Welcome!
We lived in Dallas for many years and I worked in Arlington and Ft Worth. We belonged to the Fort Worth Boat Club up on Eagle Mountain Lake for awhile, a beautiful facility and a fun place to go day sailing or just have a meal and hang out. Still have my Longhorn burgee..
We did a lot of chartering while we too were landlocked there, in SF, PNW and Florida. Had a lot of fun and when it became time to buy a boat and go cruising, we knew just what we wanted. We felt boat shows were a complete waste of time until we knew what it was we were looking for, after having actually cruised several types and sizes of boats for several days at a time. Now that I think of it, we didn't go to a single boat show before we bought our boat. We were still living in Dallas when we did. Sold the house in Preston Hollow, had an estate sale for 80% of our stuff, and off to sea we went.