December 18, 2008 - Newport, RI, USA

This past week has been a whirlwind of visits with friends and family. In between meals with some of our favorite people, we've been running around to all of our favorite marine vendors. I'm sure that there are other places with such a high concentration of excellent marine services, but we happen to know this place and the people here, which makes it so delightfully easy for us to get things done.

Jeff at Rigging Only in Fairhaven, Mass. spent over an hour with Sten, designing our new running backs and coming up with a custom solution to our outhaul problem. That very night, at Salvation Cafe we met up with Paul and Sonya off of Event Horizon and their friend Amy. Paul was able to point us to an off the shelf product at North Sails that would do the same thing for a bit less dosh.

$3 Margaritas. What's not to love?

The next morning we were able to check a bunch of items off of our checklist at Newport Nautical and Armchair Sailor. The second best part of this excursion was that we didn't spend a cent. Between money in our consignment account at Newport Nautical and a gift certificate to armchair, we were able to get some necessary items without draining the bank. The best part of this outing actually occurred the next day when Chris from Newport Nautical called to tell us that we'd left our notebook with our all important parts lists and measurements at the store. In his words, "You guys were the only ones in here yesterday who could have had such an extensive worklist." We must be doing something terribly wrong.

New dinghy engine parts were easily sourced that afternoon from the guys at Tony Marine. New pads for the swim ladder came from the Shipstore at New England Boatworks. At a 50% sale at Team One Newport we were able to get Sten some new shorts (to replace those in this wardrobe that are so stained that they look more like a Jackson Pollock than an article of clothing that should be worn in public). Is it any wonder that we love this town?

The only thing better than $3 margarita night at Salvation Cafe:
cardamom rolls fresh from Suzy's oven.