An Adoption:

Regal Jug is our 23 foot sailboat. It has been in the family since 1974. For many years we had an annual vacation somewhere in the San Juan Islands of Washington, or the Gulf Islands of Canada. The last couple years we have not done any major trips in Regal Jug.
This year Regal Jug was adopted by our son, Glen’s family. Two weeks ago they met us in Oregon and picked up the boat. They spent last weekend cleaning and updating the maintenance on the boat. This weekend we arrived in Gilroy and we formalized the adoption by going to a local lake and launching the boat and having an inaugural sail. Read More »

CODELOCK:

As promised in my last blog, we started the grand adventure on Tuesday, July 13th. Sometimes these things just have a plan of their own. Join us on an alternate grand adventure. Read More »

Le Grande Aventure:

We have launched Regal Jug for the summer season this last weekend. Neil and Renee with Granddaughter Georgia joined us for an overnight outing. We got in a couple hours of hot sailing both Saturday and Sunday. Here are some things that we learned… Read More »

Sailing Fever

We have been in the great Pacific Northwest for over a week now and all I can say is; ‘Enough already with the rain.’ We are keeping busy enough with diaper finishing tasks for Renee’s business, but we are getting way behind on our bicycle riding. Meanwhile I have been copying photos from the 1970’s into the computer and these show many of our early experiences with sailing. The rest of this blog will give an in depth discussion of my many years of sailing fever Read More »

The Smoking Gun

Often after a sailing trip we find something to fix on the boat. This time it was a pesky leak. It got the carpet wet and each day we had to mop a cup or more of water from off the cabin sole. Of course in a larger boat there would be real bilges and a bilge pump. Our little pocket cruiser requires many things to serve double duty. Thus the hull of the boat is our cabin sole and any leaks immediately get the carpet wet. We eventually tossed the whole soggy mess out and kept a sponge handy. Most disconcerting was that some days the leak would get things wet and some days it didn’t bother. We would all get our hopes up and say, ‘Oh yes it must have been that big wake we had to plow through yesterday.’ Then we would have a quiet day and the leak would dump a cup of salt water on the cabin sole and quietly snicker at us.

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Trip Report

At the end of seven days and six nights aboard the Regal Jug, a 23 foot “Pocket Cruiser,” we were still speaking and still friends. Dave and Adrian each took one of the pipe berths and Judy and I had the Vee berth in the bow. Each night was the routine of shuffling the daytime equipment out of the way and laying out the cushions and sleeping bags for night. Several of the nights we were in marinas so we could get showers and use the on-shore restrooms. That does make it a little easier.

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San Juan Islands

After an almost unbearable hot spell in Hillsboro we have taken our 23 foot sailboat, Regal Jug, to the San Juan Island Archipelago in Washington State. We were immediately rewarded with complete relief from the oppressing heat; perhaps even a bit too much of a good thing. It has been cold and drizzly both days that we have been here

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Sailing

Today we took some friends sailing on the Columbia River. In the early morning our Pastor, Rev. Marilyn Allen joined us at the boat in the early morning to beat the predicted 100 degree heat. We had lovely winds and the temperature was delightful at about 65 degrees. We motored out into the center of the channel and popped out the sails. We first sailed up wind and down river about three miles. Read More »

Wind Power:

How would you like to travel 140 miles on a half cup of gasoline and a big friendly dose of wind? We have just finished up a trip with several of our friends using a centuries old mode of transportation, sail power. We gathered up our flotilla at the city docks in front of the Columbia County court house in St. Helens, Oregon. The wind was right on the nose at 10 to 12 knots. (That’s miles to a sailor; however, you get a 12 percent bonus over land miles)

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Lazy Sunday

Summer is trickling away and it is so pleasant. Last week we dug the Regal Jug, our 23 foot sail boat out of storage and commissioned it for the summer. We launched it and arranged for moorage on the Columbia River here in St. Helens Oregon. Read More »