Host Derek Astorino recaps the true experience behind his 31-day YouTube livestream on the water
If you think running a food boat is easy, you might want to think again.
During July of 2023, The Food Boat’s host Derek Astorino made the ambitious decision to go live on the water every day for a full month. Though he got to enjoy plenty of beautiful days in the Charleston sun, the 31-day task was no small feat.
He mentions how there were certain things that never got old– like frequent dolphin visits and endless amounts of good food. Yet, keeping the boat up and running for the entire month was surely a learning process.
In his 31-day recap video, he tells viewers about the good, the bad, and everything in between. And, as you can imagine, 31 days leaves a lot of ground to cover.
On day 1, he arrived at the lagoon and found that there was no water to float the boat. So naturally, he found some entertainment with flares until a friend came over to set up sound for the livestream. Things like filling up the generator began to get tiresome pretty quick, and then a cable broke on day 3. He started cooking up some bacon and other foods with friends, thinking everything was smooth sailing, but then ran into rain on day 4.
Then, of course there was the smelly pluff mud, raging grease trap fires, and yet another busted cable on day 14. Later, his dog decided to jump into an oyster bed (resulting in a bad injury and a vet visit), and a few days after, friends had to come out to fix the spuds once again. Then, a near-miss scenario on day 29 barely left the boat making it back to the dock.
But there were a lot of fun moments too– like day 2 when some friends brought dynamite aboard. Then, there was day 11 when chef Reggie Miller cooked some crab straight out of the water. Day 20 brought some special guests along for an anniversary feast, and Mariner’s birthday was celebrated with some steak. Then day 31 brought the finale with some homemade pasta. The amount of friends and passerby who came along for the ride also made the 31-day feature nothing short of good time.
You also can’t forget to note all the chefs that came on board The Food Boat. There was Jeff from Miller’s All Day who cooked up delicious shrimp BLT’s and smash burgers, Fred Neuville with his mahi mahi fish tacos, Chis McMurray from the Charleston Riverdogs, and Victoria from Hungry Charleston. Then, there were others like Brett McKee who cooked up his shrimp and grits, Chef Colin with his Low Country boil, and the girls from Daddy’s who came ready to show off some breakfast grub.
Check out more on their restaurants here:
All in all, the 31-day livestream was surely a learning experience. While it wasn’t all just smooth sailing, Derek still managed to live stream every single day, showing viewers the real life behind running The Food Boat. And it doesn’t end there– even after this wild adventure, he hints that a Food Boat 2.0 may soon be on the way.