Newport path of Totality

The last time an eclipse went all the way through the USA, was 100 years ago. That meant that it was an opportunity of a life time, and we couldn’t miss it. We decided that the best way to see it would be by boat, so we hopped on Seaglass and headed down to Newport, Oregon.

I went with Dad and James on the boat, while Joshua and Mom went down with the car so we had it for backup in case there was marine fog, and also to pick up Granny. It took Dad and I two days to get down, but we were able to do night watches without being too exhausted in the day, so it all worked out fine.

The port of Newport was fairly big, and was completely filled up with boats who were here for the eclipse. There was a group of Sea Lions on the other side of the ??? who could be heard barking 24/7. The marina also had a RV park (completely full as well), and had showers, a general store, and a laundry facility. The marina was super windy, and because we were on the blow on side of the dock, we were tilted side ways a lot of the time.

We were in Newport, for a few days before the eclipse, so we spent that time discovering the town. The town was full of stores, mainly gift shops and candy stores, and a few clothing shops. There was also a large fish business. There was a Aquarium and a science center, which were conveniently just a  few minutes away from our boat. We had been to them both before, but were quite rushed, so we enjoyed going through them again. The Science center had a program one morning, in which we went through the Mud Flats. The mud flats was full of life, but was completely flooded over every high tide, so the life had to adapt to live above, and under water. There were lots of plants that would take the salt from the filtered water and expel them out, so they had lots of salt on them, and tasted salty (yes a few were edible!). There were lots of sea birds on the beach beyond the mud flats, and we learned about a native shrimp that was being threatened by an introduced species.

Finally on the day that the eclipse was on, we took a look at the weather. It was unfortunately very foggy, so we started preparing to leave the marina, and hope to get out of the fog before the eclipse. Just before we were about to leave, and the eclipse was about to start, the fog cleared out. We were so ____! When the eclipse started, around 9:00, we put on our eclipse glasses and looked at the sun. You could see a small dent in the sun from the moon starting to go across it. As we kept watching the moon kept going into the sun, and the temperature started to get colder. At one point, the sun looked exactly like a crescent moon. The eclipse, was about to get total, and everyone in the marina was super excited. We waited for the last of the sun to disappear. When it did, the surrounding turned dark and cold, not like at night, but more instantaneous and weird. The surroundings paled in comparison to what we saw though. The moon was completely black, and the sun corona was completely visible around it. It was bright, but not painfully so. The total eclipse lasted for 2 minutes, but it felt like seconds. When the moon left the sun, the sun made a bright spark of light at the end of it, so it looked like a diamond ring. I was really glad we came down to see the eclipse, I will never forget it.

The moon is starting to cover the sun

Merlin is wondering what is going on

The total Eclipse!