Blog of S/V Salty Beach

 Hadn't been to the Newport Jazz Festival in years, it was good to get back to it! It was my wife's first time, and her friend hadn't been in years either. The kids and I swam, and we all enjoyed a beautiful day listening to great music! It took a couple tries to get our little Danforth anchor set, and I needed quite a bit more scope than the surrounding boats so we stayed out a bit further than I would have liked. Next year, I plan to pickup a more modern spade-style anchor which should hopefully help a bit. At the end of the day we were treated to a beautiful sunset!

 Took the kids and pup for a swim and harbor sail. Scoped out the Jazz Festival, but the northwesterly wind direction made for tough listening by boat. Snapped a pic of the tour schooner Adirondack passing the moored schooner Columbia. Then got a good look at another tour schooner, Madeleine, as she sailed past us.

 This time we got off the mooring and did a little harbor sail with our new puppy, as well as my daughter's friend. A little overcast, but otherwise lovely evening. I failed to take any pictures underway.

 We just adopted a golden-doodle puppy and wanted to take her out for a dinner harbor cruise, but when we arrived at the yacht club we discovered the launch stopped running earlier than we thought so we opted to just have dinner on the mooring. Still, the pup seemed to not mind the boat, or her shark-fin PFD.

 It was another beautiful day for a little sail, so Devin and I went. We went barely out of the harbor before Devin got nervous from much powerboat wake and we turned around. On the way back to the mooring we noted the unusually tall sailing vessel pictured below.

 His first sail on Salty Beach that is. It was a decently nice day, a bit cloudy with temps in the 70s (F). The breeze was forecast as 10-15 knots, gusting to 25 from the northwest, but we found it more like 10-12. We went out for a short sail just across the bay to the house on the rock (aka Clingstone). Devin gets nervous whenever the boat heels much so he objected to my suggestion we put up the jib and we went under main alone. Leaving the mooring under sail was calm and uneventful, but sailing back to it was a little nerve-wracking. The main issue was that northwest winds are fairly unusual here and it caused the neighboring boat to be just 10 feet or so upwind of our mooring ball, not allowing much room for excess momentum. Twice I failed to carry enough momentum and the boat stalled just out of reach of the mooring pennant. The third time I made it. Quickly looping the pennant over the bow cleat, I ran back to lower the main. It was about halfway down when I realized the penn...

It was a beautiful, mostly sunny day with temps in the 70s (F) and a 5-10 knot breeze from the southwest. I had chaperoned a field trip for my stepdaughter, to see 11th Hour Racing at Fort Adams in Newport. We got to see their new IMOCA 60, Malama , up close, as well as an impressive holographic display along with a movie. There were several activities for the kids, all centered around taking care of the ocean. The weather was just perfect to be on the water. Later that afternoon, I talked with Tiffany and we decided to go for the first sail of the season, a low-key harbor cruise to Fort Adams for the kids to swim. I warned everyone it would take a bit longer than typical to depart since I had to finish adjusting and taping up the rigging. About 45 minutes after arriving on the boat by launch, we raised the main and sailed off the mooring. The breeze was dying at this point, closer to 5 knots, so going was slow. I started the little outboard, but the kids were already complaining of...