Columbine is a flower... and our lovely sailboat.

We have gotten some very mixed reactions to the name of our sailboat over the years.  While living at the docks in Friday Harbor, we overheard quite a few idle conversations about our boat as the weekend dock-goers stood within a foot of our bow and discussed the merits of the boat, and its name.  Frequently, they mis-read the name... "Concubine?  Who would name their boat Concubine?  Sheesh."  Or, they read the name correctly... "Columbine?  Who would name their boat after the high school?  That's terrible!"  I always preferred the more positive response of... "Columbine?  There's got to be a story behind that name.  I wonder what it is..."

Yes, there's a good story.

As I mentioned before, Columbine is a flower - a wild flower.  It is perhaps the most delicate and poetic of wildflowers, and you can see it just about anywhere in the northern latitudes if you keep your eyes open.  It is easy to overlook since the blooms are actually quite small.  It seems to have originated in eastern Europe and Asia, and crossed the Bering land bridge into Alaska 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.  Depending on the species, you might see the iridescent red and green flash of a ruby-throated hummingbird flitting from bloom to bloom in a small bunch of red columbine, or the long spiralling proboscis of a mothhawk unfurling like an upside-down fern frond to taste the sweet nectar of a blue alpine columbine. 

This red and yellow columbine is one that I saw in the Big Creek area in the coastal hills of northern California.  It was my first sighting of a live columbine flower even though I had been living on "Columbine" for over 3 years at the time.  It reminds me of a shooting star, with its five pointy petals radiating to the sides and its long sepals shooting off the back.  It's like 2 inches of fireworks but close to the ground!

Our S/V Columbine wasn't named after this red coastal species of California, but it was named for the blue alpine columbine of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  Say, what?  What does a stout cruising sailboat have to do with a delicate wildflower in the mile-high-plus mountains of Colorado?  Well, it's a bit complicated.  The S/V Columbine is a 38' Blue Water Ingrid, hull #83... That means that it was the 83rd hull to be fabricated from fiberglass (a LOT of fiberglass) in the shape of the Viking-inspired Ingrid design near Seattle, Washington in the late 1970's.  The bare hull was then trucked to Colorado for finishing.  Yes, Colorado.  The original owner of hull #83 painstakingly designed and crafted the interior cabinetry and furnishings out of a combination of mahogany and other exotic woods to create a warm and comfortable living environment.  The result was reminiscent of the unassuming and functional elegance of the columbine wildflower which is, coincidentally, the state flower of Colorado.  I can't think of a more fitting namesake for our lovely sailboat.


If you're interested in learning more about the history of the Blue Water Ingrids, and seeing photos of some of Columbine's sister ships, the links below are a good starting point:
S/V Ingrid Princess website
S/V Good Intentions website

And, here are some links to more information on the natural history of the Columbine wildflower and also some really great pictures.
US Forest Service - Columbine Natural History
US Forest Service - Yellow Columbine Photos
http://aquariumdrinkr.livejournal.com/ (search the page for "columbine") These photos are my favorites!