I'm a big wimp

The weekend before my birthday bash I invited a few friends over to help take the boat out and practice. I figured I might as well get good at this, and the only way to do it is to do it. I'm getting fairly competent (I think?) but I want to start going out with fewer and fewer people on board. The plan was to have Nate, Matt and Megan come over and take the boat out just to play with the twin diesels and get good at slow speed maneuvering. We were getting ready to go, but the American Flag standing straight out convinced me otherwise.


Storm's a brewin'

Sure, I know I need to know how to maneuver in wind too, but why press my luck now? I should probably be pretty damn good before going out in the gusts. When you have 12 feet of freeboard and 4 feet of draft, the wind is not kind. So I called it off. But my buddies had already come over to Seattle, so we had to do SOMEthing. And what makes any bad day better? Grilled meat.

So, we walked down to West Marine and bought a new Magma Grill. (Thanks to my Mom and Pops for the B-Day present!!) According to Megan, grilled food tastes better grilled on a boat than anywhere else. Matt and Megan are boat owners too, so you gotta believe her, but I needed to test it out for myself.

If you don't own a grill for your boat, go get one. It's part of the lifestyle. In fact, I didn't really consider myself a boat owner until that weekend. But brace yourself, because 1) Not only do you have to buy a grill, but you have to buy the hardware to mount it, and 2) As simple as it may seem to attach a piece of metal to a railing, it will take you a long time. Why? Because the grill mounting device is a piece of crap. About zero seconds of thought were put into the design. When Matt installed his on First Child, he actually ended up rigging the mount on his boat with a fishing rod holder and a piece of string. You'd think for the 50 bucks they charge you just for the mounting hardware it would be simple to do, but no.

Anyway, we finally got the grill mounted and started cooking. We had pork loin, sausage, asparagus and roasted red peppers... mmmm. A great innaugural feast! And dessert was grilled pineapple rings... Deee-lish!


Safety first!


Yum!


The chef


Matt and Megan

Ya know how I said West Marine charges 50 bucks for mounting hardware? They also charge 50 bucks for a Magma cover. So instead of buying it there, I ordered one online. In the mean time I installed the Hefty brand cover after we finished up.


Hefty brand grill cover

So, all in all the day was salvaged. Although we didn't get underway, we did fill up on meat. And Megan was right, there is something terribly good about grilled meat on a boat. Now that the theory has been tested and proven, let the summer begin!

-Tom

P.S. I found the pictures.