What's in a name?

There is a superstition that changing a boat's name is bad luck. We are fairly superstitious sailors, but this is the one thing we don't subscribe to.

Our first boat was named 'HI-C' when we bought her, we were not impressed! So, we christened her 'NoNews' shortly after buying her. We brainstormed many different names before ordering the graphics, but NoNews really seemed to fit. She was a Wauquiez Pretorien 35' performance cruiser. We kept the systems fairly simple aboard, which meant no SSB or Satellite phone- basically no way to communicate with the outside world while we were on passage. Well, No News is Good News right?? (If I hear that joke one more time I might scream). After we had owned NoNews for awhile, we found some interesting facts about her (its was 2002 after all, before google searches were so easy!). The original owner, Peter Brown, had commissioned her new in France and sailed her through the Caribbean and across the Pacific, finally selling her in South Africa (cool fact- he and *our* boat are mentioned in Lin Pardey's book 'The Care and Feeding of the Sailing Crew' Cool huh?). He was a lawyer from San Francisco, and had originally named her Emerald City. That is a cool name! If we had known her original name we would have changed it back- not sure what the superstition on that is though.

Our next boat, also a Wauquiez but an Amphritrite, a 42' center cockpit ketch was named Bon Vivant when we bought her. This was the name from the factory in France, apparently they named each boat upon launching. The direct translation is: 'bon vivant - a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)- huh, maybe we should have kept it! But we didn't. We bought her while we were at anchor in Tonga after sailing across the Pacific. Its terrible to say, but after seeing so many beautiful atolls and sandy islands with volcanic peaks, one gets jaded and a bit picky about what constitutes beauty. I know, I know. Everyone should be so lucky! Anyways, after seeing many islands we sailed to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Rarotonga has the reputation for being a good (cheap) place to re provision mid-ocean. This is old information and is no longer cheap- in fact its quite expensive. The island, although pretty, doesn't hold a candle to many of the other places we had been in the past months. However, we met many expats in Rarotonga- some from the US but most from New Zealand and Australia. We were told this many times over:::
'You might as well swallow your anchor, this is the LAST PARADISE on Earth'
Well, when we were brainstorming names for the new boat we kept remembering this advise. The fact of the matter is that each person has an idea of what paradise is, and most likely no two are the same. For us, our 'Last Paradise' is sailing, exploring and being together.

Now on to the 'new' boat. WAKA. As some of you might know we are Residents of New Zealand and plan on living there for some portion of John's school years. The Maroi are the indigenous people in New Zealand and the Maori language is leaned in schools. Translation:: Waka (English pronunciation: /ˈwɒkə/, Maori [ˈwɒka]) are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes (waka tīwai) used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes (waka taua) up to 40 metres (130 ft) long. In recent years, large double-hulled canoes of considerable size have been constructed for oceanic voyaging to other parts of the Pacific Ocean.
Seems perfect, right?

Delay

So where IS Last Paradise you ask? Well, we are here. Its a nice little place, just a few minutes drive from Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama.
Why are we still here?
Well.
Because of this....

You see, this is the Selden Lock, one of the many locks that we have to transit through on our way back downriver to the Gulf. You might notice that there is a key ingredient missing from this lock.
Yep. Water.
Until they finish the work they are doing, we will be delayed here. Actually, we'll probably leave the dock and tie up to one of the old lock walls so we can get under the bridges while the water is *low*... It really is a finely choreographed dance, this sailing stuff. We'll keep you posted!

Back Aboard

Well folks, we made it! We are back on board Last Paradise, or as John says "PooDooIce" (its really the cutest thing!)

Driving for two days with a two-year-old can be a challenge, but since we've been doing long car trips all of John's life he is an old pro at it now. He was a champion- we only had to resort to watching 'Bee Movie' once! We managed to find NPR stations the whole way too, lucky for us! I have an old friend from when we lived in Florida who is living in Louisville, KY taking care of his ageing father. We managed to get in touch of him and he (finally) got to meet John! We stayed over night there and then had a leisurely morning in the hotel. There was a pool, but it was closed for repairs, shucks, John would've loved a swim!

We pulled into Holt, Alabama where LP has been docked at the Eagle Cove Marina last evening, in the pouring rain. As luck would have it, the batteries were nearly dead. Jeff found the engine key and went to try to start it up to charge the batteries, but the starting battery was dead as well. DOH! Luckily we have a battery charger and 110 system on board so Jeff got out some extension cords and plugged us into shore power. Things would have been fine if it had not been so overcast and rainy for the last 2 months- we have 4 solar panels to keep the batteries at least a bit charged!

About 2 months ago, Jeff came down here to check on things and to set off some 'bug bombs'. We were a little squeamish after finding some dead roaches in our car trunk- we really did not want an infestation! The bombs let off a sort of powdery mist- the poison I guess. Well, for some reason mildew decided to grow on this powder, so Jeff and I spent about an hour wiping down all of the wood with vinegar (especially in John's room!) Lesson learned I suppose- but whenever you leave a boat for an extended period of time you can be sure that there will be a few surprises when you come home! We managed to get cleaned up and I made cheese omelette's for dinner, we didn't have much else! John fell asleep like a champ, I think he was excited to see his 'own' bed. After all of this

Even will all of the little hiccups in getting back aboard, watching John react to things was tremendously rewarding. He spent a lot of time in his little 'toy area' and even discovered the potty (he pooped in it right away!!!) Watching him remember everything was pretty cool, and listening to him be able to communicate so much of it was awesome! Jeff is running errands and John is taking a good nap now, leaving me some quiet time to process all of this newness.

Oh, and by the way... we seem to have brought the cold weather south with us- its in the 50's here today! BRRRR.