The Harbor Column:

Ahoy!

Perfect summer weather in Southern California.

However, we will have a small-craft advisory today and through the weekend for both the inner and outer waters, including Newport Harbor.

Westerly winds will be kicking up in the afternoons, and boaters can expect gusts between 20 and 30 knots.

The seas will be up to five feet with two- to four-foot wind waves. When the wind increases in force, then the intervals between the swells deceases and the faces of the swells become more vertical or steeper, as skippers refer to the face of a swell.

This combination makes a very wet and bumpy ride in most boats, and I have terminated voyages in only four-foot swells with the wind blowing more than 25 knots because we were literally falling off the tops of the very steep swell faces.

On one voyage, the galley’s granite counter top cracked in half from the boat shuttering after falling off the top of a swell and into the trough. So, be careful boating this weekend, and watch the weather closely.

In lieu of boating Saturday, then, you can visit the Wooden Boat Festival at the American Legion Post at 15th Street and Balboa Boulevard.

The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, the Wooden Hull Yacht Club and the American Legion teamed together to organize this great family event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and the cost is only $5.

Tip of the week is that starting Aug. 15, you will be able to hear my radio from Coast to Coast on CRN Digital Talk Radio.

Just minutes from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the CRN Broadcast Center launched “Radio on TV� in 1983, it states on its website.

Additionally, the show will be available to stations on the HDTV digital satellite network, and listeners can still hear us worldwide on the Internet.

We will have the affiliate list by state posted on our website soon.

Safe voyages.

MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating columnist. Send marine-related thoughts and story suggestions to [email protected] or go to www.boathousetv.com .