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

When it comes to sailing...cruising, racing, or anything in between...there are so many "resources" one can use that it's actually frustrating to find the stuff that's actually useful. The focus photo of this blog is actually all the sailing magazines I've been collecting on my bedstand since the 2010 Annapolis Sailboat Show. In classic cruiser style, we love a great deal!

"Free" fender floating in Lake Michigan? We'll go pick it up during our sailing lesson as a "man overboard drill" and convince our instructor to let us keep it.

Free reusable shopping bag or 4 free back issues at the boat show? We'll get a subscription!

Free gear bag and 3 free issues for autorenewal? Here's my card!

It's like an addiction. In any case, we (I) have now managed to subscribe to Cruising World, Blue Water Sailing, Sail, Ocean Voyager...with a handful of random Good Old Boat, Latts & Atts, and Sailing World thrown in for good measure. Oh, and don't forget Latitude 38! I can read the entire thing online for free!

And then there's the blogs...if you quit your job (or have one that travels with you), then I probably do or want to read about it. Heck, I started one even though Passage isn't going anywhere for at least a year! (Yeah, the five year plan has been "scrapped." We're leaving as soon as Passage feels ready, or before December 15, 2015, whichever happens first.)

David has also really gotten into the forums...sailboatowners.com, pearsonowners.com, cruisersforum.com...they all have nuggets of wisdom to share with the not-yet-salted [not counting the crossing(s) between Jacksonville and the Abacos 4-5 years ago]. I even joined an email forum, Low Cost Voyaging, for a while...

Overall, no matter how much "help" we get-solicited or not-it's important to remember that everyone does things differently. We don't have to have varnish to love our exterior wood trim; grey teak can be classic! Maybe we don’t need a watermaker…our boat does have a whopping 150 gallons worth of freshwater tanks. I am an information-aholic and feel like a sponge because I want to take in as much as I can. Even if it's bad advice I keep hoping it'll help us make an educated decision.

What I’ve found, though, is the advice is never bad…it’s good for the situation it’s intended. Cruising World, for example, helps the liveaboard travellers but at heart seems geared toward bareboat tourists. I struggled for a while to find information geared toward our cheaper, DIY-style but have found quality reading in the under-40 bloggers as well as a “new” friend of ours who has actually circumnavigated with his brother. It’s been a rough ride finding interesting, relevant reading material. Hopefully this blog fills that niche for others in a similar situation sometime.

To that end, if there’s anything you want to know about our experiences, plans, hopes, dreams, etc…let us know! And while you’re at it, check out our Facebook page…more photos and some videos, too!