Blog of S/V Salty Beach

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...

Payne's Dock, Block Island  As one of the organizers of the Mitchell Regattas I was looking forward to taking Salty Beach to Block Island with the race. I didn't have the boat ready in time for Memorial Day and simply took the ferry out with my bicycle and a trailer filled with trophies to run the awards, but I was really looking forward to sailing the new boat this time. We had pretty ideal conditions for a quick trip, at least initially. The wind was forecast to be and started out NW, but after Point Judith things got light and shifty. Still, we had a pretty great sail and finished around 14:30 after starting at 9:00. We had just three of us aboard: my youngest son, the dog, and myself. My wife had to work and none of the other kids wanted to go. The weather was considerably cooler than typical, starting off in the upper 40s F in the early-morning of Saturday, but quickly warming to about the mid 50s. My son was unusually nervous when the boat heeled, perhaps due to some l...