The Admiral and I went to Cat Harbor for a week in order to refocus off our dwindling assets and the political landscape. We left on the 9th with a forecast of gale warnings sometime the 10th. I checked weather radio and found the forecast had been moved up to the 9th after 2:00, but it was blowing 18 knots out of the east at 0900 which is unusual. There were hysterical warnings of fifty knots plus. Anyhow, these are Santa Ana conditions which means it blows down the mountains offshore which turns the front of Catalina into a lee shore. After some consideration of scrubbing the trip, we decided to go along the Palos Verdes peninsula before turning south to Catalina which would give us protection in case the gale decided to come early. Our mooring is in Cat Harbor, on the back side of the island which is protected from seas and some of the wind.
Anyhow, after a mostly uneventful trip over, I tied off to the mooring lines with double lines fore and aft and snugged everthing well. Good thing since it started blowing Saturday about 2:00 AM and continued right through Wednesday, altho Monday was the worst with reports of 60 and 80 knot gusts. This was the Cruiser's Weekend and Lats & Atts party. There were a lot of southbound boats in Cat Harbor; you could tell by the jerry jugs lashed to the deck, solar panels, and sometimes the Baha-HaHa burgees. No other SBO burgees flying tho.
A lot of the Isthmus boats came around to the backside as did Avalon boats. Good thing too, since there was a good sized shore break on the Isthmus side and the few boats left on the front were rolling so hard you could see their keels. Must have been a miserable ride. In our case, it was just wind, between 30 and 40 knots.
Two of our neighbors were in Avalon Sunday. One was on a mooring outside in Descanso. He said the boat was rolling so bad, he could see water one minute and sky the next out of the ports. Then it started pitching, burying the bow with the rudder all the way out of the water on a 41' Bennie. The other neighbor was inside on his 40' Santa Cruz. He said the swells were breaking over the breakwater and rolling 15' through the harbor and crashing over the sea wall onto the main shopping area. He said two boats were lost. One was two boats down from him. It was a 25'-ish center counsel fish boat with a big OB. It broke the bow cleat and swung bow to shore and then capsized, tearing off the engine and then sinking. My neighbor decided to leave to go around to Cat, but then decided to slug it out back to Long Beach, a very wet ride.
As wild as the wind was and our anxiousness about wildfires at home, the weather was otherwise spectacular: warm, clear, full moon and great scenery. It did, however, take us three full hours to clean the boat inside. Had to wash every thing exposed between the coatings of dust and ash. It was still a great eight days!
Anyhow, after a mostly uneventful trip over, I tied off to the mooring lines with double lines fore and aft and snugged everthing well. Good thing since it started blowing Saturday about 2:00 AM and continued right through Wednesday, altho Monday was the worst with reports of 60 and 80 knot gusts. This was the Cruiser's Weekend and Lats & Atts party. There were a lot of southbound boats in Cat Harbor; you could tell by the jerry jugs lashed to the deck, solar panels, and sometimes the Baha-HaHa burgees. No other SBO burgees flying tho.
A lot of the Isthmus boats came around to the backside as did Avalon boats. Good thing too, since there was a good sized shore break on the Isthmus side and the few boats left on the front were rolling so hard you could see their keels. Must have been a miserable ride. In our case, it was just wind, between 30 and 40 knots.
Two of our neighbors were in Avalon Sunday. One was on a mooring outside in Descanso. He said the boat was rolling so bad, he could see water one minute and sky the next out of the ports. Then it started pitching, burying the bow with the rudder all the way out of the water on a 41' Bennie. The other neighbor was inside on his 40' Santa Cruz. He said the swells were breaking over the breakwater and rolling 15' through the harbor and crashing over the sea wall onto the main shopping area. He said two boats were lost. One was two boats down from him. It was a 25'-ish center counsel fish boat with a big OB. It broke the bow cleat and swung bow to shore and then capsized, tearing off the engine and then sinking. My neighbor decided to leave to go around to Cat, but then decided to slug it out back to Long Beach, a very wet ride.
As wild as the wind was and our anxiousness about wildfires at home, the weather was otherwise spectacular: warm, clear, full moon and great scenery. It did, however, take us three full hours to clean the boat inside. Had to wash every thing exposed between the coatings of dust and ash. It was still a great eight days!
