Have you made it down to the Farmers Market yet? A nice salad made from those fresh vegetables and topped off with some grilled salmon made a great dinner for me a few days ago.

The Kingston Cove Yacht Club celebrated its opening day of boating May 11 with a parade of decorated boats cruising down the shoreline from the Port of Kingston to Jefferson Head and back. It was a beautiful day for the event and many of the boats were sporting bouquets of flowers from the Kingston Farmers Market.

We have reservations in the port for dozens of yacht clubs to come visit Kingston throughout the summer. There is a lot to show off here and it is great to see so many people come to visit. I have made a promise to myself that I will get out on one of those paddle boards this summer. Have you done it yet?

Yes, the port did purchase two vacant waterfront lots on West Kingston Road. There is no immediate plan to develop the land for anything other than open green space. For the time being, the lots will be cleaned up and non-native vegetation will be removed. We will be installing an attractive fence which will identify the boundaries where neighboring privately-owned property is. We are not developing this site into an access to the tidelands. The public access to the beaches remains at Arness Park on South Kingston Road. We all must also remember that the tidelands in front of the homes on the cove are privately owned. Please be courteous to the owners of the tidelands.

Another great beach access is what we call North Beach, also known as Saltair Beach, which is accessed by the walkway near the off ramp of the Washington state ferry dock. When we have extremely low tides, this is a wonderful place for kids to explore our shoreline environment. There are many tidal pools, interesting rocks and lots of critters.

The long-awaited Northwest summer will soon be upon us and we will be enjoying the Saturday evening concerts down at the port during July and August. Our local Rotarians will once again operate a beer garden in the port’s tent in the northeast corner of the park. The 4th of July committee also has a great lineup of music, as does the Farmers Market. I can tell you that we will have our biggest fireworks display ever this year.

The arrival of July will also bring us to our dredging project. Scooping all the migrating muck out of the marina will be an interesting project to watch. There may be some limited interruption on the use of the boat launch ramp during the project, but we will keep it to a minimum. And we will keep you posted.

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There are lots of horse people in North Kitsap, so this month’s Nautical Term is a word shared by equestrians and sailors alike. The word is Martingale: A strap at the horse’s chest keeping a horse from throwing back its head was known as a martingale.

On a sailing vessel, the martingale is a spar that extends downward from the bowsprit or the jib boom. The lower portion of the martingale can also be called a “dolphin striker,” (referring to pilings, rather than marine mammals).

The martingale helps offset the upward pull of the head stays on the bowsprit or boom.

Oops! It looks like I just arrived at the edge of the page again. So once again, thank you for taking a few minutes to read this stuff. I hope you found something interesting.

— Pete DeBoer is a Port of Kingston commissioner. Contact him at pete@petedeboer.com.