We made our first successful foray this weekend March 2-4 into boat surface prep in order to apply the boat name and hailing port to the stern at the starboard helm.  Dave used the dinghy to remove the port side hull graphics and a damaged area of the hull striping (we were starboard to). From the dock he was able to replace damaged hull striping on the starboard side. He gave the dinghy a cursory washing and prepared the stencil outline for the dinghy lettering.  The big achievement was in finishing the hull preparation so that on a future weekend we could apply the boat lettering in time for our planned Christening celebration. The application of name and hailing port behind the starboard helm went well!

Once we knew Dave would purchase the boat, we had spent many hours thinking about what to name it . They say that if you want to get boat owners talking, ask them how they arrived at the name they gave their boat. The ancient Egyptians supposedly began the tradition of naming boats centuries ago on the Nile River, and boat owners have been racking their brains ever since for the perfect boat name. Dave said he spent more thought on that than he did when naming his children. That's understandable since children don't go around with their name emblazoned in huge letters on their rear ends. The first round started with a long list of 42 names (and that didn't count the names we were considering for two dinghy's--where we were wavering between Footloose  and Fancy Free or Nutmeg and Mango or Love Me Tender).  For the boat, we were trying to settle on a name that would reflect the fact that it was a catamaran (two hulls), had two people sailing it, and might reflect the boat's French heritage. In the second round of discussion we had narrowed the list to 22 names--we were making progress! It took us four rounds to get down to 10 names. We finally narrowed it to 3 and then took the plunge and committed to a boat lettering company the selected name, our chosen font and the size of the lettering. Yes, you have to figure all that out too! Pas de Deux was born! The dictionary meaning of this French term: A dance for two; A close relationship between two people or things, as during an activity.  The two of us would soon be dancing over the water on Pas de Deux....

We pulled the gangway from its sail locker storage and installed it on an angle to the dock, which resolved our boarding challenges during prior weekends . We continued with odds 'n ends tasks, adding a stern line, installing a starboard rod holder, fixing the range burner that seemed to have had a thermocouple issue, without having to replace it with the upgraded thermocouple that he had ordered from Force 10. We brought a blender and toaster to add to our set of galley equipment (extras from home). Donna continued to dehumidify the forward port cabin. On the decorating front-we installed a paper towel holder in the galley, Dave hung the rudder from his first sailboat, a Sailfish, in the main salon and Donna hung a towel holder in the guest head and installed decorative shelf covers in both heads. Donna trimmed and installed a shower curtain in the master head. We made up the bed in the guest port stern cabin and selected pictures to be hung. Dave fixed a sink cabinet hinge and caulked port and starboard head wall seams, sealing screw holes in the master head.   Donna had purchased some cheap temporary cockpit cushions until the originals could be re-covered and we stored away some additional life preservers brought from home (the previous owner had left us with 8 in good condition).

We're looking forward to our next lettering weekend!