Down the Coast and Catalina October 2009

We have had great cruising since we left Alameda on Oct. 15th. Bruce, Alexus and I left for Half Moon Bay and had great weather. We left there and went to Monterey where Loe' joined the trip. Off we went the next day to San Simeon and the next on to Port San Luis. While rounding Pt Sur, we had some following seas that pushed the stern around, but nothing dangerous. From Port San Luis, we awoke at 4:30am to make our way around Point Conception before the afternoon winds kicked up. And as planned, by leaving in the dark we had a great cruise around the Point.

We had just rounded Point Conception when the fishing reel made that "ZZZZZZZ" sound meaning fish on. Yep, the little pink feathered lure had got another small skip jack tuna. Otherwise, after a 12 hour cruise we arrived in Santa Barbara....tired and hungry. So some of us ate the freshly-caught tuna as sashimi and others had theirs seared for dinner that night.We stayed in Santa Barbara for two days as we had traveled every day since leaving Alameda so a brief rest was well-deserved.

From Santa Barbara we went to Oxnard and the Channel Island harbor. We stayed at the Pacific Corinthian Yacht club and enjoyed their restaurant, pool and hot tub. We left the next day for Marina Del Rey Yacht Club where we spent four days and time with Nikki and Erika.

After fours day in Marina Del Rey we headed for Los Angeles harbor and fueled up at Jankovich and Sons fuel dock, then on to the Long Beach Yacht Club in Alamitos Bay. There we did have to wait out a gale for three days, as the winds were forecast to kick up to 35 to 40 knots. So we stayed there for three days before heading to Catalina.

Erika joined us at the Long Beach YC and cruised with us over to Catalina. On the way over Loe' had the lines in the water and sure enough, the little pink lure did its thing again. We caught another small skip jack who was on the lunch menu when we got to Catalina. We stayed in Catalina from Thursday until Sunday. Fortunately, since Loe' and Erika had never been to Catalina before, we had great weather, fishing and the only concern was the volume five people could create for the holding tank. Waste disposal is a little tougher in no-discharge harbors. Even with the Coast Guard approved Purasan we still had to watch the volume. We made it through the four days by following the old water conservation trick of "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down. (yes I know, too much information) On Sunday afternoon, Erika took the high-speed ferry back to Marina Del Rey...an hour cruise as compared to our NuMoon 3.5 hour ride.