SY VAQUITA: Boat Naming Ceremony
We are boat owners! That still sounds a bit weird. Not even three weeks after we signed the contract, the next big step was just around the corner: the boat naming ceremony!
We actually thought the previous name Båtis - Swedish for "little boat" - was quite cute. However, the Swedish å is pronounced as an o and such a special letter in the name is not very practical for international use. So it wasn't quite the right name for us and we had to come up with another one.
Not easy at all! We wanted the name to have a connection to water, but also not a common name. After some thought, the vaquitas (Californian porpoise; Phocoena sinus) came to my mind, which we had heard about in the Museo de la Ballena (Museum of Whales) during our trip to Mexico. They are the smallest porpoise species (they grow up to 1.50 m in length) and are unfortunately threatened with extinction. Vaquitas only live in the Gulf of Mexico and their population is estimated at only 10-20 individuals. As our boat is also not very big and the story was very close to our hearts, we found the name very appropriate.
Without further ado, my parents, my sister, her boyfriend and family friends came to Italy for the boat renaming ceremony and to celebrate properly. Changing the name of the boat naturally involves a few rituals for superstitious sailors so as not to bring bad luck to the boat and crew. My sister Lena is the godmother of our Vaquita and fortunately doesn't have red hair, because that would bring bad luck, just like green clothing. First we removed the old name from the boat and then went out to perform the purging ceremony. We first got the snake "Macoui" drunk with good Italian Prosecco, which moves behind the boat in its wake. Actually, you would have to cross the wake several times to cut off its head, because only then Neptune no longer has any objections to change the name. However, we had sporty conditions and didn't want to take any risks with 8 people on our small boat, so instead we preferred to pour another strong drink into the wake. We then gave Neptune a little more Prosecco on the starboard side to appease him. Afterwards we asked him to remove the old name from his "Ledger of the Deep". To do this, we threw a stone with the old name Båtis overboard, which the daughter of our previous owners had inscribed and decorated especially for us and gave Neptune some more Prosecco.
We then completed the renaming ceremony in the harbor, where Lena gave a very touching speech that ended with a triple "Hipp, hipp, hurray". Peter then tried to smash a Prosecco bottle on the anchor, but the bottle didn't break and instead the anchor left the first dent on the bow, which we later repaired at the dry dock. We then proceeded with a champagne shower. Our boat is now called VAQUITA. We ended the day in a pizzeria with a glass of wine before setting off on our first trip with Vaquita the next day...