Pineapple Girl wrote:
We named the dinghy Spirit after Mike, his boat*and his indomitable Spirit that stayed with him until the end, October 28, 2010.
Great, great story, Jennifer. *
But if you want to know "what's in a name", read this one. *I have a similar, but more comical reason for naming our boat "Bucky". *The Boat we have is an odd Krogen Manatee 36 with a North Sea style pilot house. *Krogen tells us that there are about six of them out there, and we fell in love with one in Hong Kong, but couldn't substantiate the cost of shipping back to Germany (where we were at the time) or Miami (where we are now). *The shallow draft, space, "cult" re-sale and economy made it the only Mono-hull we were considering. *The chances to find another one were unlikely, and we thought we'd probably end up with on of the trawler catamarans.
One night my German born Admiral awoke, sat-up *and shouted
"Bucky". * I said "
What"? She repeated
"Bucky....it's what we have to name our boat". *
What boat, I said. *"
The one we're going to have", she replied, and then collapsed into her pillow and went back to sleep. *The next morning I asked her about it, and she said: *What is a Bucky? *She didn't know it was a name, and especially, she didn't know (and no one knew) that it was my special unspoken name for my dearest Uncle, Dewey Eberts. *Recently, my dear Aunt Winnie (his wife) had also died very angry with me, and I was looking for a sign that she was OK now, and knew the truth about things. *The sign came with the name Bucky, the only word that could have been said to indicate who it was coming from, and the friendly, affectionate specialness that was in my heart for my Aunt Winnie and Uncle Bucky. *But the sign was far from over. *There was more.
About a month before we left German for Miami, Bang, there it was. *A rare North-Sea Krogen Manatee. *And where did it turn out to be? *I knew of the one in Hong Kong. *I had a photo of one in Iceland, and another in Nova Scotia, but this one turned out to be in Daytona Beach, FL in the closest possible harbor to my Uncle Bucky's home. *The boat was advertised at 30K less than we ever figured it would be, and before I could even get to the US, the price dropped another 25K. *We were not only concerned, we were suspicious. *There were many other things that happened, but the survey and sea-trial were nearly perfect, and now we have it. *When we asked the broker what would make a win-win situation for the owner, it ended up being even less. *Then, another strange event. * Mom had also died this year, and I was surprised to be left part of her estate. *That estate consisted of money left by my good ole Aunt Winnie and Uncle Bucky for her private care. *So in a way, it became not only a gift from her, but a gift from my dear Aunt and Uncle too. *It paid for half the boat.
So what's in a name? *It's our dream boat at an incredible discount, half-bought by ethereal money, but if it was a destiny to find the dearest and warmest cockle in my heart to come up with a boat name, it would say "Bucky".
*