Blog of S/V Salty Beach

Some friends from Vermont came to visit for a few days so we naturally had to get them out for a sunset harbor cruise. Fortunately, conditions did not disappoint and we were treated to a beautiful sunset!  

My aunt came to visit from Missouri so I took her and my cousin's family out for a little harbor sail. Unfortunately, there was virtually no breeze so we motored. They all wanted to check out the sailing yacht  M5 , the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world, so we did a loop around for a few photos, then returned to the inner harbor for the usual harbor tour loop. The fog came in thick and fast so we had to cut that short, but everyone said they really enjoyed seeing M5 . The first photo is my own, the rest were taken by my aunt.

We got off to a late start to our season since I was able to go on Floating Point for the Mitchell Race on Memorial Day weekend. This allowed me a bit more time to prep and I didn't get Salty Beach launched until late June. Our first family sail wasn't until July 3. Tiffany, her girls, both our dogs, and myself sailed to Potter Cove in Jamestown for a swim. It was Coco the labradoodle's first swim! She seemed to like it pretty well. Muppet, our golden-doodle, was less pleased and just seemed to desperately want out of the water. My guess is the water was a bit too chilly for her. It was a beautiful day and a much quicker trip than previous, thanks in part to better breeze, but also our new (used) outboard: a 5 HP Mercury Sailpower.

The forecast was not the greatest so I was single-handed for the weekend, as organizer for (and participant in) the Mitchell Race . I ran jacklines and stayed tethered with my harness. It was cloudy and overcast on the sail out, with occasional light showers. I opted to race in class 4, for cruising boats, just to give some competition to the one other boat that was new to the race and chose that class. The breeze started out 10-15 knots from the east, but died down below 10 in the afternoon. I had a great sail out and even saw a six-foot thresher shark jump clear out of the water maybe 100 feet away from me as I approached Block Island! Overnight, the breeze came in from the west about 20-30 knots making for rough conditions at the dock. I was disappointed to learn the floating dock wasn't in when I arrived, and I didn't have any fender boards with me, but managed to make-do turning my fenders sideways. Still, not a great night sleep as I got up a couple times to adjust the fe...

With Hurricane Lee passing by, we were expected to get some strong north winds, so I added a second mooring pennant just to be safe. It turned out to not be that bad, but better safe than sorry.

With warm weather back, we went out to the boat with friends just to swim and socialize. I took the opportunity to clean the bottom, which is much more fun with company! It was our friend's adorable baby daughter's first time on a boat!