Sep 25

Debbie Kramer from Our yacht club (Shoreline Yacht Club) staged a cruise to Catalina Two Harbors as the “Last Cruise of the Season to Catalina” that departed Long Beach September 19th and returned on the 21st.  Led by our Commodore, Warren Wolfe, several boats took part.  

This was our first cruise since having the bow thruster, FLIR, Floscans and Glendinning remote engine control unit installed at Basin Marine in Newport Beach so in addition to having some fun, this was a shakedown cruise to test all of the added equipment. On the outbound leg, we spent most of the time playing with and monitoring the new equipment and did not record detailed underway data.  We did however record the data on the return trip:

 Catalina Two Harbors to Long Beach Shoreline Marina
Departure Time: 06:50  9/21/2008
Heading from Ship Rock: 029 degrees 
to Angel’s Gate 
Average Speed:  16 Kts
Visibility: 12 miles
Sky conditions: Cloudy
Wind: 10 knots from the Northwest
Wave Height: 2-3 Feet
Swells: 4-6 Feet from the Northwest
Arrival at Angel’s Gate: 08:15
Fuel Burn (GPH): Port: 13.8 gal    Starboard: 14.9
The crossing to Catalina was pretty rough with both wind and swells coming out of the Northwest.  Our original speed was 17 knots but 3 miles past Angel’s  Gate, we cut back to a comfortable 10 knots to handle the swells.  We were met at the Two Harbors Fairway by the harbor master and taken to the C-7 mooring.  Admiral Glo pulled up the pennant and placed the loop from buoy line on the port side bow cleat.  We walked the line back to the stern but the combination of wind and current made it impossible to reach the loop for the stern cleat so we tied off on the light line.  The harbor master told us to wait a couple of hours and try again after the wind shifted.  We waited a while and sure enough, we pulled up the line and placed the loop on the port side stern cleat without any problem which immediately reduced the amount of swing.
The conditions in the harbor continued to be windy and choppy for the rest of Friday and Friday night.  Saturday, the conditions calmed down and it was a beautiful sunny day with high clouds.  Rather than drop the dingy since we had not used it at all, we took the shore boat in and  had breakfast at the Harbor Reef Saloon and then walked over to Cat Harbor and took some more pics.  
We walked back to Two Harbors and hung out on the dock to watch the Keystone Cops version of people docking their dingys  and later, made our donation for stuff we didn’t need at the General Store.  We then started searching for boats in the harbor that were flying the SYC burgee and took some pics.  We met an amazing gentleman, call sign “Trawlercat” from the SoCAl Watercraft Club who made the trip on his monster PWC # 95, (250 HP) at a very high rate of speed, definitely not for the weak of heart.  
We continued to take about 80 more digital pics and then hopped the shore boat for the ride back to the Makai for lunch.  The Makai has a nice electric grill in the cockpit as part of the “Country Kitchen”  (Grill, Fridge and Ice maker). We cooked up a bunch of burgers for lunch and sat back to watch the harbor activity.  Several boaters stopped by to ask questions about the Makai, how she was optioned, etc. so we acted as tour guides for part of the afternoon.  Tony Duni, the owner of Heritage Yacht sales (Mainship dealer who sold us the Makai), his wife Ann and their cute dog passed by a couple of times  in their dingy on their way to shore.
To us, even though there are a bunch of things to participate in, Catalina Two Harbors is a great get away location for just relaxing and doing nothing. Thankfully, it does not have the city atmosphere that Avalon has. Being very, very lazy, we skipped the SYC get together at the Banning House and stayed on board for the rest of the day again, doing nothing.  The Avalon Lions Club held their  Microbrew Fest on the beach but we decided to miss that also.  Later on, we threw some great steaks on the grill and enjoyed a nice quiet dinner. We ran the generator up until about 9Pm, watched some movies and then crawled into the rocking bed for the night.

Saturday morning, we were up early to find that some of the boats had already departed prior to 7AM so we grabbed a quick cup of coffee, some cold cereal and got underway.  The mooring lines dropped without any problem and using the bow thruster, we managed to spin in place and back out and head for the fairway.  We went north of Ship Rock to stay away from the divers and the reef near Bird rock then set a course of 029 degrees for Angel’s gate.  Once on course, we flipped on the autopilot and sat back to monitor the gauges as the Makai headed for home.  

We made it back to Shoreline without any problems.  The ride was smooth and we surfed the swells coming from our port stern all the way back.  On arrival at our slip, FF-45, we found a large sail boat from Newport Beach tied up.  We had given our slip to SYC for the week end so that they could use it for reciprocals from other clubs.  We went back out and drifted for an hour during which time we had several other club members pass us on their way into their slips.  We managed to get some more nice pics of their boats underway.  We continued to drift until we saw the sail boat leave and then finally tied up at our slip. Docking with the bow thruster made the task much easier. The next time we dock at our slip, we will use the Glendinning remote control unit and control the boat from the cockpit.   After we had all of the lines in order and fenders in place, we cleaned the interior, sprayed off the salt, put on the covers and went  home.  

All in all, a very relaxing week end.We met a nice group of people, enjoyed the hospitality of the islanders and  all systems worked without  any problems so we can’t wait to do it again.