Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Choosing a Name

After owning sailboats named Millennium Falcon, Bullet Proof, Imagine and Seabbatical (which we were currently cruising on) and remembering the difficulty finding the "perfect" choice, the process of selecting a name for the new boat began in earnest. We loved the name Seabbatical, and got a lot of nice comments about it, but were tired of spelling it two or three times everytime we needed to provide it. By the way, you need to give the name of your vessel to a lot to marinas and others.

We knew we were going to fly a US flag and would be in the Mediterranean for a few years so we wanted something that conveyed our roots. We toyed with several Aggie related names, but kept coming back to Lone Star. We were 99% set on the name Lone Star when we arrived in the Turks and Caicos Islands and ended up docking next to a vessel named "Lone Star". It was a beautiful 60 foot wooden ketch from Houston that was just starting out on a trip around Cape Horn. We met the Captain, Miles Thompson, and shared a couple of meals and sundowners with him and truly felt his deep affection for the vessel. However, we did not share our name selection with him at the time.

Seeing that beautiful classic wooden vessel proudly flying the Stars and Stripes and getting to know the Captain who was extreemly proud of the vessel and the goodwill it brought as it traveled through the Med 15 years earlier and again as it headed for the Cape convinced us we had chosen a good name. If you want to read about the adventures of the other Lone Star going around Cape Horn click on this link for Lone Star Around Cape Horn.