Renaming Ceremony

We held the renaming ceremony last Tuesday! Seventeen people attended, including me Linda & Heidi, Linda’s sisters Lisa and Lorie and her four grandchildren, Jaiden, in his blue suit, and Maggie, in her colorful dress, get props from me for best dressed!, my brother George and cousin Sue (both visiting from out of town), three members of the Coquina Ridge Pirates Dave, Rick & Linda, Fr. John Bosco and even a woman who happened to be walking down the dock and stopped to see what was going on. She turned out to be a former sailboat owner—perfect timing!

The ceremony was moved up a bit on the calendar. I’d hoped to have more of the cosmetic items on the to-do list finished beforehand, but since my brother George was in town, it seemed the perfect time to celebrate. George and I worked together to get the name on the transom—just temporarily for now—but it was great to spend that time with him. The permanent lettering will be part of a future project, which I’ll cover later under the Projects section of the site.

The ceremony had three parts: first, the traditional name change, which paid homage to the superstitions and gods of days gone by; then the blessing of the boat; and finally, dinner at Meg O’Malley’s. Linda and I were thrilled that Fr. John Bosco Maison was able to attend all the festivities and perform the blessing. He told me the next day at work (I’m at the parish school) that in all his years as a priest, this was his very first boat blessing.

When the moment came to toast the new name, the Coquina Ridge Pirates gave a hearty “Arghh!”. Fr. John Bosco smiled and eyed the bottle of rum. I’ll bet it was the first blessing and toast he’d ever shared with pirates—and maybe not the last!

An awesome way to start Gypsy Wind’s journeys.

Arghh!