A Hello World Wedding

It’s been nearly two years since we took our first overnight trip on Bella Star and serendipitously met one of the greatest couples we know. We picked up a mooring buoy on the quiet southwest corner of Blake Island overlooking a small bluff with just enough room on it for a campsite. After rowing into shore, off we went to explore the island.

By the time we got back to the bluff a few hours later, a group of campers was busy setting up camp. Our little wiener dog Greta, who was always good at breaking the ice, gave us the perfect opportunity to chit chat with the newcomers. As we got to talking, one of the campers mentioned the beautiful sailboat on the mooring buoy…

And that’s all it took.

Jason and Christy shared the exciting news of their recent boat purchase and how they were headed down to Mexico in a matter of weeks to ready the soon-to-be-christened Hello World for her journey to Seattle. They told us all about their plans to quit their jobs and go cruising in Canada and Mexico the following spring. Suuure, we thought. You’re going to buy a boat and start cruising in less than a year? Good luck with that!

We spent a great evening around the campfire talking about sailing and eating s’mores and hoped we’d see these guys (including their awesome friend, Kim) again. After all, we needed to know how their story would turn out!

Fast forward two years.

Jason & Christy just returned, tan and gorgeous, from a year spent sailing their boat, Hello World, through the waters of Canada and Mexico. And Aaron & I just returned from celebrating the wedding of one of the sweetest, most genuinely fabulous couples we know. Their story has a happy ending, but really, this is just the beginning.

Congratulations on your marriage, Jason & Christy! We love you guys!

Grillin' Season

With no rain in the forecast (at least during the dinner hour), we decided to put our new Kuuma grill through its paces tonight.  We actually bought the grill during the Seattle Boat Show (yes, the one in January), but with the weather what it's been here lately (see previous post), we never bothered to install it until this weekend.

And I'm sorry we waited!

The grill is a replacement of the old, small kettle-style Magma grill with an insanely hot handle (really, please tell me who designs a grill handle that can't be touched without a hot pad) that came with the boat.  It worked fine, but many-a bun was lost into the drink because of the poor grill design.  Picture a round grill rack suspended from the stern rail out over the water with no edges to keep wayward buns (or anything else) from taking a flying leap. As you can see above, our new, shiny grill doesn't have that problem.

I also wanted to try out these new Fire Wire Flexible Grilling Skewers that I stumbled across at Williams-Sonoma the other day.  I came thiiis close to buying the Star Wars Pancake Mold set too, because doesn't everyone need a Yoda-shaped breakfast treat to start the day off right?  Anyway, I digress.  Instead of a rigid skewer, these guys are flexible stainless steel cables.  After skewering your meats or veggies, you just curl them up and stick them right into a Ziploc bag with the marinade and pop in the fridge.  You can see the little tails hanging out in the picture above, which provide a handle for easy flipping and rearranging.  And don't fret about meat-juice contamination... you stick the tail over the flame for a bit to kill any bugs before draping it outside where it cools off rapidly.  Neat.  I'd say that both the grill and the skewers were a hit.