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| A taste of Makers Cask Strength |
Thankfully, Eric once again promoted the season-ending ritual of the Wayback Whiskey Cruise. Initiated a few years ago, it was intended to recreate some of the atmosphere and fun of the Zürich Whiskey Boats we enjoyed while living in Switzerland. During the holiday season whiskey distillers from Scotland would commandeer laid-up Lake Zürich passenger ferry boats in the end of November for a massive (and expensive) whiskey tasting exhibition. We attended a couple of times, enjoying the variety of Scotch Whiskey's, along with their residual cold-fending effect on those early winter days.
The Whiskey Cruise also serves as a marker of the end of the boating season. These two objectives merge as an excuse to get me, Eric, Kent and some invited friends together one more time before the snow flies. Some of those friends are charter members, forming a young tradition by attending regularly. In that core are long-time former soccer-playing and sailing Stillwater friends of Eric, combined with Evening Rig band mates. Each participant is required to bring a bottle of a recent discovery or favorite whiskey brand across the spectrum of whiskey types, along with an a appetizer or something to eat. What turns out to be quite a variety is tasted during a final cruise of the St. Croix river. Another component of the developing tradition is the infusion of music-making upon return to the dock.
In 2013, the event took on almost mystical qualities. The weather was cold and a bit dank, with a mist formed over the river, not that many feet about the top of the boat. As usual, given the very late date in the boating season and the uninviting weather, we were alone on the flat, windless river. As we approached the familiar Kinnickinnic State Park river bottleneck, two eagles soared overhead, circling and passing over the boat on a continuing basis. We shut of the engines and just drifted in the silence, watching the eagles pass back and forth, almost as if to put on a show for us.
This year was not quite so mystical, but a tour of the emerging new bridge in Stillwater from the perspective of the water made it interesting. Even more rewarding was the music making part following the cruise that highlighted the real skills and talents of a number of the participants. They hauled out guitars and joined in a songfest, conjuring up songs they used to play in the past, and some recently practiced. The Wayback hummed until the late hours (late for a senior like me, anyway), warming the heart and the sole of this skipper at the end of his season.
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