TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2007 – CI/Two Harbors to CI/Cat Harbor
Getting up early, we went to shore first thing to get the fax sent off to Joan at Romero’s for our immigration paperwork. We also stopped by the Harbor Patrol office and asked about a mooring in Cat Harbor, which he gladly gave us.
We returned to the boat and prepared to depart at 0900. It was very calm and a lovely morning, but I was nervous about the stupid mooring, or should I say unmooring situation. You know….the wrap-up thing looming. I had read about the dreaded prop wrap-up in the book, and Val had told me that they had caught the sandline on their staby fin once, so to beware of that. With some trepidation, but wanting to get it over with, we put on our headsets and went about the process of unleashing ourselves.
WOW! What a difference being able to communicate makes!! It all went very smoothly, with no shouting or running around like an idiot. Okay Val and Stan…..you guys were right…..these things make all the difference in the world and we are now sold on them! Thanks, guys!!!
This was a gorgeous day for rounding West End and seeing the other side of the island. We were surprised at how little sealife we saw after seeing so much in the northern Channel Islands, but even on this side of Catalina there were a few boats and fishermen, too. I guess there’s just a lot of pressure on this island? But the scenery was very beautiful. Rugged and steep-to, with few good anchorages, and on this sunny morning it was quite lovely.
Coming around West End, the swells got pretty large, but then smoothed out again after we made the turn. We arrived to few boats in Cat Harbor at 1130, confirmed our mooring assignment on the VHF, and picked up the lines with no issues. I think I love these headsets so much I may get a spare set!!
We spent the rest of the day very peacefully aboard Mystic Moon, putzing around and getting some of the mundane stuff done. A quiet dinner on board and a movie rounded out a perfect day.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007 – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2007 – CI/Cat Harbor
We spent these days just working, relaxing, and playing in Cat Harbor. Catalina Harbor is one of the most protected anchorages on Catalina Island, and is a true harbor. We sat very comfortably here, with very little motion on board. The anchorage has a whole different feel, too; it doesn’t have the frantic pace of Two Harbors/Isthmus Cove, as most of the boats here are either cruisers or liveaboards. It is alive with diving pelicans instead of driving dinghys, and noisy with gulls instead of the neighboring boat’s rhumba playing! It was very quiet and peaceful – exactly what we needed and wanted at this stage.
Work-wise, we got caught up on paperwork, etc. and got done all the domestic chores that come along with cruising, such as cleaning the boat, laundry, sheets and so on, as well as John worked on several projects and we continued to cross things off our long list. For once, we made a dent instead of crossing off and adding on 2 for 1. Woo-hoo! We struggled with the generator issue, but finally came to the conclusion that the breaker switch itself was bad and have ordered a new one from Northern Lights to be delivered to Dana Point for us. In the meantime, John wired a fuse around the switch so we could continue to use the gen without too much angst. He also had to change the impeller and clean out the heat exchanger as the impeller got totally chewed up from the last round of kelp it inhaled and choked on. Which then led to having to add coolant – twice – but finally, by the end of the week, we were up and running with a dependable gen. He also cleaned the filters on the watermaker and it seems to be working fine, as that funky noise has quit and we are making good water at a good rate.
I spent time getting the logs finished up and posted, plus have started reading my books on Mexico to get some sense of the culture and what to expect.
For fun and relaxation, while I was reading, John was fishing. He had a couple of good bites, and we had heard that people were catching halibut in this spot where we were moored, so the challenge was on! Boy, did he have some great strikes, to the point that the rod was bent in half and he couldn’t reel the thing in. Then, it would take off running, and the line would whir off the reel and John would barely be able to hang on to the pole. John went to the laz and got his Big Boy, the famous halibut fishing rod and reel from Alaska. This was getting serious! Did I say for relaxation? Yes, well, I guess everyone has their own definition, but there was considerable swearing coming from the cockpit, so I looked out to see a dangling line from the rod – the fish had broken the line, taking all the rigging with it. This happened twice, in a matter of an hour. Every time the line would whir, I’d go out to help pull in the fish. We caught several good size mackerel, a skate, a dogfish, and even a leopard shark, but the halibut eluded us. Again, John laid out the line and putzed in the cockpit, cleaning and oiling the fish holders, while he was at it. Almost finished with the one on the port side, he sat his Big Boy in the cockpit to tighten the bolt on the holder, and wouldn’t you know it, the fish decided to strike at that moment. I heard an “oh no” (or something to that effect) a thunk and a splash, and yep, the fish took the pole, rigging, rod, reel and all, right over the caprail and into the drink. It was a very sad day! Losing that pole and reel was extremely painful and has once again, increased the price per pound of our fish substantially! And I’m starting to believe that fishing is more like golf than yoga…..
The time flew by, and before we knew it the weekend was upon us and Buccaneer’s Day came to Two Harbors. Buccaneer’s Day is a tradition of some years where a bunch of old people dress up as pirates and generally make fools of themselves J. Actually, it is one of the largest events of the year, and the boats start arriving on Thursday for the party on Saturday. If you’re not on a mooring in Isthmus Cove by Friday, midday, it’s almost impossible to get one. Even Cat Harbor began filling up Thursday afternoon.
Thursday was a nice day, and as I say quite a few boats came during the afternoon and evening. Friday started out okay, but by mid morning had turned downright blustery – the winds were really howling. We were sitting well in Cat Harbor, but wondered how the boats over at Isthmus were doing. After finishing up some chores, we decided we’d walk over for lunch to check things out.
The anchorage was packed, and as we came over the hill, we could see the masts rolling back and forth. The bar and café were full of people, but after waiting for a few minutes, we managed to get a table in the sun, overlooking the harbor through the palm trees. The sight was incredible! Boats were packed in, rocking to and fro from the big swells and wind. It looked extremely uncomfortable and even somewhat dangerous.
Settling in with a Buffalo Milk (yummy!), we watched the action. People would come and go, many already in costume, some sitting with us at our table, everyone talking about the weather and conditions. One guy said he and his whole crew were ashore because it was unbearable aboard their boat. Another guy with a Hatteras said the wave action had torn half of his swimstep off. He stayed for several drinks! Yet another group of young people were trying to get a ride to their campsite after dumping all their gear (and them) during their beach landing. Latitude 38’s catamaran Profligate was at anchor outside the mooring field, and it appeared to be bucking pretty good on its anchor. It was quite something out in the anchorage, although we were very comfortable there at the bar. Perhaps a little too comfortable as we ended up staying all afternoon. We really enjoyed talking to the various folks we met, and were never so glad as to be over in Cat Harbor! We had a very fun afternoon with lots of interesting people and jocularity and finally headed back to our anchorage around sunset.
Buccaneer’s Day was Saturday, and it was much calmer. The winds had died and it was quite pleasant. We spent the morning on yet more chores and went to the island for a late lunch. Things were pretty calm, although there was some extreme silliness in some cases. Some of the costumes were really good, though, and it was clear we should have gone to a little more trouble with ours! Nonetheless, we had a good time and really enjoyed watching the action. As the evening wore on, the crowd grew, and the music got louder. We heard there was some serious debauchery going on down on the beach, but didn’t go down there. The best fun was watching people attempting to get back into their dinghies towards the end of the night – the dinghies were 6 and 7 deep, and everyone had walk/crawl across the dinghies to get to theirs. There were a couple of, um, casualties during the process!
Next day, we finished up our week with a late brunch and a lazy day on board. We had thought that we might go over to Avalon, but decided to wait until Monday and really enjoyed the day reading and relaxing. Most of the boats that had come in for the weekend left, and the anchorage returned to its pre-party, calm state.