We made it to Catalina and nothing broke along the way this time! We even sailed for several hours on our trip which we didn’t think would happen.
The trip between the islands involves transiting through a US Navy practice area. The area is huge. The Navy announces over the VHF radio the coordinates of the section of the practice area that they will use each day. The practice areas are “no transit” areas because they are “live fire” areas. It makes sense for boats to stay clear except that boats like ours only go 5-6 kts. If we were to find ourselves in a “live fire no transit” area it would take us several hours to get clear of it. Unfortunately, we haven’t found any way of finding out where the Navy will be practicing except via the radio announcements each day. For the trip to Catalina, we would be up and underway several hours before the Navy started their announcements. This meant that we could easily find ourselves in the middle of a “live fire” area which is not our idea of fun.
In addition to the general announcements, the Navy sends boats and helicopters into the “live fire” area(s) to make sure they are clear of boats. We often heard them calling various boats on the radio and telling them to change course so they are not in danger.
If they don’t get a response from a boat, the Navy patrol boat or helicopter will get close to the boat in order to get the skipper’s attention. Several times we heard the Navy saying things like “the white fishing boat at”–insert latitude and longitude–“this is the US Navy helicopter hovering above you.” They would then tell the boat that they were in a “live fire” area and that they needed to alter their course.
Thankfully, this did not happen to us. The day before we sailed to Catalina our planned route travelled directly through a “live fire” zone but on the day we sailed, the “live fire” zone was a long way from our course. I heard a helicopter at one point in the afternoon but it was not coming for us–thankfully.
We stopped in at Isthmus Cove for a couple of nights. It seemed busy after spending time on the northern Channel Islands but the man that assigned us a mooring assured us that it was very quiet. This weekend marked the end of their summer season. Later, we spoke to another member of the resort staff. She said that most staff had already left for the season. She would be leaving in the next few days.
We enjoyed Isthmus Cove. It felt a bit like being at a ski resort back home in that the village appeared to be run by one resort company. The store, restaurant, moorings etc are all owned or managed by one company. We didn’t mind. We like ski resorts!
We wandered through the village, walked over to Catalina Harbour on the west side of the island and also, walked north along the west coast to enjoy the views.
After a couple of nights we sailed south to the main town of Avalon which is where we are now. Winds were light but we didn’t have far to go so we kept the sails up. We had just enough wind to keep them filled. It was good practice for us. We used our code-0 which is proving itself very useful in the light winds we’ve had lately.
We’ll be here a few days. It’s very touristy but fun.
Cormacks On Cambria 