The Magical Mead of Happiness and Bliss

At the time of bottling, K. added a little more yeast to see if a “champagne” result could be achieved. Well, it worked! The finished beverage has a bubbly effervescent head that sings with activity. In fact, so much pressure was building up in the bottles that one of them popped it’s cork on it’s own unexpectedly, and to our extreme delight we had to immediately drink the whole bottle, lest it spill and go to waste!!

The results have been outstanding. Actually, outstanding is an understatement. This mead inspires me to write poetry praising it’s subtle and smooth, sweet and seductive deliciousness. No matter how bad things are, this mead would make them feel better. It has heartwarming powers other drinks only wish they had.
If I wasn’t already madly in love with my husband, I would fall in love with him now just for having made the absolute most marvelous beverage ever. He didn’t invent it of course, as mead is one of the oldest fermented beverages known to mankind, however, this mead is superior to any other that I’ve ever tried.

If you’d like to try some, you’d better come visit us on our boat soon, before we drink it all! Only 6 bottles left!

We made it to New York! The 79th St. city docks are $30 per day, which is probably the cheapest way to stay in the big apple! There is no protection however; we are right on the shore of the Hudson, and all of the wakes from the barges roll our wee boat like it’s a roller coaster ride. So we try to just relax and “weeeeeeeee” enjoy the ride while everything inside crashes from side to side around us.

Spending a few days here visiting friends and enjoying the city before we move on. Hoping to score a few day sails on the ocean before we head down the Jersey coast.

Manhattan is INTENSE after being on the serentity and solitude of the water for weeks. We ate at a Thai restaurant called “LAND” where people were packed in like sardines into a very wee restaurant….everywhere we went there were mobs of people speaking all different languages- such a beautiful diversity of humanity here!

Well, that was an adventure.  These guys think THEY”RE on a big adventure, but I just spent a whole week in Fort Edward hanging out in the bushes chasing chipmunks and mice and visiting other people’s houses.  That’s the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done in my whole life!

I was getting a bit bored on that boat.  I mean, it’s nice and all, but it’s a bit wee, and I needed to stretch my legs a bit, so when they weren’t looking, I hopped on the dock to have a look around.  Right away I saw a chipmunk and HAD to chase it, and the next thing I knew, I was in uncharted territory.  I thought I would just check things out a bit, so I wandered until it got really dark.  I got really spooked by some loud noises, so I hid in the bushes for a LONG time.  I think days went by, I’m not sure.  I know finally I was getting really hungry so I looked around for food but didn’t find any.  Good thing I’m so fat I had some extra fuel to burn! 

It was fun roaming around on my own exploring, but the cold rain wasn’t really very fun.  Having dogs bark at me scared the crap out of me.  Crossing a big street was terrifying!  I was starting to miss cuddling on the comfy couch with my brother SlowMo.  And food……couldn’t someone just come and feed me when I meow???!? 

Finally someone did feed me.  I kept going back to her house ‘cuz I knew there would be food there.  The next thing I knew I was IN her house (itwas nice and warm in there!) and there were a whole bunch of other cats  there who all wanted to check me out and smell my butt.  (I think they agreed with my people that my butt stinks.)  As always, I tried to make friends with them and play, but some of them weren’t too friendly.  Then I got shoved in one of those little boxes and put into a loud moving thing, and the next thing I knew I was back on that boat again, all surrounded by water.  Why would anyone want to be surrounded by water??  It’s a little crazy to me but I’m glad to be back with people who pet me all the time and give me food whenever I want.  And my brother was really happy to see me too.  It’s a bit wee on this boat, but life is pretty good here.  I gotta go take another nap.

So here’s the latest news:

1.  We got our cat back!  Here is a picture of him in all his fuzzy sweetness:

He is just as wonderful as ever — cuddly, affectionate and sweet as a cat can be.  Even the people who found him (bless their hearts!!) commented on what a good cat he is.  He’s got some good Mojo, this cat!!  Please let me express my thanks again to my dear friend Erin and her awesome daughter Sasha who went and picked him up and brought him to us in rainy Saugerties.

2.  We have escaped Saugerties, and after a night out dancing in Kingston (whoo hoo!  a BIG FLOOR to move around on!!)  and had an exciting SAIL on the Hudson River.  SAILING, what a concept!!  Yes, we are living on a sailboat and you probably think that all we do is sail, but to be honest, we’ve only had a few good sailing days so far on our trip, and TODAY was one of them.  We’re talking full on power sailing, with both sails raised and the boat keeling over 45 degrees.  Watch your drinks or they’ll definitely spill!   We didn’t have things stowed in the cabin well enough and the interior of the boat was mass chaos with things flying everywhere.  The cats were wondering what the hell was going on but they stayed pretty calm.   We were speeding along at 7 knots at times, which is REALLY fast for our sailboat.   As an inexperienced sailor, it is still really freaky to have the boat speeding along nearly tipping sideways into the water, but I managed to keep my wits about me enough not to crash into any other boats or land or anything else.  WHOO HOO!  We are tired now after a “stimulating” day.  We are anchored near the majestic Storm King Mountain (what a marvelous name for a mountain, don’t you think?) which happens to be next to Pollepel island with a CASTLE on it.  It’s called Bannerman Castle, and yes it’s in ruins, but it’s still romantic and wonderful nontheless. 

3.  The other big news is that K. changed his pants and is wearing a different pair than the same ones he was wearing everyday for the last two weeks.

Glorious fall colors at our achorage in Saugerties

We arrived in Saugerties, NY yesterday afternoon and settled in to what our guidebook recommended as one of the best protected anchorages on the Hudson River.  We saw on the weather report that a storm was headed our way and decided to hunker down and wait out the storm here.  The anchorage is a 15 minute walk into downtown Saugerties, which we discovered to be a charming small town with lots of neat antique stores, restaurants, book stores, and even a cinema offering $5 movies.  We took advantage of the cinema tonight and saw the new movie “Secretariat”, which was absoutely wonderful!!!  We highly recommend this inspiring, feel-good movie!  It’s the story of the greatest racing horse in history, who won the Triple Crown against all odds by an unheard of margin. 

As we were trying to figure out the best place to set our anchor in  advance of the coming storm, we met a guy who was advising us on the currents and depths of the water who was the caretaker of a property on the shore that is reported to be owned by Jim Henson’s  (the creator of the Muppets) son.  Not only was he gracious and helpful in our efforts to anchor safely to avoid the overflow of water from the reservoir upstream, he came back and offered us a jar of his freshly harvested honey from his beehives!  Already on this trip we have been so impressed and touched by the wonderful and generous people we have met along the way. 

No sooner had we arrived in our safe little anchorage, but we got a call from a woman in Fort Edward, the town where we lost our beloved cat Mojo a week ago.  (Fort Edward is about 75 miles to the north of where we are now)  We had spent several days there looking in vain for him (in the rain!), and had posted up signs all over town announcing that our cat was lost and asking people to call if they had seen him.  This woman named Kate, who herself has 10 cats, had been feeding him on her porch for several days and finally lured him into her house!  Angels are helping us!  It’s such good news that we found our cat, as his disappearance had been one of the saddest and most challenging times that we have ever experienced together.  We made arrangements with our dear friend Erin to go pick him up and bring him to us tomorrow here in Saugerties.  A big huge thanks to Erin for helping us car-less people out in retrieving our cat Mojo! 

So here we are in the rain, safe and snug in our harbor, waiting the arrival of our cat and the end of the storm.  K. put out  3 anchors to make sure the anticipated flood waters don’t wash us away.  We are stocked with food and have lots of wine aboard, thanks to my wonderful sister Stephanie who mailed us a package of “wee” wine bottles!  K. is exploring the types of streches he can do in our tiny floor of our interior cabin, we are listening to great music, and are cozy thanks to our itty bitty propane heater.  And that’s the report from the Wee Happy today.

The cutest wee lighthouse in the Catskills

One of the reasons we have chosen to go on this sailing trip is to explore another form of transportation, one that has a LONG track record in history, that does not require fossil fuels for power.  We feel that in the coming years and decades we may be facing a serious oil shortage that will make our current transportation system impractical and unsustainable.  So why not check out another transportation system, the one that was the norm for hundreds of years before cars?  And what better day to write about this subject than Columbus Day, the day we commemorate the first explorers to America, who came in boats entirely powered by the wind? 

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the history of this area, as we have gone down Lake Champlain, and now the Hudson River, which was where a lot of the major action was going on in the early days of the colonization of this area.  The first explorers came this way to look for a passage to China.  What would they think now of our trade relationship with China ,which has taken over the production of almost all goods that we currently use?  Later, this area was the hotspot for numerous Revolutionary War battles, and then was a major trade and travel route until the trains, and later cars took over.  Today we were docked right next to a replica of the “first decked sailing vessel built by Europeans in the New World”.  A gorgeous ship, complete with a golden carved lion head on the bowsprit, it was built entirely by volunteers using authentic reproduction tools from the era.  It’s amazing to think back on how these early explorers travelled — not only did they not have GPS computers and depth sounders, they didn’t even have maps.  They were the map makers.  And they were entirely dependent on the wind — no backup motor for them when the wind died down! 

The Onrust, a replica ship from 1614

A volunteer aboard the Onrust

One of the other boats docked near us today at the Troy, NY dock, was an enourmous 75 foot modern yacht, basically a floating mansion.  We marvelled at how gigantic and luxurious it looked, and speculated how many million dollars it cost.  Later we talked to the dockmaster, who had helped them fill up for gas, and he told us that that boat uses a thousand gallons of fuel per day!!!  A THOUSAND GALLONS A DAY!  That’s $3,000 per day in fuel costs!  Just a few days of that, and it would pay for our entire boat!  Boats like that average 5 gallons a mile.  And we think big SUV’s get bad gas mileage!  I can’t help but think that that is bordering on criminal and obscene to use that much fuel just to take a floating vacation.  And apparently the owner of that boat is planning on selling it in order to buy a bigger one! 

Here aboard the Wee Happy, we purchased 5 gallons of fuel to go 60 miles, which is very good gas mileage for a sailboat.  During the most recent portion of our trip we had to exclusively use our motor, because we were going through the Champlain Canal and had to take our mast down in order to get through the locks and under the many low bridges that crossed the canal.  Tomorrow we will be putting our mast and sails back up, and are looking foward to sailing the rest of the way down the Hudson River.  (although if there is no wind, we will be grateful for our motor!)

How many gallons of fuel will it take us to reach Florida?  We aren’t sure yet, (does anyone want to make a bet on how many gallons we will use?)  but we are making every effort to make it as few as possible.  It will definitely take less than the reported 30,000 gallons of fuel that our megayacht neighbors used to get here from Florida.

cruising through Albany with our mast down

The saying “you learn something new every day” is taking on new meaning these first days of our journey.

Here’s a few of the things we learned today:

How to navigate our boat through the locks!  We arrived at the first of 12 locks in the Champlain Canal this morning, and even though we generally had an idea of what to do, we sure felt unprepared as we steered the boat into the lock, which has giant steel doors that open like giant jaws into a narrow waterway.  We managed somewhat frantically to grab onto the ropes that were hanging from the concrete walls, as the boat started swerving into the side of the concrete wall.  Then we had to push the boat away from the wall while the water started rushing in with surprising force.  The people in the boat in front of us had aluminum poles to aid in pushing the boat away from the sides of the wall, and they graciously gave us an extra one of theirs to use.  Finally the lock filled and the gates openend on the other end and we could exit.  Whew!  By this time we and our boat were covered in green and black sludge that was covering the ropes and the walls.  Who knew it would be such  a messy job going through the locks?

The next 5 locks we went through were much easier, and by the end of the day, we felt like we were pros at handling it.  We have yet another valuable skill to add to our boating resumes!!

Another thing we learned today is that we are officially becoming “hard core” outdoor people!  It’s been fairly chilly since we moved aboard our boat 10 days ago (mostly in the 40’s and 50’s, and the wind on the water makes it feel colder), and we have been more or less living in at least 3 layers of clothing.  At first I was freaking out about being cold, but today, after deciding to wear TWO pairs of long johns, 2 long sleeve shirts, a wool sweater, a thermal vest, and a jacket, I felt pretty warm all day.  Tonight we went out to eat in a restaurant that was (gasp!) HEATED, and we nearly passed out from heat as soon as we walked in the door!  Instead of welcoming the warmth, we suddenly felt flushed, hot and bothered!  We had to open a window near our table! 

Yesterday we learned how to take down our mast!  One thing we learned about it is that it takes all day, not just a few hours like we thought it would.  We spent the day at the most lovely and charming marina on the southern end of Lake Champlain — Chipmans Point.  A quiet and lazy, old fashioned sort of place, the marina features a wonderful stone building made in 1820 that offers quaint showers, restrooms and a book exchange.  The fall foliage around the bay was stunning, and all in all, it was a perfect place to spend the day, even if I did have a complete meltdown trying to get the rusted cotter pins out of the lines that hold the mast up.  K. built a stand out of wood to support the mast on the cabin of the boat.  We had to take the sails off as well as all the rigging.  Lots and lots of details….as always.

Minutes before launching from Plattsburgh!

We launched from Plattsburgh, NY on Sept. 29 in the late afternoon.  There were so many last minute details to take care of that seemed to go on and on, and finally we got so ansy to leave we decided to at least go to Burlington, just across the lake, to at least MOVE somewhere.  We needed to make a stop in Burlington to finish getting some supplies we needed at some stores there.  As soon as we arrived a big storm front moved in and it rained for 2 days straight.  We hunkered down in the harbor there, enjoyed wearing our new foul weather gear day and night,  and took advantage of the wonderful city of Burlington, which conveniently hugs the waterfront and is easily accessible.  We stocked up on some food at the Burlington Food Coop, one of the best coops in the nation!  We saw a fabulous movie that we HIGHLY recommend — Get Low.  We enjoyed delicious (but expensive!)  artisan flatbread pizza and beer at Burlington’s famed America Flatbread. 

I'm practicing for my next performance art role as a banana!

Arriving in Barn Rock Cove

This all began as an idea one dark winter night in our kitchen of our huge rented house in Western Massachusetts about 6 months ago.  Our life of working unsatisfying jobs just to barely keep up with endless bills seemed endlessly depressing.  Let’s go on a sailing trip.  Let’s just get out of here. Leave the rat race.  Open the door to a new adventure.  It sounded like a fun, yet crazy idea.  Do we have enough experience to take on such an endeavor?  And what about the money?  Even though we were admittedly lacking in both of those things, the idea took hold and there was no going back. 

After doing extensive research on a seaworthy sailboat that was manageable for our skill level and affordable, we picked out a relatively rare, Swedish sailboat called an Albin Vega as our vessel of choice.  There are not many of these around on the East Coast, and the people who do own them usually either never sell them or sell them to friends and don’t post them for sale.  How to find such a sailboat?  We made a post to an online group of Vega owners asking if anyone had one for sale, because we wanted one for our dream trip.  It wasn’t long before someone replied:  “I have one that I wasn’t planning on selling, but for you and your dream  I may reconsider”.    It turned out he was keeping the boat on Lake Champlain, not too far from us.  We went and looked at it and it didn’t take long for everything to fall into place — he sold us the boat for a great price, and with so much help and support to assist us in our endeavor….we couldn’t help but feel like God/the Universe was handing us the boat, saying “Here, now go!”

Then came months of downsizing, moving, taking care of a million details to get ready to leave. There were steep learning curves, and engine problems, and unexpected financial setbacks.  It was stressful and challenging.    And fun and exciting too! 

Most people we’ve talked to about our plans seem to think we are crazy.  Maybe we are.  But staying in a situation that wasn’t bringing us the happiness we want seems even more crazy. 

So this is how the Wee Happy came to be.  Why did we name our boat Wee Happy?  Here’s the story…when we first met we lived several hours apart, and drove back and forth visiting each other often.  On our route we would pass a Chinese restaurant called “We Happy”, and that became a slogan for us, as we were (and still are!) so happy in love.  This past winter we began jokingly adopting the word “wee” to signify small.  Part of our journey so far in getting “out of the rat race” has been the exploration of the idea that smaller can be better than the great American concept of “bigger is better”.   Our sailboat is definitely WEE — it’s a small 27 footer.  It’s the Wee Happy.

Who's happy? WE HAPPY!