Even though Cowabunga is gone from our grasp, her spirit still has a way of poking into, and about, our daily life. Like little messages in a bottle, little snippets and reminders pop up unexpectedly, or regularly, as Michel and I go about our everyday routines…

And then there are some mementos from Cowabunga, pure and simple, now working their way into veritable heirloom status along with the kitchen tongs. As Sean became an adept fisherman, he would most often trail a fishing line during a passage, and more often than not, a good many of the fishing lures would disappear usually munched off by a shark or the “big one that got away.”

A household in France cannot survive without a pressure cooker, and thus I learned to use this handy item when I lived there. I purchased my six-quart pressure cooker some time before we set sail from France and for our 10 years onboard, it was a workhorse. It was even an excellent safety device, cooking whole meals encapsulated and enclosed in its own secure space as it rocked on the gimbaled stove while we sailed along.

Just the other day, I had a minor catastrophe in my kitchen, and I practically shed a tear. Really. It was unbelievably silly: My beloved kitchen tongs broke.

Ah, the Lego. This ingenious toy that has thrived for at least three generations was our lifesaver for toys on Cowabunga. Once at anchor, Sean and Brendan could bring out the whole collection, building their trains, tractors, etc. all spread out on the deck, and then quickly dismantle the whole lot for storage below once under sail again. Lego was our solution to the toy problem on board.