Catalina Another Guys Trip
Edgar and I went shopping on Thursday morning on the way to the boat. Mental note: Next time doesn't bring Edgar. The food bill for the weekend quickly escalated far higher than on previous trips as the list was quickly thrown out and immediate whims and desires prevailed.
Hoping for a cool dry solution to the large ice chest built in the boat we had frozen 6 one gallon jugs of water to use in the ice chest. Initially I feared there would not be enough room for the jugs and all the cool food but as it turned out that ice chest is larger than one would assume. So much so that I put all the dry goods in as well in order to lessen the free air in the space and preserve the ice longer.
Late afternoon as we prepared the boat and waited for Mark to arrive two young men with purposely ripped up dress shirts carrying a small chest approach us on the docks "We're looking for a captain to take a few scurvy Pirates to Catalina, any of you help us out?" Early on I was apprehensive about the prospects of a group of strangers hitching a ride on the boat and wasn't even sure that there was enough room but hearing more of their tale persuaded me to give them a ride.
They had been friends in Ohio at a 2 year college, after graduation they were scattered all over the country to different universities and technical colleges. This weekend they chose to meet here in Long Beach and came up with this adventure of burying a chest with some personal items in Catalina. Although it appeared they probably had the money to pay the Express to take them across and back I'm sure that hitching a ride will add to their stories in years to come.
We left about 6:00 shortly after Mark arrived and agreed to let the Pirates board the boat with us. The pirates cleaned the decks, bought some rum for the captain, "Chef" (called him that cause he just graduated culinary school) cooked in payment for their ride over. The night was beautiful with a nice steady wind of about 10 knots blowing from the usual direction all the way to the island, perfectly clear moonless skies and even a little phosphorescence.
We got into Catalina without tacking at about 1:00 am, met by the shuttle driver he led us to a mooring for the night. "The Pirates" were kind enough to pick up the cost of the mooring for the night even though they were not staying. They quickly gathered their things and jumped off. It was great having them aboard and certainly made the trip more interesting. One of them gave me his card to follow up with him but I lost it.
Friday was spent on the mooring relaxing and watching the boats come and go, we literally did nothing. Made breakfast, cleaned up, relaxed, made lunch, cleaned up, relaxed, made dinner, cleaned up, relaxed and oh yeah lest we forget, had a few beers. As the evening grew dim we listened to Channel 9 the VHF Channel for the island harbor department. They were turning all boats away by 6:00 pm but had alternate mooring for them a couple miles north.
Saturday morning we made breakfast and went to shore for a bit and went on my first Geocache up a little hill near the harbor. Frequented Cache it had a lot of peoples names in it but nothing of any interest, other than it's story. It was placed there by a guy who used that spot to propose to his wife and supposedly had a ring in it for the first person who found it. We were 100's of people later and all we found was a bunch of worthless stickers, feeling screwed, I replaced the sticker with a screw.
It rained just a bit the night before and it was still overcast and surprisingly a little cool, undeterred Mark and I decided to go snorkeling on the south side of the harbor while Edgar preferred the comfort of the boat. We found a little cove with a rock beach partially sheltered by Limestone walls. We stayed a little bit but decided to move on as the limestone was not all that stable and crows were throwing pieces of it at us, hit Mark on the head. A little way down near Fisherman's Harbor we pulled the dinghy out onto a larger beach and snorkeled up around the cliffs near there. Really neat area to snorkel and easy to get to from the Isthmus I'm surprised it wasn't more crowded.
The dinghy worked really well, it's light enough to easily pull up on shore and stable enough to climb into right out of the water. My little motor seems to be running good didn't really have any trouble with it until late Saturday night and I still don't know why because it worked Sunday just fine.
After we got back Edgar had started to prepare lunch (or rather was already eating his), Polish Sausage Sandwiches always a favorite. Clean up and Rest then I got a chance to jump aboard the 46' Ketch that was moored next to us the last couple of days. Owned and Built by Don she's a Ferro Cement Hull with Wood Bulwarks. Absolutely beautiful, I had been admiring her for days, like a beautiful women I couldn't keep my eyes off her and Don had noticed. I got the full tour, Don has had her in the water for 30 years, kept his wife through the process too which is amazing. It truly is a comfortable boat so I'm sure his wife doesn't mind spending time on it. He's 80 now but you couldn't tell, he has the zest of a man half his age.
Erik made it to the Island about 5:00 and I picked him up at the dinghy dock. Found out that Erik had sold his company this week and was going to be moving to San Francisco, he would no longer be renting the boat. We got back to the boat and Edgar and Mark took off to get cleaned up for the evening while Erik and I took off in the Kayak to check out a Tall Ship that was just coming into the harbor. "Pilgrim" is one of the tall ships out of Dana Point and they were there for their Saturday Overnight trip, mostly adults, it looked like a fun trip. "Pilgrim" however, looks tired and in need of a lot of work, makes you wonder how those programs make it.
We also found a message in a bottle which we returned to the sea on the way home as it was obvious it hadn't come far and stopped by and talked to a guy about his Trimaran. Large at 40' square it's a ""Piker"" design. Surprisingly he was saying that it's not all that fast, 7 or 8 knots for a 40' boat that's slow I'm a little shocked. I think something was lost in the translation, he also said they require being ultra light and you can't load them up with stores or people because they become dogs, this is not so surprising as they rely on getting the windward hull out of the water completely and some of the main hull out for speed. Additionally the outrigger hulls are small and not all that buoyant so you can't put too much on them.
They were Anchored off the beach there, it was a good anchorage, supposedly not as mild as where we were but it never seemed to be much worse and you have a nice shot of the beach so if you have kids they can just swim in and you can keep an eye on them easily. Definitely worth a shot.
After getting back the 4 of us loaded into the Dinghy (800+lbs with a 360lb rating) in our best clothes to check out the night life. We met a lonely guy with a big table and sat with him, turns out that he owns a 45' ketch in Rainbow Harbor where we are and just decided to come here for the weekend on his way to Alamitos where we all have to move our boats temporarily. Edgar kept the rum flowing, a little too much for me and I ended up tossing my last drink, and we were all way too happy when we went back.
As I was getting into the dinghy I washed a bit of water over the side which made the trip back a little less comfortable and just as we were getting up to the boat the motor died (still don't know why) and we had to paddle just a bit to get in as Mark decided to stand up and 'rock the boat' I was almost certain we were all going in the drink.
Sunday morning I got up early and climbed up onto the bow to watch the sun come up, unspectacular as we still had overcast and it's more like a florescent light coming on then the sun coming up. After messing around with the Hammock we borrowed from my Neighbor Adam Erik came up and we chatted a bit about great things going on before making breakfast and preparing to get home.
The trip home was tough, in that we had no wind the entire way. I've never had to motor for that long and the prop was due for a cleaning which wasn't helping our progress much. Only making about 4 to 4.5 knots the normally fast downwind trip took a lot longer in some pretty extreme heat. When it's 90+ on the water it's hot, we were all gathering under the mainsail for shelter. Still we saw several packs of Dolphins fishing and playing in the wakes of ours and other boats.
By the time we got to the San Pedro harbor entrance the wind had filled in a bit and finally we were able to shut off 'old stinky' and sail downwind in the Channel preparing the boat for a quick getaway once we landed. Took 7.5 hours to get home with no wind and a few headaches after the night before's indulgence. It was a great trip and may be the last time I get to sail with Erik, he will be missed as a renter and more as a friend, I wish him well.
I have no notes for this trip, it went well. Everything worked except the radio was getting testy towards the end of the trip and I don't know why. The dinghy towed well, engine ran well, but I might need to go to twice a month for bottom cleaning because when Dave and I painted the bottom we didn't know that we should have painted the prop which fowled doesn't perform very well. I'd also really like a tack so I know what the engine is running at.
posted by Cemseller at 8:29 AM
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