The first sailing for Oceans of Hope with her new crew in Newport was a great success! The newly prepared spare mainsail took us safely over the waters as the crew had their first take on the work of a sailing yacht, helping to put up the yankie sail that had been down for maintenance.

As always with sailing, we stick with our plans until we make new ones! The wind turned out to be too easterly for us to make it to Martha's Vineyard in time, keeping in mind that we want to give everyone a chance to get accustomed to sailing before we challenge the waves coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. After a couple of hours of sailing we went back to safe harbor in Newport, where we are now spending the day, waiting for the seas to calm and the wind to turn in our favor. The crew will have a chance to tour the area around Newport and check out the enormous mansions of American history before we turn our bow southwest and head for Block Island.