Finally added her name to the back.

Pretty much every single person I talked to before buying my boat told me not to do it. All I needed was that one person to tell me that the adventure of boat life was worth the hard work that came along with it.

I bought the sign for the back of my boat 5 months ago with so much eagerness, yet just now found the time to put it on. Admittedly, boat life has been harder than I had anticipated. Even though living on a boat means you get to see the most glorious of sunsets that instill within you a new sense of peace every single time, and that the cutest seal named Rufus will come splashing up to the back deck, it also means having windows that leak so much that it causes wood rot. It means having an invasion (or two) of bugs, the water pump giving out, leaking decks, a dinghy that no matter how many times you patch and re-fill with air still won’t stay filled, and a disheartening plethora of repulsive smells. 

When you are trying to figure out why the bilge is suddenly filling with water, something as small as putting the name on the back becomes frivolous, and thus moved to the bottom of the list of things to do. 

So, the fact that the name is now on the boat feels tremendous to me--as if I made it through that initial hard part that everyone was so quick to warn me about. I still don’t know what I am doing most of the time and I still have a million things to figure out, but I have never been so happy to come home every day.

Boat renaming ceremony

To be honest, pouring a perfectly beautiful bottle of champ into the water instead of into my mouth broke my heart a lil bit, but cheers to Poseidon (the god of the sea).🥂

As legend has it, the process of renaming a boat is not to be taken lightly. It requires expunging the previous boat’s name from all records, requesting permission to add your new name to the Ledger of the Deep, something about an ingot being thrown overboard, plus like ten other super intense things that every single boat person I’ve talked to swears by.

So, here it goes:

Poseidon, in appreciation of your munificence, dispensation and in honor of your eminence, we offer these libations to your majesty and your court. Please guard my boat with your mighty arm and trident, ensuring her of safe passage throughout her journeys within your realm.

Redecorating

The man who owned the boat before me (John) lived on it for thirteen years. He was a fisherman, so the boat was brimming with fishing gear. He was 84 years old when we sold it to me and did not want to actually sell it. Rather, his kids made him sell it, because he was sick--he had since moved to Arizona to live with this daughter. The boat was dirty and dingy by the time I found it, since it had been sitting empty for at least a year.

The first time we opened the boat up, the air was so heavy, as if you were walking into a cloud of invisible fog. It reminded me of those cartoons from my childhood where someone would walk into a dark cave, not knowing what would be inside, and a flock of bats would come flying out. As I looked around, I was envisioning all the ways I would change and update everything; I could see the potential.

In the main solon, John had a giant recliner chair and a cumbersome old floral fabric couch that ate up most of the room. They were both facing a tv he had perched on top of the wood shelf. In the kitchen, things were sprawled all over the counters and tables, bins were shoved under all the staircases and tables, making the boat seem more cluttered than necessary. I couldn't wait to clear out all his things and CLEAN, so I could start organizing my own belongings. Lots of online shopping began at this point.

Clearing out his things took about a week. John drove down from Arizona to gather everything, and it seemed like he had a hard time saying bye to the boat, because it took him a few days longer to be out than he originally told me. He left his couches, which were complete HELL to get out. We had to lift them up the steps and out of the doors, then somehow get them over the side railings. I had my brother and mom come help and we ended up having to detach the entire side railing to get his things out. But we got it done. My mom and I spent another week cleaning, even though John hired his maid to come clean before he left. Then I started bringing car fulls of my things down and unloading.

Before pictures are on the left, after pictures are on the right!