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| We're doing it correctly. |
Mariners of all types have superstitions, not just sailors, and most of them are about bad luck. Some of the more commonly know ones:
Bananas onboard bring bad luck.
Setting sail, beginning your voyage on a Friday is bad luck.
No whistling onboard, it will bring stronger winds.
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| Mickey tempts fate. |
Women onboard are bad luck, unless they are naked, and then they bring good luck. (What???)
The term "son of a gun", came from having children born on the gun deck. I guess that's the outcome from having naked women onboard. If it was a male child, it was considered good luck.
It's bad luck to trim your hair and nails at sea.
A shark seen following your ship brings bad luck, (duh), but a dolphin brings good luck.
Red hair people are bad luck.
Black cats onboard are good luck, versus land folk, who consider a black cat bad luck.
Tattoos of a rooster, a pig, or a compass rose would bring good luck.
It's good luck to always board a boat with your right foot first.
Changing the name of your boat is bad luck, unless you follow specific rules.
A popular denaming/renaming ceremony can be read here. A ceremony can be used as a reason to drink champagne, and have a party. Who would argue with that?
We didn't change Denali Rose's name, because we liked it. If you go to the USCG registry, you'll find plenty of Denali's, but only one Denali Rose. The previous name on record is Yullibee, I'm glad it's been changed, and I hope they did a ceremony. Maybe I'll toss a few coins in the ocean, wear a gold earring, and spit overboard the next time we leave the dock, just in case.
As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.
I didn't realize it was Friday the 13th until I read this. Lots of interesting tidbits in your post today, especially the one about "son of a gun" and that a black cat is good luck on board. And Denali Rose is a lovely name :-)
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need a black cat onboard Tickety Boo. :-)
DeleteI have been enjoying your web site since I "discovered" it this winter. Really enjoy your sense of humor. We had the privileged of spending two months last summer in Southeast Alaska and we had such a wonderful time that we are planning on spending this summer up there again. In the late 60's I spent two summers on a commercial fish boat off the west coast of Vancouver Island. One skipper was very superstitious about opening canned goods. NEVER open the can upside down! If it was something like a can of beans it was alright to use the beans but you had to get rid of the can. If it was something that was going to be on-board for a while like a can of condensed milk, it went overboard immediately once the error had been discovered.
ReplyDeleteStan
S/V Arbutus Beach
Thanks for your kind words Stan. :-)
DeleteWhen I was googling superstitions, I didn't find one about not opening a can upside down, it's interesting. I wonder what led to that belief, usually there is some fact behind the rule. Was it just that skipper?
Maybe we'll share an anchorage sometime this summer. Hopefully we will experience more sunny days than last year.