How “La Peregrina” Got Her Name

We had named our previous boat “Wanderlust.”  The name conveyed our love of travel, our compulsion to wander, anywhere and everywhere.  Indeed, S/V Wanderlust proved to be a good wanderer, taking us to the Bahamas, Cuba, the Gulf of Mexico, and much of the southern coast of the US.  The name fit, and we liked it.

When we bought our Cabo Rico 34 in 2015, we briefly considered a similar theme.  “Wanderlust II,” perhaps?  

It seemed inadequate. An experience in 2012 had changed our perspective.  That was the year Maribeth and I walked El Camino de Santiago.  We started in St. Jean Pied de Port, in southern France, and walked 580 miles to Santiago de Compostela and on to Finisterre on the coast of Galicia in Spain.  I cannot articulate how impactful that experience was.  It was sublime.  It was wondrous.  It still influences how we think about the world and about life.  (See Our Camino de Santiago)

The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage.  And “La Peregrina” is the feminine Spanish word for “the pilgrim.”  There is a difference between a wanderer and a pilgrim:  the pilgrim has a purpose.  Considering names for our Cabo Rico 34, “La Peregrina” not only payed homage to our experience on the Camino, it also reflected our mission:  to explore, to see new places and new things, to learn to do and think differently, and, significantly, to share the experience.

Sometimes, of course, we still like to wander aimlessly.