The story of naming the boat, "Hatuey"

Nothing is more difficult, time consuming and frustrating than naming a sailboat.
The best names have already been taken and when you have a brainstorm and come up with an original, you find your hopes cruely dashed when you want to document your ship and the name is already embellishing the stern of another yacht..

Having lived in Indonesia in the late 40s and early 50s, some Indonesian names came to mind. "Ratu Kidul" (Goddess of the Southern Seas) sounded good,and appropriate but had no connection to our destination:the Caribbean.
Meanwhile our FD-12 remained nameless, yet almost ready to sail. An impossible situation screaming for a solution, heard by...............yes my friends,none other than TED TURNER, you know the guy, Mr CNN back then.
Ted had made questionable contacts with Cold War enemy the Soviet Union and did what Mr.Nixon had done earlier with ping-pong diplomacy in China, Ted Turner had organised what he called Friendship Games and they would take place in Seattle. Cuba would be one of participants. Now the Cuban athletes were virtually unknown except by a small group of Cuba supporters. My dear friend Katalina Montero, who had planted the seed for my Cuban adventures,threw a wild party at her small Seattle apartment and I invited the entire Cuban group of athletes to a cruise aboard our nameless sailboat.

To make our Cuban friends feel as much at home as possible, I had cooked black beans and white rice and ropa viega.There was plenty of beer and all the ingredients to make mojitos and Cuba libres. For after dinner coffee I had brought an Italian expresso coffee maker. Our guests had a ball,, enjoyed the food, the drinks and the scenery of Puget Sound while we played casettes of Cuban music. This was the perfect time to ask the question. "What is a good name for this boat"...........................? It was like they had anticipated the question because withour hesitation and all together at least four of my Cuban guests shouted "HATUEY!!!!!!!" as if they had rehearsed the answer. I was dumbfounded, not only by the unanimity and the spontaneity of the reaction but at least as much by the realization that my search had ended in a split second.
"HATUEY" an excellent navigator and freedom fighter................what better name for a sailboat?
I never looked back and within a few weeks the name "HATUEY" glittered proudly in blue and gold on either side of the boat's stern .

A major problem had been resolved, some others still need to be addressed before we can sail. The boat needs to be documented, oufitted, test sailed, and most importantly: crew needs to be selected

To be continued