Blogs from Eugene, Oregon, United States, North America - page 7

While Sophie and Hannah won't be flying down to Southern California with us, or even meeting us in Newport with their little sister, that doesn't mean that they're not going to be having fun by jetting off on their own adventures. Hannah, who graduates from High School tomorrow evening (!!!!!) is going to be treating her mom to a trip to Disneyland. She's a little bit anxious about the flight and the crowds, but very excited to see Belle and Captain Sparrow and even Mickey. Hannah is also going to be doing a couple of fun camps this summer. One, exploring the cascades and the other exploring the Oregon coast. Sophie, who is finishing up her sophmore year at South Eugene High School with a 3.97 GPA, is flying off to France for two weeks ... read more

Our RouteHarry & JoyHere's a break-down of the sail plan. We're planning a stop-over of some kind between each leg of the cruise. Some of these include "padding" for weather, so based on conditions at sea, we may or may not be able to either leave port or come into port. Leg 1 - 70 NM: Long Beach/Los Angeles Harbor to anchorage at Smuggler's Cove on Santa Cruz island. Leg 2 - 60 NM: Smuggler's Cove to Cojo anchorage, just south of Cape Concepcion. Leg 3 - 215 NM: Overnight sail from Cojo to Pillar Point, just south of the entrance to San Francisco Bay. Leg 4 - 300 NM: 3 days and two nights sailing from Pillar Point to Crescent City. Leg 5 - 185 NM: Crescent City to Newport, Oregon Leg 6 - 240 ... read more

For most of you, this entry will only be of interest if you suffer from insomnia. But there are a few of you -- weird-os and geeks -- who have asked for this information. So here it is: Computer-wise, we use MacIntosh. Period. For writing. For video and audio editing. For personal stuff. And for sailing. Up until fairly recently, there weren't any viable options for OSXers when it comes to on-board navigation, instrument integration and weather fax and satellite image downloads. For years, PC applications have dominated the marine navigation software market. And their cost is, well, PCish to the extreme. But along came MacEnc ( http://www.macenc.com/ ) and changed all that. It's a fully functional, integrated navigation program that utilizes NOAA raster and vector electronic charts. Any of you with a charting GPS ... read more

Today we mailed our final package to the boat in Los Angeles. By now we're fairly confident that our boxes of supplies will occupy more space on the boat than we will, and are seriously considering removing our legs in order to fit everything into the small area. Joy threw in her large All-Clad saute pan at the last minute (because you just never know), which pretty much pushes available boat space to a few square inches. It's fortunate that our friend, Peter, who is joining us for the first leg of the journey, is not a large guy. We've sailed with Peter a lot over the last few years in the protected waters of the Puget Sound and are pleased that he'll be sharing time with us aboard Oh Joy II. We're hoping that ... read more

I am staying with a family in Eugene. On Sunday, my wonderful host Debbie and I packed up and headed to the coast. It only took about an hour to arrive, and the little coastal towns reminded me of that part of Maine. Except when we got to the actual beaches. The towns seem more spread out than back east, so there is more beach area that is surrounded by forest or just that one main road. Debbiesaid that on most of the beaches, there is hardly any tourists even in the summer. Of course, there are those few really popular spots, but other than that... ... read more