BOAT NAMES - ANY NAME EXCEPT PRETENTIOUS
I like boat names.
They are mysterious and frequently reveal the secret thoughts and lives of those who name them.
Take my catamaran Exit Only. The name signaled a watershed moment in my life when I left Saudi Arabia on an Exit Only visa after working in Arabia for eleven years as an eye surgeon.
When you leave Arabia on an Exit Only visa, it means you are not coming back. No exit reentry visa for you. Your work in the kingdom is finished, you are on the way out, and your visa lets the world know that phase of your life is over.
As far as I know, my family and I are the only people on planet earth who left Arabia on an Exit Only visa and immediately got on a catamaran named Exit Only which sailed around the world.
When you go Exit Only, you leave your past behind. Your separation is both physical and psychological.
The physical separation is important because you can’t go sailing while you are sitting on top of a sand dune.
The psychological separation is even more important because you are going Exit Only out of your comfort zone to face new and different challenges - and sailing around the world on a small catamaran was a challenge well outside my comfort zone.
Exit Only reminded me that my old life was finished and my new world was as big as I had the courage to point the bow of my boat.
If the truth be told, I had gone Exit Only in my mind many years before I left Arabia. While in the magic kingdom, I was collecting freedom chips to finance my upcoming adventures. My body was in Arabia, but my mind was already on board Exit Only sailing around the world.
If I had not named my boat Exit Only, I would have named it Endurance, Perseverance, Tenacity or Tenacious.
Those names describe the qualities that make dreams come true.
The path to your dreams is unexplored territory, the way is rough, and the resistance is real. Nobody is going to hand you your dreams on a silver platter. You must work for them, fight for them, endure for them, and persevere for them. If you are not tenacious, and if tenacity is not your middle name, your dreams will wither until they disappear.
Boat names are not created equal, and not all are serious.
Some names are jokes that the yacht owner plays on the world.
The gentrification of sailing has created a whole new class of pretentious names that have been inflicted on the world.
These boats should all be named Pretentious, because their owners are not sailors, they are Pretenders, and their boat is just posing gear. It’s a nautical selfie that will never sail anywhere on a significant voyage.
The boating gentry would all get a number attached to the Pretentious name, and that number would reflect their net worth. The poorly pretentious would have a name in the order of Pretentious 10,345,668 because that is their net worth. The billionaire boats would have names like Pretentious 25,334,687,577. That would let the world know just how Pretentious they are purchasing a yacht they will probably never use.
You can strike Pretentious off the list of possible yacht names for any sailboats I get in the future. My net worth would never permit me to join the Pretentious crowd.
That’s just as well. Exit Only works for me, and if I get another boat, Exit Only II will be just fine.
Now you know the rest of the story.
Awesome music video that captures the essence of what it's like to sail offshore in a catamaran around the world when conditions are less than perfect. David Abbott from Too Many Drummers sings the vocals, and he also edited the footage from our Red Sea adventures. This is the theme song from the Red Sea Chronicles.
Sailing up the Red Sea is not for the faint of heart. From the Bab al Mandeb to the Suez Canal, adventures and adversity are in abundance. If you take things too seriously, you just might get the Red Sea Blues.
If you like drum beats, and you like adventure, then have a listen to the Red Sea Chronicles Trailer.
Flying fish assault Exit Only in the middle of the night as we sail through the Arabian Gulf from the Maldives to Oman. And so begins our Red Sea adventures.
Sailing through Pirate Alley between Yemen and Somalia involves calculated risk. It may not be Russian Roulette, but it is a bit of a worry. Follow Team Maxing Out as they navigate through Pirate Alley.
Stopping in Yemen was just what the doctor ordered. We refueled, repaired our alternator, and we made friends with our gracious Yemeni hosts. We also went to Baskins Robbins as a reward for surviving Pirate Alley.
After you survive Pirate Alley, you must sail through the Gate of Sorrows (Bab Al Mandab) at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The Gate of Sorrows lived up to its name with fifty knots of wind and a sandstorm that pummeled Exit Only for two days. Life is good.
Although I like the feel of a paper book in my hand, I love trees even more. When people purchase an eBook, they actually save trees and save money as well. Ebooks are less expensive and have no negative impact on the environment. All of Dr. Dave's books are available at Save A Tree Bookstore. Visit the bookstore today and start putting good things into your mind. It's easy to fill your mind with positive things using eBooks. No matter where you are or what you are doing, you can pull out your smart phone or tablet and start reading. You can even use electronic highlighters and make annotations in your eBooks just like paper books.
