into solving an obstacle preventing the town from drawing more boaters.

Schermerhorn and Hill learned that the route to Napanee is not charted properly on common maps used by boaters.

McLeran showed The Guide a Canadian Hydrographic Services physical map of the area. While the map shows most of the route from Belleville to Napanee, the map’s northern border stops short of where Conservation Park starts.

The maps also appear to have inaccurate measurements of the depth of the water, McLeran said. The maps say the water levels are as low as two feet in some areas. But the buoys he saw while travelling the route indicated that the water was much deeper.

An electronic Canadian Hydrographic Services map McLeran had on his laptop had even less accurate information on Napanee.

According to it, the Napanee River doesn’t exist in the town of Napanee. A blue streak on the map, indicating the boat’s travelling route, was displayed on an orange background that represent land.

“We’re on dry land,” Young joked from inside the boat, as it rocked gently on the Napanee River.

Schermerhorn said the town hopes to address that issue, so more boaters can make it to Napanee.

Despite this problem, there’s already been a healthy amount of activity on the waterway, Schermerhorn said.

He said he visited the dock a week earlier and handed out Greater Napanee pins to about 15 boaters in the area.

“We’re trying to promote the town the best we can and this certainly helps,” Schermerhorn said.

Hill said the town receives some revenue from those who dock their boats overnight at Conservation Park.

But that revenue is small in comparison to the economic benefits the town will see if more boaters visit Greater Napanee and spend money in the town.

“They shop in our stores, they go to our restaurants,” Schermerhorn said. “It’s for businesses; that’s why we’re trying to promote the dock.”

Morrison said he wanted to ensure the family felt welcome in Napanee, so they would leave with a positive impression that they can spread to other boaters.

He said boaters often communicate with each other and tell one another about nice places to stay. He believes if the town continues to welcome visitors to its waterfront, tourism will grow.

“There’s definitely potential here,” Morrison said.