Newport

Newport greeted us with a bang as we docked to a sunny day, an offer of crab from boater Bob before we were even finished tying up  (more on Boater Bob the Crab King and crabs later) and blue skies for the afternoon! We spent a couple of days in the Newport Marina enjoying resting, doing boat projects, meeting great people and making new friends including the crews from Palarran (mighty tuna fishers - thank you for the feast!), O'Hana, Orca and more!  Tawn of Palarran wowed us with her many iterations of tuna delicacies and we contributed some Dungeness crabs from the bounty Bob had shared with us. O’Hana and Palarran left on Wed just before Orca arrived, we hope to see them all again along the way.
 

Melissa & Jodi w/their new boards!

We also had much needed visits from old friends Melissa and Brad. Melissa joined us for our first kite session of the adventure and Brad joined the three of us later that evening . We had the last 2 crab from Bob and some rock crabs that Darren had caught as appetizers for our taco supper. The next morning Melissa took us out to breakfast (thank you!) and the three of us went for the first surf session of the trip at our old standby, Agate Beach. Melissa’s departure later that day prompted another tough “see you later” (I don’t do “goodbye”). 

Darren finally gets to use the blue board!

 

After Melissa left we went out and anchored in the bay to wait for the north wind to come back, which ended up taking another week. In between fog and rain we enjoyed some of our regular haunts of Newport such as the farmer’s market, the library and of course the candy shops of the bay front. We also enjoyed some new treats including copious amounts of giant Dungeness, a walk over the bridge, the great bus system with free passes from the marina, lavender jellyfish and sparkly baitfish!

Crab master D

Our favorite new gem is Mai’s Asian Market just east of the Route 20 and 101 intersection on the south side of Rte. 20. We have Kathryn and Koji, our new friends from Orca, to thank for this discovery. If you are in Newport be sure to stop in and tell Mai that Darren and Jodi from the sailboat say hi (full disclosure – no, we aren’t sponsored, but we really enjoyed her and Mai loves the idea of travelling by boat and she will warm right up to you).

Thanks for all the pix Melissa!

We also celebrated our wedding anniversary while in Newport. Four years of wedded bliss, bliss, bliss!