Before the Boat: How Tortuga Got Her Name

Before Valhalla de Tortuga was our sailboat, Tortuga was our camper.

Our family’s adventure began in 2019, when we set out from Tucson, Arizona, toward Eureka in Northern California to see the redwoods. We wanted to explore the United States, see as much as we could, meet new people, and share our experiences along the way.

We just weren’t going to get anywhere particularly fast.

Other campers and travelers would tell us, “Oh, that only takes a day or two.”

Meanwhile, we were barely covering 300 miles a day. A drive someone else could finish in a day and a half somehow became a three-day journey for us. There was scenery to enjoy, people to meet, and family time to spend together.

Somewhere along the way, one of the kids pointed out that we traveled like a turtle.

A tortuga, if you will.

Definitely not conejos.

Who deserves credit for the name is now a family debate. One of the kids started the comment, another expanded on it, and the whole thing took on a life of its own. What began as a joke became the camper’s name.

Tortuga stuck.

When we reached the redwoods, they were amazing—bigger in real life than they appeared in pictures. We had traveled all that way to see them, and even after looking at photographs, their size still surprised us. That was exactly the kind of experience we had wanted when we left Tucson: getting out there and seeing things for ourselves.

Our travels would take us along the California coast, into Oregon, across to Yellowstone, down through Utah, and onward through Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. We visited 15 national parks and made memories across the country, taking our time as we went.

Along the way, we swam in the Pacific, enjoyed the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and swam in the Atlantic. From towering redwoods to days in the water, we were experiencing the country together—one stop, one swim, and one slow stretch of road at a time.

Those years on the road became the beginning of a much bigger family story. Before the boat, before the refit, and before we imagined what Valhalla de Tortuga could become, there was a camper, a trip to the redwoods, and a joke from the kids.

We carried that name with us into the next chapter.

The turtle was going to sea.