As soon as I saw that barbecue boats were a thing I knew immediately I wanted to try it. The idea of floating leisurely down the Thames while eating a burger appealed to me.
With Pete Naish, Shramik Parmar and Richard Dron
Pete, Shramik and Richard are friends from a past agency I worked at. We were like family then, spending a lot of our out of work hours choosing to hang out with each other too. They still feel like family now even though I'm not spending everyday day with them. Shramik infiltrated even more of my life by becoming my boyfriend for five years. We started dating around the time I was diagnosed and he was part of the 'army' that got me through this difficult time. We'll always have a bond because of this and I'm proud that we're grownup enough to be able to stay friends.
On arrival at the Skuna Boats offices we were asked to read and sign a form which highlighted all the dangers of the experience we were about to participate in. It started at this point to dawn on me that I'd agreed to captain a floating fire hazard with three boys known for their hijinks. I also remembered the last time we barbequed together we all got ill afterwards. And I'm not the best driver mainly because I can't see where I'm going! But between us we somehow muddled through for 100 minutes, didn't set the boat alight, crash too majorly, undercook any meat and only had to make 1 phone call back to land when in the first 5 minutes we managed to trip the engine.
Richard took on the bulk of the chef duties and did a cracking job, even managing to maintain control of the sausages when I sent the boat into a spin. We definitely ate our fill, powering through the spare food we'd brought for two more ex-colleagues who couldn't make it in the end.
There's also a hot tub version of this experience and wonder how you manage to steer successfully when you are that relaxed, I struggled enough concentrating while eating!
We really enjoyed the experience, it's completely unique and was pretty cool being out on the river eating barbecued food. It turned into a nice evening weather wise and as the sun was setting the views were spectacular.
I still can't believe they agreed to wear the hats!
Book with Skuna Boats here.