The name of the boat

Why Bedouin? Short and simple answer: because that was the boat's name when I bought it. Of course I could have changed it. I decided not doing that for several reasons.

I like the name Bedouin because of the image it suggests. A bedouin is a desert man, crossing the huge waving-sand area that exposes its beauties while hides its dangers, from one oasis to the next one. The comparison with the sailor crossing the sea, at the same time fascinating and menacing, having the joy of seeing an island, where food, shadow and fresh water wait for him is hard to avoid. It's a beautiful metaphor, anyway.

I like the word Bedouin. Even being an English name, it sounds and is written very similar in the latin languages (bédouin, in French; beduino, in Spanish and Italian; beduíno in Portuguese). I like the fact that people from diferent places can guess its meaning even if they don't know the word. It's also useful that the word is easy to understand and spell, even during a radio contact, sometimes with below-ideal sound.

Kátia sometimes jokes I look like a bedouin. It's not really true, but I can understand her reasoning. Half of my genetic legacy comes from Port, Portugal, the city where my maternal grandparents came from. Port remained under the Moors for more than a hundred and fifty years, from 711DC to 868DC. It means many generations, considering life expectancy at that time. The influence of that North-African Arabs is still noticeable in the architecture, the many Portuguese words starting with "al" and the human physical types. My grandmother was blond and had blue eyes, but I inherited from my grandfather the dark-brown hair, the big nose and the thick eybrows. That's my Arabic legacy.

There's an old sailors' superstition that says that changing the name of a boat brings bad luck, unless one follow very strict procedures. I am not a superstitious man but, since I like the name, there's no need to risk. Yo no creo en brujas, pero...