Catalina Island
Following our week in Santa Barbara it was time to move on. The next stop on our southbound migration was Catalina Island. Again, this is another place we visited in 2017, but this time we wanted to try for the more secluded side of the island by sailing around the west side and tucking into Catalina Harbor which is one of the “Two Harbors” that create the distinct isthmus on the west end of the island. On the north side is Isthmus Cove which is a bustling tourist attraction with ferry service, restaurant and grocery while a short walk across the isthmus lies Catalina Harbor with much better wind and wave protection and a much quieter atmosphere. This would be a good test for our cellular antenna system on Sonrisa as any service we would get would have to come across the isthmus. If we couldn’t get reception I might have to walk to the other side of the isthmus to work or relocate Sonrisa to the other side.
After an overnight stop in Oxnard, we got underway at dawn under Catalina Island. Once again it was sunny and windless which meant more motoring. It was a beautiful day nonetheless.
As we approached Catalina some dolphins paid us a short visit, darting in front of Sonrisa for a few minutes before disappearing again.
As soon as we passed the west end of Catalina, our cell coverage immediately dropped to zero as the rocky cliffs blocked all signal from the mainland.
“No cell coverage here, hopefully there’s enough of a gap at the isthmus to get a signal from this side.” I said as Kristin studied her phone.
“What if you can’t get online for work?”
“I’ll hike over to the other side in the morning and we can move Sonrisa over to the other side after work.” I reasoned.
As the barren dramatic rock coastline loomed over us I could see that our heading was taking us directly to the entrance to Catalina Harbor, but the sheer rock walls effectively hid the relatively small entrance.
“Do you see it?” I teased Kristin.
“See what?”
“Cat Harbor.”
Kristin scanned the rock wall of the shoreline and looked at me like I was crazy. “I don’t see anything. Are you sure there’s a harbor here?” she protested.
“It’s right there.” I said, pointing off the port bow. “Follow the crest of that hill and you’ll see where it falls to the shoreline and watch that point and you can see that the hill behind it appears to be moving away from it as we approach.”
Without the usual markings of civilization the gaps in the shoreline blend into the hillsides, requiring a different set of eyes to recognize what you are looking for.
Once inside Catalina Harbor we found that there were many more mooring balls installed since we visited last time in 2017. Before it seemed like there was plenty of room to anchor and avoid the mooring field, but now it seems the entire harbor has been filled with mooring balls that are just as expensive as a night in the marina. There was a cluster of boats anchored in the south west corner of the harbor, somewhat exposed to the outside wind and swell. We circled around trying to determine if there was a good spot left and whether or not the other boats had deployed stern anchors (some had, others had not). With the wind finally piping up (figures) and our antenna showing cellular reception we decided to pay to play it safe and call to pay for a mooring ball. On the plus side we slept well that week and had a much shorter dingy ride to shore than if we had anchored.
This would be our first full week unplugged from the dock in quite a while and the first full week of working from the boat in a remote location. It was a bit of a test of our battery and electronic systems. While we had to pay a bit more attention to our power consumption versus our solar capacity than I would have preferred, we were able to keep all of our system running and charging through the week.
When we arrived I managed to rip the ancient staysail bag as I was putting the sails away. That gave me the kick I needed to break out the Sailrite sewing machine and finally sew up a replacement for that bag. I had planned on doing that at some point and brought the supplies I needed. Plus it would be nice for the staysail bag to finally match the new canvas. For several days after a full day working online and after sunset, I looked forward to breaking out the Sailrite and making a bit more progress on my project.
I was also curious to see if running the inverter with the 110v sewing machine would be too much draw on the batteries. I had replaced the incandescent light bulb in the sewing machine with a bright LED which made a big difference. With the sewing machine idle and the light on and the inverter on it seemed to draw around 40 watts and with the sewing machine running it jumped up to about 100 watts. Since sewing happens in bursts the overall consumption for a couple of hours of a sewing project is totally manageable on the system. No worse than running the water pump while taking a long shower.
During the day Kristin and I worked out a ‘commute’ plan where I’d ferry her ashore with the dinghy, she’d explore the island with her camera, then pick her up either at lunch time or at the end of the day. Some days we’d walk into ‘town’ to get lunch at the restaurant or use the bathrooms. During this week we got accustomed to commuting to shore by dinghy and started working out the kinks in our dinghy procedures.
Needless to say, this was the most scenic place to hole up for a week so far and even though we ended up paying the mooring fee for the entire week, I have no complaints. I think we were both a bit sad to leave Catalina Island, but on the other hand we were anxious to get to San Diego where we would make our final preparations before departing for Mexico.
