What's in a name?...

WELL, there are so many things in a name when you get to name your very own 35-year-old-but-still-unnamed boat that will take you on a dream come true!  As a build-up (I'd make a great fiction writer, huh?!), there is something here in the harbor called The Cruiser's Net (or just "The Net" around here) which happens at 9:00 every morning through our VHF radio.  We turn our radio on along with any number of the 200+ boaters in the area - not just people here in the harbor, but any boats within ~1 mile who want to listen in and be a part of the boating community.  We weren't even in the harbor yet when we started listening in, gaining access to helpful information, and acquiring random things for the boat - including the safety net for the cats and any small humans that come aboard (which we got for free)!

So, let me explain what happens: At 9:00 a.m. on the dot(!), one of seven people (one for each day of the week) comes over channel 68 stating that they are The Net Controller of the morning and explains that it is a "controlled net".  What this means is that every person has to state their boat name, be given permission to speak by the controller, then they can proceed with whatever they want to share with everyone.  During the next 15-30 minutes, local boaters: share the names of boats which have just gotten here or are on their way out; share announcements about both the boating community and the city that surrounds us; have a chance to ask other boaters for help (advice, phone numbers, physical help with a project, borrowing of tools, etc.); can buy/sell/trade random stuff on their boat; and participate in random trivia.  This is a wonderful way to keep the boating community fairly tight-knit because there is the opportunity to verbally communicate every day.


Upon our arrival here in Marathon, we were told about and have been listening to The Net, getting lucky enough to gain parts which were very important for cheap prices - and some even for free!  We have also been able to receive wonderful knowledge about local shops, events, and solar panel wiring through this community.  Every one of these blessings gets us closer to the day when we set sail toward the Bahamas and we give thanks for having access to it!

We just hated one part of it...

When we wanted to say anything - be it chiming in to say we wanted to buy something or if we wanted to ask a question - we had to announce ourselves as "Unnamed Vessel" in order to be given permission to speak.  Now, if that sounds like no big deal, I want you to imagine taking your child to Mommy's Day Out (or anything you drop your kid off at once a week) and telling them that your kid is as-yet unnamed.  Whether the kid is five days or five years old, you would still get the same surprised reaction we got from everyone here for a month.  And, imagine doing that even though you have a BEAUTIFUL name picked out just because you have yet to tattoo your kid's name on her butt and ask the Earth Gods to accept her into the world.

Yep, that's what we were going through.

Then, on January 17, 2012, Rob and I asked Poseidon (the God of the Sea) to accept her name, we asked the Four Winds (North, West, East, and South) to accept her name and be kind, and we made sure that everyone in the vicinity got tipsy on the leftover alcohol to ensure pleasant cruising.  We went through what we knew to do (thanks to Google, we were able to find this boat naming ceremony) in order to ensure as safe  a passages as we can find.  So, with her name on the boat and with joy in our hearts every time we see it, we are now safe to present to the world: Calypso's Fire!!!

Calypso's Fire and her Watcher, Madam Curious. This is where she almost always is as we leave and return.

It's hard to describe how good that feels, to get to say her name out-loud and to be able to type it out for the world to see!  You see, we had decided on this name more than a month ago and decided to just basically stop saying it after we agreed on the name.  We weren't allowed to tell anyone the name before her naming ceremony because that would be stepping on Poseidon's toes, something we were NOT going to do as he is an angry god with every ability to take us down.  Trust me, Rob and I made sure to follow the rules to the T in order to give us safe passage; we never even said the name to the lady who designed and printed out the name - we just wrote it down for her!  I couldn't WAIT for her to finally get done after we started talking to her about it...those were two of the most antsy weeks I've had in my boating life so far! ;-)

We were also blessed to have some of the greatest friends on-hand in order to be a part of and photograph the naming ceremony! Rob, Jamaica, and Parker (the youngest human sailor on our boat so far) came all the way from Bastrop to spend the week with us in the Keys!!!  As soon as our gliding beauty was named, we headed out for an afternoon in the sun sailing the Atlantic.  I think it was most fitting that people who have encouraged and supported my most hair-brained antics for over a decade now were here to be a part of the naming ceremony... and I really appreciated getting to use the bathtub in their rented house one night!!!

Alright, enough with the name gushing - on to the progress we've made on the boat in order to get us on our way to the Caribbean!!!

We had a list of things we needed to get done a month and a half ago... and it's almost completely DONE!!!  We have a solar panel (found for 1/3 of the price it could be) which completely charges up our batteries on a daily basis.  We have a stove and oven which both work, a fact I learned the night I successfully baked a banana walnut bread with chocolate chips to perfection!  We know that we are in a comfortable living space which we feel safe and at home in, though we also realize that - just as with any home - we will constantly be cleaning, rearranging, and organizing.

There are a couple of important projects that still need to be completed, such as getting the depth-finder in place and calibrated.  For that, however, we will need some help from our sailing community as we aren't quite sure what we are doing and there are no YouTube videos to help us out (one of those times when The Net comes in handy).  We also still need to put some pieces into their places, but each of those requires hard-wiring, so Rob is getting to them as he can.  However, these are pieces that are not essential to our leaving such as fans, the stereo, and a safety piece for the propane that will allow us to throw a switch back and forth instead of going to the back of the boat (twice) every time we cook.

Not us... well, maybe us in 30 years!

Two big actual boat projects are the Bimini and the hoisting system for the dinghy.  Biminis cover the cockpit and tremendously reduce the pounding we get from the sun, both when on-deck and when down below.  Our Bimini is years old, with years-old zippers and years-old stitching, and two 10 month-old kittens have been running around the top of it.  Needless to say, the Bimini now needs to have the zippers and stitching replaced.  The dinghy hoisting system will be VERY important when we get underway as we've got to be able to have the small boat out of the water while sailing or else it'll drag; also, we need it to be safely away from people who would steal our $1,500 motor...  However, there is someone here who will hopefully be fixing the Bimini next week and we are devising yet another DIY device to avoid paying $700-$2000 for hoisting the dinghy.  (Note: when we put the solar panel up, we were finding stainless steel devices that were in that price range, but were able to devise a WONDERFUL holder for less than $150 - one that allows us to pivot the panel in order to follow the sun, too!)

There - of course - is the tedious bureaucratic paperwork that I will not bore you with, there is the selling of my Rav4 (oh, how hard that will be), and there are the overnight sails we want to make in order to start getting used to the next step of this adventure.  There are oil changes to be made, tweeks and turns in all that we do, and a general "getting used to" what we are doing.  There are a few charts and flags we still need to get, there is the giving my job some notice that I am leaving, and there is the money-in-the-bank deficiency we need to overcome (hopefully, the sell of the Rav and our sailboat in Texas will come soon in order to defeat that deficiency).

But, somehow, we are getting this done.  Step-by-step, project-by-project, we are getting everything together to leave the country in less than a month.  It sucks that the date keeps getting pushed back a little more and a little more, but we know that "soon" is soon enough and that "rushed" is the worst time to leave - EVER.  So, we give thanks for where we are, for all that we have, and all that lays ahead of us; and, we have faith that we will leave when Poseidon has granted us a clear window of smooth sailing and not a day before!