What's in a name?

Just like pushbikes do not need a licence plate to ride on the road, kayaks (unlike most vessels) are not required to be registered to float on the high seas.

As we are planning to enter PNG in a boat at a port, technically our boats need to be registered and we are officially classed as 'Captains' of the ship. This leads to a small conundrum but one that I am sure will be able to be breezed over in Daru when we make it that far.

To make things as official as possible we'll need to complete a 'captain's log' (our daily lat/long written into a $1 notebook) and our boats need to be named. Regardless of the red tape, we had always imagined that we'd be cruising the world's waters in boats bearing a bold and proud name. And so it was that on our last night in NSW, amid the madness of final preparations, we managed to cover our boats with sponsor's stickers and our shiny new names, Birubi and Trinity.

Birubi is the name of one of the local beaches in our home, Port Stephens. When I first launched my shiny new kayak all those years ago it was from Birubi Beach and I have had many pleasurable hours paddling the waters off Birubi Beach chasing humpbacks in the winter and kingfish in the summer (not that I ever caught one). The name is of Aboriginal origin (I presume from the local language of the Worimi tribe) and it means "Southern Cross".

When Paul Caffyn completed his unbelievable circumnavigation of Oz back in the early 80's he had two kayaks - one for himself and a spare that was for a paddling partner (or partners) who joined him for some sections of the trip. Caffyn's back-up boat was named "Birubi", a strong Aboriginal name with relevance for his trip.

The name "Southern Cross" also has a history of use in Australian expedition kayaking, being the name given to Eric Stiller's Klepper kayak that made it from Sydney to Darwin in the book "Keep Australia on Your Left".

Lain's kayak also boldly displays the name of an Aussie beach that has special significance both for her and for the Archipaddlo expedition, Trinity. While the word itself implies a trio this is a kayak for one and an expedition for two.

Lain spent much of her childhood playing in the sand, swimming in the water, sailing, jetskiing, wakeboarding and getting up to all sorts of mischief under the swaying palms of Trinity Beach. It may in fact be Lain's years spent, sunburnt and happy, at Trinity Beach that have fuelled Lain's fire for exploration and adventure. It was largely for this reason that we decided to begin the Archipaddlo expedition from this well-worn swathe of shifting golden sand.

Our kayaks carry names that represent for us our origins, and remind us of home. These same names also inspire us to explore the world around us, and to stand on remote beaches and stare out at the sea, at the sky and at the world around us.

Birubi. Trinity.