And then, for a cheesy kicker, Vesper was the only girl James Bond ever loved ,with whom he planned to sail around the world, from the movie Casino Royale, one of our favorite movies. And yes, our last name is Bond, and yes, we really like James Bond movies. Stephen warned me that once I married him I would get the, "Bond, James Bond," line often when I told people my last name. He was not mistaken. So while we did not name our boat after a James Bond girl, it is a fun little side note to our "Evening Prayer."
And I suppose you've noticed the hailing port is Mount Desert, Maine. Not exactly where we are from. Well, we are land-locked in Oxford, MS, so we looked for ocean towns that had meaning to us. We favored St. Petersburg, FL, which is one of the first places our boat search took us. And while it was a cool, eclectic, older beach town, it didn't really have personal meaning to us. Once we bought this boat, Mt. Desert, ME was the current hailing port. And it turns out, this was the first place Emily ever sailed when we took a trip up the east coast and to Acadia National Park. And so with that, we adopted Mt. Desert as our own. Sure to need lots of explaining in years to come.
A little bubbly, good friends, and a pair of dolphins. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect send off. After a month at a marina, spending time making repairs on the boat, we set off to live on the hook (at anchor) for a month before heading back home to good ole Mississippi. We had checked almost everything off our to do list, with not much time to spare. The last thing to check off was putting the new name on the boat, and we couldn't leave the marina until the new name was on, since we had taken the old name off, and the Coast Guard wouldn't be pleased with an unnamed vessel traveling around. So we woke early to apply the letters, hoping there would be no hiccups. Once we had the letters on, we covered the new name until we had our denaming ceremony, Christening, and renaming ceremony. All steeped deep in tradition, we asked King Neptune to purge the old name of the boat from his ledger and ask his blessings on our newly named vessel, Vesper. Once we popped the champagne and shared some bubbly with Neptune, we prepared to toss the lines and see what adventures lay ahead. Our new friends from Sailing Uma, Dan and Kika, were there to give us a grand farewell, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Just as we were about to leave, two dolphins came right to the stern of the boat and then headed out to the channel, as if to say "Come on, we'll lead the way." (Sounds too good to be true, but I promise I'm not making that up :)
62.6 miles sailing in the Atlantic from West Palm Beach to Fort Pierce, FL. Such an incredible journey. Blessed beyond measure to have had the opportunity. Can't wait to go sailing again!
Music: http://www.bensound.com
Emily LOVES the local aquariums and the Manatee Center. Here we saw 4 or 5 adult manatees and a baby! The aquarium is a short walk away, and we have been 4 times in the past week! It is Emily's favorite place and she would spend hours there touching the animals and watching the fish. Her favorite in the touch tank is a sea hare. The workers already know her by name!
I love love love a beautiful sunrise! This is what we get to wake to every morning while in
Fort Pierce. We are staying at a marina in Fort Pierce, Fl for a few weeks while we do some repairs to the boat, clean her up, and prepare to move her to the Gulf Coast. We lucked up to find this marina, as you know we couldn't stay in Fort Lauderdale, and everything else on the east coast was full. We had planned to stay at a boat yard type facility, due only to it being the only place I could find an opening. Two days before we were scheduled to arrive, they informed me there was not a slip available. Panic struck! We had a boat we had to move and no where to go! Four hours of phone calls later, we landed a spot in this little gem. It is clean, beautiful, lots of friendly people, walking distance to two beaches, restaurants, the aquarium, and a stellar view. So so happy the other place didn't have room for us!
