Posts In The “Other” Category

Spitfire the Wonder Cat

Spitfire the Wonder Cat

This morning Spitfire the Wonder Cat died on route to the vet. He’s been working through kidney problems for five years and heart problems for eight months but neither slowed him down much. He lived for 20 years, 5 months, 28 days and his personality never faltered. He always had lots to say, loved following…

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Seattle Yacht Club Presentation

Seattle Yacht Club Presentation

Yesterday we gave a presentation at the Seattle Yacht Club on our trip around the world. We had a great evening, chatting with old friends and new. It’s a wonderful organization. In the talk, we described some of the techniques we used to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at…

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Trawlerfest Anacortes

Trawlerfest Anacortes

Yesterday we gave a seminar on our trip around the world at Trawlerfest in Anacortes. We describe some of the techniques we use to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at the dock, ranging from watch-keeping and fuel management to living on a 60Hz boat in 50Hz countries. And we…

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re:MARS

re:MARS

The re:MARS conference focuses on Machine learning, Automation, Robotics and Space. Similar to the invitation-only MARS conference that it evolved from, the larger and public re:MARS conference brings together industry leaders from across these four domains. It also includes a Tech Showcase where companies can demonstrate their products and ideas. James found the MARS conference…

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Cruising Club of America

Cruising Club of America

We are honored and excited to be members of the Cruising Club of America (CCA). The CCA is a diverse community of roughly 1,300 accomplished ocean sailors who have a passion for the less traveled and more challenging routes and for widely sharing their knowledge, experiences, and best practices. The organization, celebrating its centennial this…

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Team Australia SailGP

Team Australia SailGP

We’re big fans of foiling sail racers and, if you like foiling sail craft, you’ll love the SailGP series, often referred to as Formula 1 on the water. These 50ft sail boats are capable of a mind-boggling 50 kts (58 mph, 93 kph) with a crew of 5 and they are absolutely amazing to watch….

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Match4Jeremy

Match4Jeremy

We went cruising before we were sufficiently financially comfortable to retire because we know that unexpected medical surprises can stop things quickly and we knew we could always go back to work when we’re older. We’d seen close family and friends miss out on goals and dreams due to unexpected medical issues. Jeremy Chow, the…

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Subscription Preference Control

Subscription Preference Control

MVDirona.com subscribers will have noticed our richer new subscription emails, giving pictures and details for each event. What is less obvious is that you can now select how often you want to receive updates and what you want to be notified about. The bottom of the subscription mail shows the current settings: To add yourself…

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Exciting 2017 Sydney Hobart Race

Exciting 2017 Sydney Hobart Race

It’s 8:21pm on the 27th and what is going to be an exciting finish is near. Wild Oats XI is only 1,200 feet back of the leading and favored boat Comanche. They are just entering the Derwent River for the run to the finish line. As night approaches, the wind in the River Derwent is…

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Panbo Visit

Panbo Visit

During our stay in Belfast, Maine, Ben Ellison dropped drove up from nearby Camden to visit. Ben is the editor and owner of the Panbo marine electronics blog. If you haven’t spent time on the Panbo blog and you care about marine electronics, you really should. Ben covers most gear available, takes the time to dig…

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Goodbye GoDaddy

Goodbye GoDaddy

Back in 2005, I maintained a blog accessible only inside of Microsoft where I worked at the time. Having the blog internal to the company allowed confidential topics to be discussed openly, but over time, I found much of what I was writing about might be useful externally. And I knew, if I wanted to…

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For sale: Westminster Teak Martinique extension table, excellent condition *** SOLD ***

For sale: Westminster Teak Martinique extension table, excellent condition *** SOLD ***

The table has sold. Westminster Teak Martinique extension table, dimensions 74.5/64.5/54.5L x 51W x 29H. Solid teak in excellent condition. The Martinique Veranda Extension Teak Wood Table with flexed leg design seats six to eight people comfortably. Twin leaf butterfly extensions allow you to extend both leaves simultaneously, or one at a time depending on…

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Where are we?

Where are we?

On our Prince William Sound trip this summer, we started keeping a live, map-based travel log. We posted updates several times a day during the offshore run there and back, giving our location, sea conditions etc. And we made daily updates while cruising throughout Prince William Sound. Several people commented that the updates were useful,…

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Sold: KVH TracVision M5 sat TV

Sold: KVH TracVision M5 sat TV

Sold KVH TracVision M5 satellite TV system in excellent condition, used for only one year. We are installing a TracPhone V7 and want a similar-sized TracVision dome, so are upgrading to an M7 and need to sell the M5. Contact James at jrh@mvdirona.com for details. Click pictures below for larger images.

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Brief Blogging Hiatus

Brief Blogging Hiatus

We’ll be taking a brief hiatus from blogging during the first three weeks of August. Tomorrow we leave for China. You might wonder why we would go to China during the hottest time of the year. For example, our first stop, Xiamen, is expected to hit 95F today, which is fairly typical weather for this…

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A New US Citizen

A New US Citizen

This month James finally became a US citizen, after a nearly three-year delay. We’d both applied in late 2005 and were interviewed in early 2006. I was approved in a couple of months and became a citizen in the summer of 2006. James, however, went into application limbo pending an FBI name check, but eventually…

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Blogging Hiatus Until Mid-August

Blogging Hiatus Until Mid-August

We’re voyaging north to further explore the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy Area and the outer islands north of Seaforth Channel, so we won’t be blogging again until we’re back and caught up in the mid-August time frame.  More then.   Jennifer & James Hamilton Jennifer@mvdirona.com / jrh@mvdirona.com  

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Blog Data Corruption

Blog Data Corruption

The only thing worse than no backups is restoring bad backups. A database guy should get these things right.  But, I didn’t, and earlier today I made some major site-wide changes and, as a side effect, this blog was restored to December 4th, 2007.  I’m working on recovering the content and will come up with…

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