Naming the Boat

As you can probably guess from the name of the blog our boat’s name is Kailani.  However, when we bought our new boat it was named Ahwahnee.  Now, for those of you who have been to Yellowstone Park, the name might mean something.  The Ahwahnee Hotel is a beautiful hotel in Yellowstone that looks like a cross between a log cabin and a castle.  We’ve never been there, so the name meant nothing to us.  In addition, Ahwahnee literally translates to “Place of a Gaping Mouth”.  I assume that has something to do with the views from the hotel, but we didn’t want that as the name of our new home.

Over the weeks while we waited for the survey we tried out names to see how they would fit.  Knot Working, Sol Mates, Never Monday, Blown Away and Gone With the Wind were a few of the ones we tried out.  Boat names should be easy to pronounce, easy to spell and easy to remember.  In case of an emergency you want people to understand your boat name and often when sailing you become your boat name – that couple from Ahwahnee.

We went through lists of names.  Wendy would read them off and we would instantly say “no” or “maybe”.  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hmmm, maybe, no, no, no, no, etc.  Then we took our “maybe” list and narrowed it down to a few choices.  From there we picked one – Kailani.

Kailani is Hawaiian for Sea and Sky.  Kai = Sea and Lani = Sky.  I went to high school in Hawaii and Wendy and I have vacationed there together.  We liked the sound of it, we liked the ease of spelling and we liked the meaning.  Done.

So, the new name is Kailani and our hailing port or home port is Austin, TX.  The home port was another discussion, but I’ll skip that one.

The new stickers have arrived and this weekend we should have the time to remove the old name and adhere the new name.  I'm sure everyone has heard that it is bad luck to change the name of a boat, but just owning a boat comes with plenty of bad luck as you'll see in future posts.  I'm not sure how to tell that apart from the bad luck of a name change or maybe so far all of our bad luck has been because Poseidon knew we were planning on changing the name.  Anyway, after changing the name we'll have a drink in the cockpit, we'll share some with Poseidon as insurance and hopefully things will stop breaking on Kailani. 

We Buy the Boat

In June we went down to FL for a reconnaissance mission.  We had no plans to buy a boat, we just wanted to look at as many boats as possible in a week.  We scheduled as many appointments with brokers as we could and continued to call brokers as we drove around.

One of the brokers we tried to contact was on vacation and appeared to be intoxicated when I called.  he said he couldn't possibly show us the boat we wanted to see until later in the week.  The next day he called back, was apologetic and asked to reschedule, but we were on the other side of the state by then.

That week we drove all over the state, saw a lot of boats, and found a marina we really liked.  The problem was we didn't see any boats we could agree on.  Each boat was going to require too much work, was too much money, was too small, too big, too not quite what each of us was looking for. So, that left us back where we began, we still knew what we wanted and now we knew what we didn't want. We knew that every boat is a compromise, but I always thought I'd have to compromise less and maybe Wendy would compromise more.  Not sure I thought that out clearly.

There was one boat we hadn't been able to see and one day left open.  We called up the drunk to see if we could meet to see the boat.  He was more than happy to help this time.  So, we drove down to Punta Gorda to see this one last boat.

The boat was a Pearson 424.  A 42 foot monohull sloop.  That means a single hull, one head sail and a mainsail.  I'm not sure that clears anything up for non-sailors.  Anyway, we went down to look at the boat.  It was awesome.  Really well taken care of, all the woodwork looked like it had just been refinished, the hull had just been painted, the propeller was glistening, polished brass, the engine sparkled.  We both loved it, but we didn't want to rush anything.

On the drive back to my parents house we talked about all the boats we had seen.  More and more we talked about the last one.  Before we had finished the hour and a half drive we called the broker and placed an offer.

A month later we went down for the survey.  The survey is like a home inspection, but a lot longer. The survey went great.  We did see evidence of termites, but we didn't see any live ones.  The previous owner explained that they had once had termites and gotten rid of them.  Everything seemed to be in really good condition, except the standing rigging. That's the wires that hold the mast up.  We had planned to replace that anyway, so no big deal.  They agreed to a discount to replace the rigging and we had a deal.  They were happy for a quick sale, we were happy for a good deal and the broker was happy to get a commission check.

We were so happy we forgot all about the definition of Cruising - Repairing your boat in exotic places...

The beginning

How did I end up here? I remember being in a tree, leaning back and hearing the branch crack.  Next thing I know I'm laying on my back looking up at a group of people who look very concerned.  My arm hurts and people are talking about calling a doctor.

The year is 1972 and I'm playing in a tree with some friends in Alexandria, VA.  I have fallen from the tree and broken my right arm.  I spend the next two weeks at home followed by six weeks in a cast.  One of my father's co-workers gave me a book to read while I recovered - the book was Dove.

Dove was the story of a 16 year old boy who sailed around the world on his own.  It took him 5 years and two boats to do it, but he finally completed the journey.  He was sponsored by National Geographic and they printed articles chronically his adventures.

The story changed my life, but I didn't know it at the time.  It turns out that the book had an affect on many people of my generation and created a multitude of cruisers.  Reading about a young man who managed to sail around the world, the hardships, the adventures, the loneliness, only increased the intrigue.  I glossed over the difficulties and focused on the adventures.

At 10 years old, I had spent all my time on the water on power boats.  I didn't even know anyone who sailed, but the images were etched into my mind and stayed there over the years.  I built a model sailboat and sailed it in local streams and later on, salt water canals.  I thought that at some point in my life -maybe when I retired - I would learn how to sail, but then fate stepped in again.

20 years later, I was on a cruise with my wife's family.  We had seen a lot of sailboats in the ports we had attended and I got me thinking about sailing again.  During an 8 hour wait for our flight at the end of the cruise I went to a store to look for something to read.  I found a magazine called Cruising World, all about cruising in sailboats.  I learned that you can charter sailboats all over the world on vacations.  Just like you can rent a car, you can rent a sailboat.  I also learned that you can take sailing lessons as part of a vacation and a plan began to form in my mind.  I thought, "why not learn how to sail, take charter vacations in the Caribbean each year and gain experience long before I plan to retire?"  And that is exactly what I did.  I convinced my wife to join me by promising that she would not actually have to sail as long as she joined me for the courses.  On all of our vacations she could just lay out while I took all the responsibility.  She fell for it.

That was 15 years ago.  Since then we have chartered boats 14 times all over the Caribbean, have owned our own sailboat for 7 years and have now sold our home and bought a large sailboat to live aboard.

And so, the journey begins....