Catalina Island Videos

The internet gods have not been smiling on me lately. I went to the Cafe yesterday to upload pics and videos but I wasn't able to get online there because they were having issues with their router. Ben was able to upload some Catalina videos from his computer, so I figured I'd start with those for now. We left Dana Point around 4:15 AM on July 25th and pretty much motored the whole way to Catalina... around 10 hours. We threw up the sails for about the last hour of the trip, when the wind finally greeted us. We were anchored in Hamilton Beach by 1:45 PM. As we arrived at Hamilton Beach, we were greeted by a playful pod of dolphins:



We spent one night in the rollers at Hamilton Beach and by morning I insisted we grab a mooring at Avalon. (This was my first experience cruising and I wanted to go home with happy thoughts about sailing and anchoring.) Perhaps the Harbor Master felt sorry for the only girl on board (Adam left his boat anchored @ Hamilton Beach and came along for the ride to Avalon) because he gave us a pretty sweet mooring, right next to the dinghy dock and close to all the action. Ben went for a quick swim under and around Mo-C and took the camera with him:




We headed back to San Diego on Thursday morning, July 28th around 8:30 AM. The usual northwest wind had switched to a southeast wind so it was a bit of a hindrance to us. The forecast predicted it would switch back to the northwest around noon but it never did. After about 20 hours of motorsailing, we arrived back on the ball at 4:20 AM on Friday the 29th. We traveled a total of 168 nautical miles in 44 hours and 26 minutes over a 10 day period. We learned a lot along the way, much of which I'll share in future posts. We also took lots of photos and as soon as I'm able to upload them, I'll post them here.

To Do

I still have a lot to blog about but I'm simmering with my thoughts about the whole trip and I'm not prepared today to write about Catalina and the ride home. We learned so much along the way and for me, personally, I feel like I've somehow conquered, or at least begun to conquer, my biggest fear... the Ocean. For now, I thought I'd share a new "To Do" list. These are things we realized would make cruising easier. So here goes:

1. Line for our sea anchor
2. New line for our traveler
3. New blocks for our traveler
4. Autopilot (we purchased one before our trip to Dana Point but Ben wasn't able to customize it to our boat so we're back to square one on this. We have an old autopilot that we may be able to repair but either way, we need a working autopilot that fits our boat).
5. Windlass (for you non-boaties, this pulls up the anchor with little to no manpower)
6. A little coffee carafe. We can make coffee while underway but I came to realize it's not very safe to be handling boiling water while moving, so I'd prefer to have some already made that we can just warm up while underway. Simple things, ya know?
7. Wire the compass so it lights up at night.
8. A shock-absorbing mat to stand on or one of those golf-club-handle-looking things that people attach to their tiller in order to steer from a seated position. I learned that I need one or the other in order to be able to fulfill my duties on watch.
9. A chip for our GPS so we can see exactly where the buoys and other important things are while sailing.
10. A working jib

I think that's about it for now. But it goes to show, it is possible to sail or cruise without all the luxuries. However, it would be nice to have some things to make life a little simpler!

9. 

Dana Point

Mo-C on the hook in Dana Point

 When we arrived in Dana Point yesterday, Adam had used up his 5 days for this month in the protected anchorage so he had to anchor outside the breakwater. We anchored out there with him and tried to catch some Zzzz's. I got up pretty early (I was feeling refreshed from the 4 hours of carbon monoxide-induced sleep I'd gotten while underway the night before) and got caught up on some work. When Ben got up, we dinghied to land and ate some giant hamburgers (sailing does funny things to you) and then returned to the boat. The ocean anchorage is like, well, let's just say it is kind of difficult to work from a laptop and a monitor while having to hold on to your seat. It's like working on a rollercoaster, I guess you could say. Since Ben and I have never been to the protected anchorage, we decided to pick up and move inside the breakwater where I could work in peace. It's amazing what a difference a breakwater makes!

Rita on the hook at Dana Point

We learned a few things along the way from Mission Bay to Dana Point. Ben found out the engine wasn't charging the batteries as it should have been, so he adjusted that today. There was absolutely no sun when we came up here, so our batteries really needed that extra boost from the engine while we were underway. Before we left, we got a Simrad TP22 Tiller Pilot to make the trip a little easier, but naturally, it needed some adjusting so we (okay, Ben) had to hand-steer the entire way. I helped out whenever he needed but I was mostly fixated on not getting ill or losing my mind, as I said before. He's currently working on adjusting the tiller pilot to fit the boat, but none of the trips we'll be making now will be as long as the one from Mission Bay to Dana Point, so if it's not working, we can suck it up and steer. There's a big learning curve out here. Not just from the ocean and the wind, but just understanding the ins and outs of being underway. Luckily we have Adam to give us tips, not only on navigating but also simpler things like what to keep in our ditch bag. It really helps to have a an experienced cruiser guiding us along the way!

We are leaving for Newport tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll post again when we arrive.