Saturday 7/16/10 - Darling's Marina, Florence, OR

We arrived at an unexpected pleasure of nature...Darling's Marina which is located about 5 miles south of Florence, OR. It is a small RV park and we got a spot next to the water which is crystalline blue and very serene. It seems that this spot is protected from the summer winds of the Oregon Coast. Our campsite neighbors are natives of the area and wondered how we found this spot as it is not well known. I told him I found it on the Internet.

After setting up camp, we took off to explore the area of Florence and points northward. We stopped at a place called Seal Cave, but this proved to be a rip-off. They wanted $12 per person to ride an elevator down to a spot that had seals in a cave. We declined and drove north to see the Heceta lighthouse. It has a fresnel lens made in France in the 1901 that has 10 faces on it, each face flashing a light every 10 seconds and can be seen at sea for 23 miles. The original lighthouse keepers had to refill the kerosene for the lamp every 4 house (six gallons) and wind the clock mechanism that rotated the beam, every 6 hours. They worked 8 hour shifts to avoid falling asleep. All parts for the lighthouse were brought in my ship and a road had to be constructed to the top of the hill to bring the materials to the construction site. Two houses were built to house the lighthouse keepers and one remains as a bed and breakfast.

The construction of the lighthouse is by two layers of brick, an inner cylindrical core and a tapered external shape which leaves an air space between the layers. Originally, the inner and outer layers were whitewashed but as the lighthouse keepers were phased out, the government decided to paint the surfaces. This sealed the brick and trapped moisture inside which cause the iron beams to rust. They then sand blasted the paint off and this ruined the look of the brick.

The lens is now turned by motor and the lamp is electric and the structure, which still functional, is only a back-up to GPS navigation. The Oregon coast has about 9 lighthouses, each with a unique light signature of flashes and colors. This enables the sailor to locate his position provided he had a map of the lighthouse signatures.

After the lighthouse tour, we returned to Old Town FLorence for a seafood dinner at Mo's, which is right on the waterfront.

A great day!