We have the ability to burn burgers!

When we bought our boat, we removed and gave away the charcoal BBQ grill, as it was small, old and rusty. Most of the charter boats we've seen come with these type of grills and it can be scary, watching the flames rise out of the grills while the boats are in an anchorage. Something doesn't seem right to me to have large, open flames on a boat! I am convinced a propane-style grill  is superior, with the flame much more controllable.

Recently, we brought our boat to Nanny Cay marina to have the sail repaired. The boat sitting in the slip next to us was going through it's final repairs prior to sailing. I noticed a large, older stainless steel grill sitting on the dock and it's new replacement proudly mounted on the stern of this boat. I had stepped over and checked the old grill out and noticed it was pretty heavy duty with just some surface rust...and thought it might be fairly easy to convert to propane. Karen and I met the owner of the boat and started talking about his repairs and such and I asked him what his intentions with the old grill would be. He said he was going to get rid of it so Karen asked him if he would consider selling it to us and for how much...$10 was the decided amount!!

We cleaned and polished it up and then mounted it on the stern rail. Next, Karen made a nice cover for it. Some cruiser friends even got in the act and gave us some charcoal for our 1st use of the grill. MMMM...BBQ Chicken with "Gary's Almost Famous BBQ Sauce." Gary Anthony is a former co-worker of mine at Billings ATCT that makes his own sauce...we brought a bottle down with us this year. The flames were well contained within the grill, due to its size, so it may not need to have the propane conversion made after all...we'll see after a season of use.

The new, shiny grill

The lid doubles as a work shelf

Karen, using Aunt Orean's sewing machine, works hard at completing the cover...

While I supervise

Karen's cover design looks great!
(I only needed to give her limited advice)

Close Encounters

There are, obviously, many interesting types of boats we have seen here in the islands. One we've seen on numerous occasions is a 5-masted sailing cruise ship. Many times, we've seen it visiting the various ports in the area.

Recently, we set off for Little Harbor, Peter Island late in the afternoon. We've become more confident with our anchoring skills, especially in this place, as we've been here so many times, so anchoring after dark wasn't going to be a problem. Anyway, off in the distance, we noticed this particular cruise ship would be crossing our path. As we got closer, we had to slow down to allow the ship to pass. Unbeknownst (is that a real word?) to us, the ship chose to stop right there in front of us right across the approach to Little Harbor. It turned into a great photo op...too bad the light wasn't the best (about 7pm.) We decided to go around the stern of the ship, feeling it would be safer than crossing her bow since we weren't sure what the captain's plans were. As it turned out, they were setting the anchor and spending the night right there. We were unable to get a morning picture of it, as it had left before we got up.

For those of you interested in knowing more about this company and cruising opportunities with it, here's their website:
http://www.windstarcruises.com/
According to their website, this ship is called "Wind Surf", and is the largest sailing ship in the world...617' long, 66' wide and accomodates up to 312 "guests". If you want to be one of these guests, it would  set you back about $1,700pp for a week in "B" cabin. My guess is that it's somewhere near the engine room. Other destinations may be less.

If you desire to get your own photos of the ship, please come visit and we'll make sure they stop in front of us again.

 

About a mile and a half away



A view of the starboard side



The stern

The port side