Day 23, September 10th, Brookings to Eureka

We departed at first light for Eureka. It was a long, but uneventful day. We were blessed to have calm seas and I was delighted to find the fuel leak was completely solved. We were settling into the journey and this was to become the norm in going from one town or anchorage to another. We spent our time making sure we were on track, estimating our arrival time and insuring we would enter the channel before sunset. We managed our speed to keep at least 7 knots and at times we would see close to 8.5 knots as we got a little push from behind. We arrived at Eureka and entered its long channel to find an end tie at the Woodley Island Marina. We were famished and Patrick and Susan were expecting guests, so Marian and I went up to the restaurant to eat by ourselves. We each had a great dinner, returning to the boat to watch an episode of Dead Like Me, then off to sleep.
Oh, a word about the boat and the entertainment systems. Before leaving Seattle I invested in upgrading the entertainment systems on the boat. The previous owner had equipped the boat with a 15” LCD TV capable of High Def and a DVD player. I thought that since we were going to the East Coast and planned to be there in the Fall, the days would be short and the nights long. Also, there would be the Fall television shows such as Survivor and The Office, which we both enjoy. So I installed a KVH satellite TV antenna. This is a gyro stabilized TV antenna that delivers Direct TV service to the boat. It works at the dock or underway, as long as it can “see” a satellite. It won’t work in Mexico, but that’s ok, because I really just wanted it for the Fall and the East Coast. I also decided we needed a bigger viewing screen than the 15” TV, so I agonized over a LCD TV or Plasma. Well, after months and months and dozens of trips to Frys with Jim Lewis I finally took a tip from Eric Grabb on Kosmos. Eric is cruising in the South Pacific and had purchased a projector for use in his guest stateroom. He explained why he thought this was the best solution and I had to agree with him. A projector and screen are much simpler to install then an LCD or Plasma TV. They are smaller, lighter and easier to repair, they can be moved to a different location or boat and in some respects can provide a better picture. The only question was if it would be bright enough or not. So, prior to leaving Seattle I purchased and installed a Panasonic projector and screen. It hangs from the ceiling and shines 10 feet across the saloon. It gives us an outstanding 55” picture at 1080i or 720p. We then replaced the old DVD with an OPPO up scaling DVD player that is fantastic. One thing that made this obvious was when my son-in-law, Asher, gave us a binder of videos to take with us. He had encoded dozens of TV shows on DVD’s using the DIVX codex. Using DIVX enables you to put 16 hours of good quality video on a single DVD. So we have a great library of Survivor, Lost, Dead Like Me and several other shows and series. I did have to discuss the ethics of copying movies with him, and we are doing extensive research in this area. In summary, we have a wonderful entertainment system and we watch a movie when ever we need a mental check out.