The Moving Aboard Project: Preparations, Emotions and Children’s Literature

My, Emotions Come and Go so Quickly Here

As we get closer to leaving for our cruising adventure, the excitement has faded a little, submerged under a tidal wave of last minute work. House cleaning and upgrades, tying up loose ends, distributing things we’re donating to the appropriate charities, figuring out how to mow the lawn now that the mower is sold. (Doh!)

The little jolts of sadness have started. Today I cut back some blackberries. I had to do it with my bonsai shears since I no longer have loppers and pruners. Sun on my shoulders, scratches up and down my arms, I realized I’m going to miss yard work. I’ll miss seeing the crocosmia bloom, I’ll miss looking out at Nameless and Diva, I’ll miss having friends traipse through the yard on their way to their boats. I’ll really, really miss having the family here to play on the beach this summer.

I’m also really sad that there’s still so much left to do to get ready to go.

For Father’s Day, after Tom installed the last of the new deck boards, we needed a boat fix. So we drove up to Anacortes to walk the docks at the marinas one last time. Looking at ideas for fittings, stowage techniques, and of course, names.

Name That Boat – Continued

As I’ve mentioned, good boat names are few and far between. Most boat owners take themselves way too seriously, so we found the usual crop of Journeys, Voyagers, Escapes, and Quests. The Betty-Sues were well represented too. But we did find a few oddballs that made us laugh. At Skyline Marina on the west side we were surprised to run across Montana Sapphire, registered in Polson, MT, the Rocky Mountain town where our daughter lived until a few weeks ago. We were also surprised that her colors were white and green. Montana sapphires must be different. On the other hand, Red, a gorgeous vessel at Cap Sante Marina downtown, totally lived up to her name.

The standout was Mr. Wonderful, a tall, musclebound trawler with a Batman insignia on his(?) flying bridge. Clearly his/her owner is also uninspired by the usual naming efforts. Over the top, I realized, is a really good way to go. The owner of Livin’ Large took the same tack. That name was scrawled on the boxy stern of a little daysailer in a font that looked like drippy white shoe polish.

I also liked Tonto, and began listing my favorite fictional sidekicks looking for potential. Jeeves perhaps, or Bunter. We actually saw a Bunter a few minutes after I mentioned him. Tinkerbelle has been done to death, as has Shadowfax. Short Round doesn’t really fit. The only decent sidekick names I came up with were Hermione and Hobbes. Not going either of those places.

We think we’re looking for a short name, for a small boat. But inspired by Mr. Wonderful I tried a few in the oxymoronic style: Nimrod, Olympia, Boadicea, Dreadnaught. I do like Dreadnaught.

Moving on, we abandoned the idea of making sense at all and went with sounds – Ahhh, Hoot, Toot, Glub, Zip, Oy. We toyed with Eeeny Meeny for the boat and Miney Mo for the dinghy.

Air, Flit, Risk, Go.

It would help to know her sailing disposition – will she be a softie (Fluff) or a bitch (Lucretia)?

Or is our disposition what matters? Should we be setting ourselves up for good things every time we mention her? Lucky, Good, Hello, Bestie, Shine, Fun, Happy Dance.

As the day eased into sunset we came upon a bright yellow racer emblazoned with images of clawy paws and toothy jaws. And there was my favorite name of the day, and one I really want to steal – Wild Rumpus. That line – “Let the wild rumpus start!” – is one of my favorites in all of literature. Tom hemmed and hawed, he’s not sure we can, or want to, live up to such a name. Could it be he’s actually taking this seriously after all?

Whidbey Island Waterfront Home for Rent

With most of our things sold, and a lot of what we’re taking already packed, the work we’re doing now is to get the house ready to rent.

Yes, Tidal Life’s home base will soon be available for some other lucky family. So if you’re interested in living on the waterfront on Whidbey for a while, drop me an email.

The perfect family for this house would be one that:

• Loves the water, the beach and messing about in boats
• Thinks that climbing real stairs is better than going to the gym
• Prefers chaotic, natural gardens to lifeless beauty bark
• Values doing cool stuff over keeping up with the Joneses
• Knows that unique handcrafted beats factory mass produced
• Welcomes the opportunity to see wild animals live their lives
• Has a lot of deck furniture (there are five decks)

Hmm, reminds me of someone …