The Journey Begins

1 Reply

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!

 

Finally on the 3rd day the weather cleared, and we set sail in the morning, headed SOUTH.  We still had a lot of Lake Champlain to cover before we reached the locks and the Hudson River.  There was a strong down wind and we were able to sail well into the afternoon.  Even though it was sunny the wind was cold, and hours and hours of being in the wind tired and chilled us to the bone.  In the late afternoon we pulled in to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.  Although we had hoped to visit the museum,  it was late in the day and we were tired, so we skipped going through the museum and anchored nearby in a delightful spot called Barn Rock Cove.  Large rock cliffs toward above a small protected inlet, and a small stream ran out of the mountains into the cove.  We had the whole place to ourselves, as there were hardly any boaters out, even on a sunny, windy, glorious fall weekend day.  We had hoped to have covered more miles on our first day, but in the end we decided to fully enjoy where we were and forget about rushing!  This seems to be one of the big lessons of this form of travel — let go of your preconcieved timeline!  All of the people we have spoken to who have travelled long distances on sailboats have told us the same advice as well.  So at the end of our first real day sailing, we sat back in relaxation, counted our blessings and took in deep breaths of the beauty all around us.

Arriving in Barn Rock Cove

The road out of the rat race leads to the water

2 Replies

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!