How Our Boat Got Its Name

It took us longer to name our boat than it did to name either of our children.....I don't know what that means, but we've contemplated boat names for years. Once we ordered the boat in June 2007 and it began to become real, the name search was no longer theoretical but real and serious, because all the boat's documentation requires a name.

I was happy to let Jon lean toward Dutch names, in his family tradition of naming boats, or to pay homage to his late mother and her family name. Jon, on the other hand, was happy to pay homage to my family's Cherokee heritage with a Cherokee word. We did end up naming our LLC, which owns the boat, Tahlequah Voyages, but no word seemed to make the personal connection necessary for a boat name.

One criteria was that it be short and easy to understand over the radio. Jon suggested Grace and it eventually rose to the top of a short list. It certainly met our first criteria. It also resonated with our romantic notions that we might experience some grace on this journey, especially as we withdrew from the hectic pace of our land lives.

But both David and Katie disliked it. While they did not have veto power of her name, their dislike kept the name on hold.

By January 2008 I knew I was going to go to France to help sail the boat back to Annapolis, Maryland and was often thinking about what a transAtlantic passage would be like.....I was going, but I was a little scared. The upcoming passage was always in the back of my mind, even as I was in Denver, Colorado helping Katie move into her dorm to begin her new college life at Regis University.

Somewhere on the fourth level of stairs, carrying Katie's college dorm stuff, sweating in the winter of Denver, it popped into my head that a catamaran--half as wide as it is long with its two hulls--was more like an island. It would be my island in the ocean and that was less scary than the thought of being on a heeled mono-hull.

Because our boat was being built in France....and thus would be French, the words ile de Grace rolled off my tongue. (For those who do no speak French, it's pronounced eel-duh-GRAAHSS). Island of Grace. And that settled it. Everyone was happy, but the first criteria was out the window. (In truth, Jon and I use only Grace when talking on the radios.)

Without now going into the many theological definitions of the noun grace, all I can say is that so far we have rarely experienced the adjective "graceful." With a few exceptions, our dockings and anchorings have often been anything but----mostly comical, but occasionally stressful. We are learning, though, and I will keep you posted as we experience moments of grace and gracefulness.