S/V Passage - Refitting a Classic (& Building Our Skills) Before Cutting the Docklines

With both of us working full time jobs it’s been tough to have so little time to start working on all our projects we’re so excited about, but the holiday weekend has been a great start to try checking things off our list. My dad was in town visiting for the weekend and spent Friday afternoon with David at the boat taking berth and mast measurements for new cushions and sails. When they got down to Passage, all the lights were on and the radio was going because we accidentally left the A/C breaker switched to on, so the solar panel had a week to fully charge. Oops! But it was good to realize there isn’t a short in the radio wiring that caused it to stop working each of the previous times we tried to listen to it for more than three minutes at a time.

David and my dad picked me up from work and we drove to Ikea where we found scrub brushes for cleaning the interior mahogany, non-skid tape for the companionway stairs, a temporary cushion for the nav station, fabric for new curtains, memory foam cushions for all the berths AND a king memory foam mattress for the v-berth. In a little over two hours, we got so much done it more than made up for all the time we’ve been “wasting” at work over the last five days.

We had our final sailing lesson this morning, with great conditions! We even got to practice our first “man overboard” drill when I found a fender floating just outside the harbor entrance, and managed to snag it on the second attempt. In the afternoon, we headed down to Passage to trace the berths so we can custom cut the foam and to start cleaning the main cabin. We wanted to also recheck the mast measurements-one can’t be too careful before ordering new sails-but it started raining as soon as we got in the car and didn’t stop until we got home a little after 6:00pm. Even with the rain, though, it was a very productive afternoon!

Originally, the plan was to cut the v-berth foam and start working on the curtains but we were just too exhausted from a couple of crazy days to do more than enjoy some quality family time. If the rain keeps up tomorrow as forecast, I can still work on the curtains and/or use my dad’s woodworking expertise to shop for varnish and cleaning supplies for Passage’s mahogany.