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

So, this is David again (I thought I would pick up the blog while Brodi is traveling for work). This has been another interesting weekend on Passage. Since I was off on Friday I decided to take Holly up on her offer of her recently returned friend Ryan's sailing expertise. I called him up about noon and picked him up to head to the boat.
He conveyed some amazing stories to me on our way to the boat. To make a long story short, Ryan just returned from a job moving a sailboat from Grenada to Tahiti via the Panama Canal (I believe it was 30 days and 4,000 mile ocean passage). When he was younger, he and his brother circumnavigated together and he has crewed on many boats over the years. I really had no idea what he would show me when Holly suggested him to me. We hadn't seen each other since a New Year's party 2 years ago and had never talked sailing. He was shocked that I had been a sailor prior to our meeting the first time and the subject never had come up (even when we all hung out in Honolulu, Hawaii when Brodi, Dave and Holly ran the Aids Marathon in 2008).
Okay, so we get out to the mooring and immediately I take him below deck to look at the bilge and the engine. He explained that his brother is the diesel guy, but he could point out a few things to me. I was overwhelmed by his knowledge, but did pick up a few important things:
• Clean out the engine room whenever possible.
• Keep zip ties and paper/plastic to a minimum in there because it can clog the bilge pump.
• Where to add oil.
• Where to add radiator fluid (since it was water cooled - I didn't know it had radiator fluid).
• That our gauges are not functioning.
• That the alternator belt needs to be replaced (shavings from the belt are visibly noticeable).
• That the battery bank is in a bad spot making accessing the alternator next to impossible.
• That the diesel class and manual that Brodi found for me are a must.
Where having Ryan on board really shined was in his rigging knowledge. While we were sitting in the cockpit chatting about the alternator he was fiddling with the PVC covers for the stanchion bases. He noticed the old crumbling silicone and how many needed to be taken off and reattached. He showed me what to look for when examining my rigging and we found one backstay on the mizzen (jigger) mast that will need to be replaced along with a lifeline that was missing a safety ring and was close to losing it's clevis pin.
After a crash course in the rigging that we could see from the deck, he offered to get into my boatswain's chair and let me hoist him the 46 feet to the top of the main mast. Even with a two speed winch this was a heck of a task (and he only weighs a buck 60). I can't imagine doing this task in heavier seas or under sail (thus I think he convinced me to get more mast steps installed before going offshore). While aloft he was an excellent teacher (calling down to me and explaining this and that about what he saw and taking photos to cover with me later). He then had me lower him so he could check out the spreaders (the part of the mast that make it look like a giant cross). Again he was tremendously informative about what he noticed and even took a photo or two of me and Lucky from his vantage point. When I got him down he switched spots with me and hauled me up to the spreaders so that I could see first hand what he noticed about working wear on one of the stanchions. Wow, the view was amazing from up there, but I get why he said that a fall from 20 feet or 40 on a boat is not something you will likely walk away from and have a strong respect for my equipment when aloft now.
At this point almost 4 hours had gone by (and it only felt like 1 to me), but Ryan and I jumped in the lake for a cool down swim. Having an idea, I climbed back up to grab masks and tossed one down to Ryan before I joined him in the water again. I then asked him if he would give me a run-through about what I am seeing under and on the surface of the hull. He and I swam all around and under the boat looking at the prop, shaft, and various through holes. He did his best to explain them all to me ending with the dept gauge plate and speed gauge sensor. Then we were both very tired from swimming and came up to relax and have a beer while we talked and waited for Brodi to show up.
Then after a bit of social time Ryan had to go, but he left me with so much to think about that my mind was swimming - so much so that instead of going out sailing with Brodi as planned that all I wanted to do was talk to her about all that I had learned. Before leaving, Brodi and I decided to empty the dingy of water from all the crazy rain Chicago has been having and try to fix the tarp again. Since we didn't know when we would return to the boat again with the busy weekend we were looking at having, we propped the dingy up at a 45 degree angle on the davits (tarp securely in place).
All-in-all I had a short, but though engaging day on board with Ryan and the only thing that could have made it better would have been to take Passage out with him and see what else I could/would learn under way. But that would have to wait for another time/day.