Name change! + Bottom paint, interior carpentry...
We changed her name! Namaste is now Zora. Here's the story:
A couple of days ago, Neil and I went to the storage space to get the old cushions (I'm sewing the new ones now.) One of the cushions was covered with cat hair: it had been the favorite perch of our Siamese cat, Zorra, at home. We'd always assumed that Zorra would come on this trip with us, but it was not to be. She was old, and suffering from kidney failure. She died this January. She was so much a part of our family: it was very hard on us. So when we saw the cat-hair-covered cushion, we both sighed and one of us said, "We should have named the boat Zorra!". Then we thought, "Why not?" We'd never sailed the boat under the name "Namaste", so she hadn't really become that name to us yet. And as much as we liked the name, it wasn't really totally personal and meaningful to us all. We loved Zorra, and here was a way we could honor her, and a way that she could still come on the trip with us. It just felt right.
Zorra was named because she looked like a little baby fox when she was a kitten, and zorra means female fox, or vixen, in Spanish. Unfortunately, what I didn't know until I started researching it for the boat, is that "zorra" also has some rather negative secondary slang meanings in many Spanish-speaking countries, "prostitute" being the most polite! We weren't sure we wanted to name our family boat something that might offend people in the countries we plan to visit. On further research, we found that by spelling it "Zora", it fit on our transom better, and is a Greek/Slavic name meaning "dawn" as well. Perfect. Zora she is!
Lots of Progress!!!!
Meanwhile, Neil is 3/4 of the way through his vacation and SO MUCH is getting done. You almost wouldn't recognize her. Her new boot and sheer stripes have been painted, and Neil just put the final coat of epoxy barrier coat on the bottom. tonight the first coat of bottom paint will go on. The interior is looking wonderful. Neil built the galley storage and there's so much of it!!! We were able to use the space where the old "beer locker" was to build a perfect dish locker with fiddles and pegs that hold our new dishes and glassware. The galley seems huge now, and I am so excited to start cooking in it! All the rest of the interior is coming together, too. We began the puzzle of replacing all the original trim which we'd removed 2 years ago: piles and piles of it. Most of it has already been sanded and coated with 3 coats of varnish to cut work on the interior varnishing project. Neil's adding the new V-berth and aft cabin storage units today, and we'll continue trimming it all out. We hope to have it all done and bunged soon, so I can be varnishing while he works on the spars.
Okay, I really have to go work on the boat! Things are really getting to a fever pitch as we look at our (hopefully!!!!!) last 2 months before leaving. I'll try to write more and post some pictures soon.....