And the New Name is…

When we adopted Jaela last year we decided right away that we would rename her. “Jaela” wasn’t as bad as Baxter’s pound name, “Coco Puff”, but we could come up with something better. After two days of reviewing dog (and people) name lists, we decided to stick with Jaela after all. It was just easier.

If our boat still had its original name, “Clever Skiff”, we probably would have done the same. No sense in upsetting the sea and wind gods–and it would have just been easier. But about a year ago, our boat was renamed “Kansas Out of Oz”, with the “Kansas” on the stern and “Out of Oz” in very large lettering on the sides. Now I’m sure the previous owner had a very good reason for naming his boat “Kansas Out of Oz”, but it just didn’t fit us. It had to go.

There’s a lot to consider when choosing a name for your boat.  We’re told that people we met while cruising will forget our names, but remember our boat’s name. Is the name short enough to spell phonetically over the VHF? Is the name long enough to look good on a boat decal? Does the name have a cool meaning? Is the name unique? Will people mispronounce it? Does it rhyme with anything undesirable? Will the other boats at the marina make fun of it? Ahhhh!

We spent weeks racking our brains trying to decide on a boat name.  If it is this difficult to name a boat, I can’t imagine the stress and responsibility parents must feel when assigning a name to a HUMAN BEING.  God bless all of you parents out there that have accepted this daunting task.

And without further ado (drumroll)…our boat’s new name is:  KAIROS.

Umm…okay, cool.  What does that mean?

Well, nice of you to ask…The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first being chronos, which refers to chronological or sequential time. The second being kairos (pronunication), meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). This pretty much sums up this moment in time for us. We believe that this journey will be our kairos in more ways than one.

Turns out that changing a boat’s name is not something that should be done lightly. If done incorrectly, renaming a boat will bring nothing but bad luck and let’s face it–we need all the luck we can get. So we took the following steps to ensure we appeased the gods, who will provide safe passages for us during our journey.

Name Purging

Out with the old! Before renaming our boat, we had to purge the vessel of any item containing the previous name. This meant removing the very large “Kansas” and “Out of Oz” decals from the boat. Rob did this very carefully using a heat gun (my blow dryer) and acetone, while sitting in the dinghy.  We also had to remove key chains, registration papers, old receipts, and manuals–anything that contained the previous name. It became obvious that the previous owner did not conduct this purging step, because we found many “Clever Skiff” items.  Of course we removed those items as well for good measure.

Purging Ceremony

Once any reference to the old name was removed from the boat, we conducted the purging ceremony. For this we needed a metal tag with the old name written on it so we could toss it into the sea. We used a part of the old stereo receiver as our metal tag. Rob had spent the previous 3 hours trying to remove it from the cabin wall. He would have tossed the entire thing into the ocean if I let him.

We then asked Poseidon to remove “Kansas Out of Oz” (and “Clever Skiff” for good measure) from his records and happily tossed the receiver tag off the bow of the boat.  Finally, we offered some champagne to Mr. Poseidon, pouring it into the sea from east to west.

Renaming

Once our boat was officially sans name, it was time to add our boat decals.  Again Rob got into the dinghy for this task. The decals were easy to put on using the applicator that BoatUS sent us. We did the hailing port first (Denver, CO) and then added the name on each side.  We measured twice to make sure it was level.  We love our new decals.  They aren’t as large or flashy as our old ones, but we are happy with our simple new look.

Renaming Ceremony

The renaming ceremony required even more champagne to appease Poseidon and the four wind gods. We asked Poseidon to enter “Kairos” into his records and provide us with safe passage throughout our journeys within his realm. This time the champagne flowed from west to east. Next we asked Boreas (North Wind), Zephyrus (West Wind), Eurus (East Wind), and Notus (South Wind) to grant us permission to use their powers and spare us from disasters. This required champagne to be tossed in each direction. By this time, any fish near our boat were probably getting a bit tipsy. With all of the gods drunk and happy, we (mostly just me) enjoyed the remaining champagne and celebrated our new name.