The Perfect Boat

We purchased our sailboat! We decided on the 89' Morgan Classic Sloop. She is a 41 foot beauty that spent the last couple years living in St. Augustine, FL. The ironic thing is she is originally from Charleston, SC, so we are taking her home. Our plan is to bring her back the week before Thanksgiving with our friend Chris. He has sailed his whole life and we will rely on him to protect our boat from our inexperience.

We have decided to name her Gertrude. Charles and I have both read Desert Queen by Janet Wallach; not to be confused with "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" (although a great movie). Desert Queen is the biography of Gertrude Bell, an English socialite who gave up her position in society to travel and discover the wild places in the world. She fell in love with the Middle East and is known, somewhat notoriously, for unknowingly creating the problems we see in Iraq today (The Bushes only added to it).

Looking at Bell through 2007 eyes, one quickly sees her imperfections. Just like our boat, there are great things about her and not so great things about her. If you read her Wikipedia entry you will learn she was against women suffrage. She believed that if women only took interest in the kitchen and the bedroom they did not deserve a voice in government. We have tried to understand her from her place in history.

Like Gertrude the sailboat, Bell took off in her 20s to travel the world with her family. Because of her courage, strength, adventurouse spirit, finesse, wit, and good luck; Charles and I have decided to make Gertrude Bell our beautiful sailboat's namesake. We hope that our adventure will change our lives and teach us more about the people we live with in this world.