I spent a great deal of summertime in my youth at Catalina Island and I was anxious to get back there and see what had come of it. We left Oxnard early and headed south to Catalina. It was starting to feel like a homecoming. We arrived at Cat Harbor before sunset but I was surprised to see the entire harbor was full of mooring balls. I call the harbor master and I was informed that a night stay on a mooring ball was $63! I am happy when a dock with power is less than $1/foot (45 bucks) but a mooring ball in the San Juan Islands is usually $15. We decided to take a side off the beaten path and anchor. I guess we are in Los Angeles.
We had time to launch the dinghy and walk the Isthmus.
There was a NatGeo cruise ship in so people were hiking and walking about. It was off-season so things were quiet. Much of what I remembered was the same but the area was more developed.
We went back as it started to get cold and very misty. We and had a nice dinner on-board and got to bed early.
The next morning it was an absolutely beautiful day. We decided to go around to the mainland side of the island. There were beautiful coves there.
We ended up in Cherry Cove, a favorite place of my Father when we were young. It had not changed much. A boy scout camp and lots of mooring balls in the cove.
The water was a nice 64 degrees and we spent the day snorkeling and sitting on the blow up island I had been carrying in the lazarette for the last two years waiting for the perfect warm weather.
Yup -- pretty epic. We did this for two days straight. We sent pictures to Richard and goaded him into hopping on Flow State and joining us there. It is really nice to have a boating community!
Technical Data:
Time: 8 h 21 m ( 06:17 to 14:39 ) Distance: 61.72 nm
Fuel: 23.26 Gallons Fuel Rate: 2.78 GPH Fuel Economy: 2.65 NM/G
Avg Speed: 7.64 kn Max Speed: 9.10 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3145.65 Hours Runtime End: 3154.05 Hours Fuel: 23.26 Gallons Fuel Rate: 2.78 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 6.97 GPH Avg RPM: 1258.46 Max RPM: 1632.25 Avg Oil Pressure: 52.26 Low Oil Pressure: 31.91 Avg Temperature: 190.59 Max Temperature: 194.00
And around to the mainland side of the island
Time: 2 h 45 m ( 09:21 to 12:06 ) Distance: 15.73 nm
Fuel: 4.56 Gallons Fuel Rate: 1.65 GPH Fuel Economy: 3.45 NM/G
Avg Speed: 6.19 kn Max Speed: 7.97 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3154.05 Hours Runtime End: 3156.75 Hours Fuel: 4.56 Gallons Fuel Rate: 1.65 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 6.10 GPH Avg RPM: 1006.13 Max RPM: 1389.75 Avg Oil Pressure: 48.37 Low Oil Pressure: 1.16 Avg Temperature: 185.55 Max Temperature: 192.20
