Blog of S/V Salty Beach

End of the season that is. We had to cancel the Mitchell Regatta due to a classic nor'easter forecast for Sunday and Monday. I seized the opportunity to haul the boat out at the Monahan's Dock ramp where we launched it, again with the help of Dan and Paul. Things got a little dicey when the trailer wheels went into the sand past the end of the ramp with it being low-tide, then the truck (rented U-Haul pickup) couldn't get traction on the wet part of the ramp. Fortunately, we were able to wave down a nice guy with a Tacoma and I had a heavy-duty 20-foot tow strap we used to connect to his hitch and a front tow-point on the U-Haul so we were able to pull up with the help of his truck. I carry the tow strap and some wheel chocks for just such trailer scenarios, so the we could chock the trailer wheels, lower the tongue jack, disconnect the trailer from the truck, then attach the tow strap to the trailer and truck hitch so the truck can pull the trailer from much further up the...

Our friend Paul had family visiting from out-of-state so we took them out sailing, but were quickly hit by a passing rain shower not long after leaving the mooring. Paul and the guests were able to take shelter in the cabin, while my friend Dan and I sailed. Luckily, it didn't last long and we were later treated to a beautiful sunset!

The Newport Jazz Festival is always a great time to have a boat. We anchored close again and enjoyed the music.

We ventured across the harbor to the Newport Folk Festival again, getting a nice, close spot to anchor where we could hear great! A relaxing day of good music as usual.

I finally had time to address the compression post support platform, so I brought the boat into a slip for the night for easy access to shore power. I got to work cutting out the damaged area. The aft edge of the platform held the mast compression post, but surprisingly, there was no support directly below the post and the 3/4" marine plywood had failed after 50+ years. I had been meaning to add a hatch to the platform since it was the last remaining area that was closed off with no access to the hull underneath, but I hadn't considered structural issues. I decided to simply use pressure-treated deck boards spanning the width of the platform, with a short section of pressure-treated 4x4 as a support post directly underneath the existing mast compression post. Luckily, the inside of the hull was built up with many layers of fiberglass to a level surface, since externally this section of hull is "v" shaped. This could have been done to facilitate a post like the one I ...

Along with my daughter and a friend of hers, we left Newport on Saturday around 0800 heading for Block Island, trying to get there ahead of (or not long after) the racers in the Mitchell Regatta, for which I am the organizer. It was a decent traditional southwesterly, with wind speeds around 15-20 knots and the seas were good size, up to 6 feet or so and oddly confused. We had a full main and a 100% jib which worked well. As we got past Beavertail, we decided to tack in by the Narragansett shore hoping for a little reprieve from the seas. As we neared Point Judith, my daughter yelled up from the v-berth "did you hear that bang?". I hadn't but looked around and noticed the leeward shrouds were unusually slack. As I was pondering the cause, my daughter yelled again "the post is moving!" I realized she was talking about the mast compression post, so I immediately depowered and doused both sails, started the outboard, and turned downwind back towards Newport. After ...

With the help of friends Dan and Paul, I got the boat launched at the Monahan's Dock  ramp. With light conditions, we then motor-sailed to Newport where we had left a car for the return trip home. It went well! I neglected to take any photos, but here's one of the boat ready to go from a few days prior.

 We made it to the Newport Folk Festival again this year with a slightly smaller crowd. Despite arriving mid-afternoon, we managed to get an incredible anchoring location and could hear much better than last year! Everyone seemed to have a blast! We did have a slight scare when my step-daughters both drifted away from the boat with the outgoing tide current and couldn't swim fast enough against it. I initially swam out the them, but quickly realized I couldn't assist both back at once and they didn't want to separate so I swam back to the boat, quickly attached a spare halyard line swam back towards them only to find the line was still too short to reach. I returned to the boat intending to pull up anchor and go get them with the boat, but as I climbed back aboard, the Tow Boat US boat picked up the girls and brought them back. We thanked them profusely! The girls were a little shaken up, but unhurt. They both were wearing PFDs so it was just a matter of getting to them, bu...

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!

We had originally planned on a little evening swim and harbor cruise with friends, but it was already getting late and was a little cool so only a couple of the crowd went swimming and we decided to skip the sail and just enjoy food and drinks on the mooring. 😊

We got in a little sunset harbor cruise with the kids. The cloud formations were wild and made the evening light quite interesting!

Once again I failed to take pictures, but we loaded up the boat with seven of us and motor-sailed over to the Newport Folk Festival. Most of our friends were excited to hear Lana Del Ray, but we enjoyed the whole thing really. Nice weather, and great company! Nothing like enjoying live music while swimming off the boat!

Didn't take any pictures, but I rented a UHaul pickup and launched the boat at Fort Adams in Newport again with the help of my cousin and his son. Thankfully, it went well and the boat is now safely on the mooring!

An unexpected colorectal cancer diagnosis in April derailed most of my plans, but I did manage to do a few small projects. Thankfully, my cancer is early stage (stage 2a) and should hopefully be very treatable. I'm almost done with chemo and then will have radiation a few weeks later. Possible winter surgery. All this thanks to my first routine colonoscopy, grateful they changed the guidelines from 50 to 45 or I would have likely been much worse off! First off, I ordered new name graphics for the sides to replace the transom name. I agonized over font choice before stumbling on the perfect one (my wife agreed!): the SpongeBob font. I ordered from SignSpecialist.com, who charges very reasonable prices for great product and even allows user-uploaded fonts, which was key because no place I could find had the SpongeBob font in their offering. I had used them a couple times before also. I honestly love the look. I noticed my mast had a slight curve to it and decided to try to straighten...

My neighbor who helped with launching was out of town, and my dad and brother were busy so I was alone for haulout. I wasn't too worried; I made a plan: Tow the empty trailer over with my Corolla to get the U-Haul pickup I had reserved Switch the trailer over to the truck Drive the truck and trailer to the Fort Adams boat ramp Ride my folding bike from Fort Adams to Newport Yacht Club Take the launch out to Salty Beach Motor the boat to the boat ramp at Fort Adams Load the boat on the trailer Drop the rig and prep for transport Tow the boat home Park the trailer Return the pickup Drive home in my car Things went pretty well according to plan, except when dropping the rig I may have bent the mast slightly when I stumbled and dropped it the last little bit with the base still bolted through the tabernacle. The wind blew it slightly off to starboard so it missed the stern pulpit and levered against the cabin top. It may have been slightly bent previously, but I can see a slight bend w...