A three-day cruise close to home can offer lasting memories for the time-strapped boater.
Yikes! Goat cheese—the ghastliest form of food on the planet! I watched with twisted fascination as David Hensel, Director of Brand and Marketing for Grand Banks Yachts, lovingly stowed a small, foil-wrapped package of the awful stuff in our refrigerator. “From Little Brown Farm,” he enthused. “On Whidbey Island.”
While this news intro’d what would become an ongoing theme of our upcoming cruise, namely that Seattle and points north abound in local, organically grown, super-delicious foods and cool little waterfront restaurants that serve them, it offered small comfort to me. I have a history with goat cheese. A bad, bad history!
I kept mum, though. Grand Banks was providing me with some very groovy transportation over the next few days—a brand new Eastbay 46 SX with Zeus pod drives—and Hensel and his wife Lisa (who would join us the following morning) were my hosts. Never bite the hand that feeds you, I always say.
It was 9:00 am when we finished loading up. “Take ’er out, Bill?” offered Hensel, after cranking our Cummins QSC8.3-550 diesels. At the helm, I lightly tapped the Zeus joystick to test its readiness. Hensel jumped ashore temporarily to toss off our lines. The waters of Shilshole Bay Marina (www.portseattle.org), on the Puget Sound side of Seattle, sunnily reflected the snow-capped peaks of the Olympic range. “What a day,” I chortled, easing the 46 into gear.
Grand Banks Eastbay 46 SX
Photo by Jonathan Cooper
Specifications
- Builder: Grand Banks
- Model: Grand Banks Eastbay 46 SX
This article originally appeared in the September 2012 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
