Welling up
It’s hard to write this post. I have been thinking about it for a long time. We knew that we were going to take a break from our channel for awhile but as the months got closer to the end the reality of it hit us hard. You see, we never meant to start a YouTube channel. Lennie bought me a GoPro for Christmas and I started filming and learning to edit and thought it would be a good platform to share the videos with the kids. When others started watching it and we suddenly had 300 subscribers, Lennie and I didn’t know what to think. Her first thought was to make the videos private. This way we could share a link with family and no one else would see them. Around the same time, we were attending the Miami boat show and several people came up to us and said they had watched the videos and how much they enjoyed them and learned from them. We decided there would be no harm in sharing them with like-minded people that enjoyed them. The rest is history.
More than we know
After posting this video explaining our decision to hit the “pause” button on our channel the emails and comments started coming in. If you take a minute to read some of them you will see just how meaningful our content was to so many fans. We had received nice comments and emails for years but we thought it was just superficial fun for those people who thought they might go sailing one day. It turned out it was much more than that. People not only loved our content but it touched them deeply and in many ways. I am still trying to process it after reading all these comments. Some are very sad to have us stop and all have thanked us profusely for the 41/2 year of videos. I can’t begin to explain how this makes Lennie and I feel. We know we needed the break and we may be back in a different format but we now know we helped, entertained and educated people with our channel – and that was the best we could have hoped for after all these years of filming, editing and sailing.
I just can’t
As I am writing this and trying to convey all the feelings, I just had a comment pop into our YouTube email inbox. It’s from Mike & Lori Ball. I think Mike explains it better than I ever could. Thanks Mike.
Mike BallCongratulations!! My wife Lori and I knew it would not last forever but we are very happy for you both and your family. I must tell you that I subscribe to almost all of the sailing channels out there and we just want to tell you how much we enjoyed yours. I am a Firefighter for the Army in The Detroit area, a bit chilly to get out on the boat this time of year so we were enjoying living vicariously through all your adventures. We would schedule our time to watch your new videos when they came out. Lol we used to text each other when we got the notification that you posted a new video and the only thing left to decide for that evening was what we were going to grab for our take out dinner. We truly looked forward to snuggling up on the couch and living our own little “Happy Together “ moments. You have inspired us to reach for our dreams and I can’t tell you enough how many people you all touched. I have never posted to your channel before and I figured now was the right time. Above all I want to thank you for your charity work with the veterans. I don’t think you ever were in the military but from someone who has been and has served our great nation for my whole career active duty and as a government civilian I thank you. You both are remarkable and although I realize we only caught a glimpse of the “whole you” through this channel you two have influenced many. We hope at some point our paths will cross and we get to tell you in person. I know that our story will be a bit different than yours but I can’t help but to hope that it’s in some ways similar. Our goal is to find our little floating “Happy Together” and hit the high seas as well. If you ever wondered if how many people you both have touched this comment thread should speak for itself. All in all I just wanted to tell you both CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE DONE IT, YOU HAVE CREATED A LIFE THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO TAKE A VACATION FROM. your Love and appreciation for each other gleams through in all of your videos. Thanks so much for sharing just a piece of that with all of us. Take care and may you always have the wind in your sails. Mike & Lori |
Manson Boze
Randy,
Thanks for the videos. I will miss them. Of all of the sailing and cruising blogs out there I relate to yours – and you and Lennie best. As you know my partner and I took a shot at the cruising life. I haven’t seen you since last spring when we returned Cat’s Meow to Lauderdale and listed her for sale. Long story short the cruising lifestyle did not work out for us. I was hoping to continue to live a bit of it vicariously through you but understand your decision. All the best to you both. I hope we cross paths again and of course feel free to call on me if you need crew.
Best,
Manson
happytogether
HI Manson, Thanks for your comment. Great to hear from you! You got some good time on the water so you made it past the dreaming phase. Glad you enjoyed our show and look forward to catching up in the future! Randy
Ted Merwe
Thanks fir all the great adventures they will be missed. We start our own sailing adventure in November thanks to your channel even though I’ve been sailing fir 40 years your love for each other and sailing hit home with us. Thanks again for all the good times, see you on the water. Ted
happytogether
Hi Ted, Thanks so much for your comment and so glad you got inspiration out of our show. That of course was our goal!!! Randy
Awan Elliott
Watching the ‘Good Bye’ video and the two of you are amazing and wonderful people. Congrats on your next journey together!!! Right when I find a great set of videos to watch on sailing and learning some great information, then this!!! 🙁 I’m a veteran and I have honestly never heard of Warrior Sailing before your videos. Now I have every intention of signing up to learn a skill I will have for a long time and to enjoy the peace that appears to come along with sailing. Oh, I’m totally buying a catamaran!!!!
happytogether
Hi Awan, Thanks so much for your comment and for you service. There are 78 other videos so please start watching?
Danny Thompson
I’ll guess we’ll never see fly the new Spinnaker.. Y’all will be missed on YouTube..Hope you have good winds and following seas…Danny and Judy…
happytogether
Hmmmm, Well maybe we will have to film that!!! ? Thanks so much! Randy
Tim Coach
Well Crap…but Congrats!!!! So the wife and I have literally burned through a few other vloggers starting this crazy concept of moving to a sailboat in a few years and then retiring to full-time travel a few after that. After the first few vlogs, we must have hit some good ones, because finding someone else to watch that provides us the content we are looking for has not been the easiest (primarily my job). We were very happy to find Lennie and you as you were both very entertaining (Lennie definitely picked it up at the end of your first season) and informative. Holy Crap informative, some of the other vloggers just provide entertainment, but you all educated as well. It was very funny to see you talk and look over at the wife as she is adding to the “LIST” as it is starting to be referred to of things we need to know or must-haves. In our timeline of the Happy Together vlogs, you are just in San Fran, then the news. The wife was looking up something you had said and she found the Saying Goodbye announcement and the well crap moment hit. It is easy to tell the amount of effort you put into your vlogs and they must be immensely time-consuming not to mention all the filming that goes on. So with all that said, Thank You for the education and the entertainment, we will obviously finish out the series and of course, do it with a glass of Whispering Angel or several depending on the evening. Although we don’t have sundowners in the midwest, we do have sunsets and I may just replace my favorite whiskey and cigar with a glass of rose. Best of luck on your travels and adventures…Tim and Tanya
happytogether
Hi Tim and Tanya, LOL, you just made our day. We love your note and you don’t know how much we appreciate you reaching out to us and we are thrilled you are enjoying our show. We hope you stay subscribed as we have some stuff up our sleeves. You are at a great place on our journey and some of our favorite videos are coming up in LA and Mexico!!! Thanks so much and stay in touch. Glad you figured out the Rose thing. Works well in any environment including the midwest!!!!! Lots of love Randy & Lennie
JC
Really enjoyed your videos but really enjoyed your playlists.
happytogether
Hahhaha ,Awesome and thanks glad you like it! Randy
Bartholomew Wellisley
Awesome! Congrats!! I just found your channel, but looking forward to starting at the beginning and going thru them all, as I’m eager to learn as much as I can. This first video I watched was very well produced with very useful info. Thank you!
happytogether
Hi Bartholomew, Glad you liked it! the first 8 videos have bad sound and production quality but by the time we get into the 20’s they improved a lot. Enjoy!
Randy