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| 'Solstice anchored near Luangahu Island in Tonga' |
Some people ask why we named our boat Solstice. As you probably know, the solstices are the two days of the year corresponding to the first day of summer and the first day of winter. These are the longest and shortest days of the year, respectively. I liked the name for its connections with the sun and also for its symbolic allusion to highs and lows, turning points, natural cycles, and the balance and symmetry in nature.
I thought of it as a sort of celestial Yin Yang. It turns out that this connection is much closer than I had originally realized. The Chinese words Yin and Yang literally mean moon and sun, and the Yin Yang symbol comes from plots of a pole's shadow through the seasons of the year. The dots in the Yin Yang represent the sun at the summer and winter solstices!
The word 'solstice' comes from the Latin 'solstitium' which means "the point at which the sun stands still" referring to the sun's arrival at the northern or southernmost limits of its annual travels. This is at twenty three and a half degrees from the equator, and the lines circling the globe at these latitudes are called the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. The word tropic comes from the Greek tropikos which means "of or pertaining to a turn or change," once again referring to the turn of the sun when it reaches that latitude.
The choice of Cancer and Capricorn to name the tropics is no accident either. These are the astrological signs* where the sun is at the summer and winter solstices, respectively. Furthermore, the astrological signs of Cancer and Capricorn begin on. you guessed it, the summer and winter solstices.
So another way to think of the solstices is as the boundaries of the tropics. I can't think of a better name for a tropical cruising boat!
Jim Hancock
Solstice, Freya 39
Alameda
*At one time the sun was in the constellations of Cancer and Capricorn during the solstices, but due to the earth wobbling on its axis (a phenomenon known as precession) this is no longer
the case.