7/22/2002 - 8/06/2002
Exposed skin - must not be northern California
With a vast week of Catalina experience behind us, we decided to take the plunge from sleepy Cherry Cove to the big town of Avalon. Veteran Avalon goers tried to educate us on the process of getting a mooring in Avalon. To get a mooring in Avalon, the best approach is to arrive around 9:00 am on a Sunday and get in line at the harbor entrance for a mooring. We assumed the logic centered around most people returning back to the mainland to go to work on Monday. The complexity of the algorithm for getting a mooring and staying on a mooring in Avalon turns out to be much more complex than the veterans divulged.
As "newbies" to the process, we chose to leave Cherry Cove on a Tuesday at 8:30 am with the objective of sailing, not motoring, to our destination. An 8:30 am departure meant an approximate 10:30 am arrival in Avalon. Sailing in Southern California warm water and moderate breezes is spoiling us. A marvelous 13 mile broad reach/run with 10 to 15 knot wind speed transported us from Cherry Cove to Avalon. On occasion, dolphins joined us on the journey.
The waiting room - Descanso Bay
About an half hour away from Avalon, we started to listen to the VHF channel Avalon Harbor patrol monitors. Numerous people called the harbor patrol on the VHF asking for moorings in Avalon. The harbor patrol consistency replied, "Check with the red and gray boat at the entrance to the harbor. Out." In this case, "out" was a code word for "you must be new around here". With our best attempt to look like veteran Avalon goers, we headed straight to the harbor entrance to find the red and gray boat. The kind harbor patrol guy on the red and gray boat pointed us straight to the "waiting room" of Descanso Bay. "Wait on a mooring in Descanso and if a mooring in Avalon comes available, we will let you know. Of course, if you are not on your boat when we come by, we will go to the next boat waiting."
After getting situated on our mooring in Descanso, we sat in the cockpit awaiting the call to move to Avalon. Every time the red and gray harbor patrol boat came in to view, the feeling of anxiety experienced as a child awaiting to be chosen for a team rushed back from memory. "Ooh, pick me, pick me, please pick me. I want to play for the Avalon team, not the Descanso team." After chatting with the harbor patrol to ensure our name was on the list to move in to Avalon, he informed us to hold tight until after the cruise ship leaves at 5:00 pm. Perhaps moorings tend to open up after the cruise ship leaves. Occasionally, the harbor patrol boat stopped by boats nearby to inform them of being a chosen one. The perplexing aspect of the process was boats that seemed to arrived after us were chosen to move in to Avalon. The algorithm for being chosen must utilize more variables than initially revealed. The waiting vigil continued until 6:00 pm with the back drop of Descanso Beach and the stern of the cruise ship disappearing over the horizon. By then, the harbor patrol simply ignored any attempts at eye contact or physical attempts to signal them. At least until tomorrow, we play for the Descanso team.
The shore boat ferried us in to Avalon from Descanso for dinner. Sitting in the waterfront restaurant with sand dabs and swordfish melting in our mouths, we looked out at the chosen ones on moorings in Avalon Bay. We vowed to figure out how to get Whisper in to Avalon. A visit to the harbormaster's office to inquire more about the process enlightened us on the how the list for moving in to Avalon is maintained. The list does not carry over from day to day. Every morning a new list is started which means any implied order of arrival from the day before is erased. Getting on the list tomorrow morning is the top priority. Feeling smug about understanding more of the algorithm, we returned to Whisper in Descanso via shore boat with renewed hope of making it in to Avalon tomorrow.
Lots o' dinghies
In the morning, we watched the harbor patrol boat with eagle eyes as it stopped at each boat in Descanso building the Avalon wannabe list. After adding our name to list, we continued the waiting game. Around 11:00 am, the harbor patrol boat approached Whisper with the good news. Avalon bound! After settling in to our new mooring in Avalon and receiving the mandatory visit from the harbor patrol to put dye tablets in the toilets to ensure no one dumps sewage into the harbor, we launched our dinghy, Shout, and headed to shore. The number of people and dinghies in Avalon compared to Cherry Cove initially overwhelmed the senses. At first, our approach to the crowded dinghy dock was timid and considerate as we looked for an open space to dock Shout. By the end of the stay in Avalon, we regularly achieved fully ramming speed to make space for Shout at one of the four dinghy docks. This appears to be the norm at crowded dinghy docks.
Check out the Whisper Wear hats
Our major activities in Avalon included a visit to the botanical garden/Wrigley memorial, a rousing night time game of putt putt (Duncan won), an afternoon of people/bikini watching, a long walk on the southeast coast of the island, a ritual afternoon swim off the boat in the 70 degree water and a happy hour dinghy tour of the harbor. The acquisition of "Whisper Wear" rounded out our cruising wardrobes. We purchased hats and t-shirts with Whisper embroidered on them in the Whisper font.
We noticed a flyer on a bulletin board announcing a lecture by Brian Fagan, the author of one of the main cruising guides we used for our California journey. His lecture on California indians and their dugout canoes added more insights to the knowledge we gained about the Chumash and Gabrilieno Indians while visiting museums in Santa Barbara. We learned that approximately 10,000 years ago the mainland and Channel Islands were only six miles apart. Now, the distance from the mainland to Catalina is approximately 27 miles as a result of the last Ice Age. Even further back, Catalina was down by the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.
Your probably thinking that once you make it in to Avalon, you are in for as long as you want to stay. Wrong. Every day, the harbor patrol requests you stay on the boat until 9:00 am in case you need to move to another mooring. There are several reasons for the need to move. First, the owner of the mooring may be coming to use their mooring. Second, the moorings are designated for certain size boats. If your boat is on a mooring designated for a bigger boat, you may need to move to a mooring designated for your size boat. Third, another boat may have more seniority in the harbor whereby the boats with lesser seniority get booted back to the waiting room of Descanso. The most likely days to be moved are Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to the weekend crowds.
Dinner at the Country Club
Since we did not make it in to Avalon until Wednesday, our seniority was low. We are still not certain whether the algorithm for seniority starts over every week or whether is adds up over weeks. On Friday, good news prevailed and we did not need to move. Saturday, Robin's birthday, found us back in Descanso. Robin's birthday celebration spanned several days with dinner at the Catalina Country Club and massages. Duncan experienced his first massage and he liked it. The Catalina Country Club originally served as the clubhouse for the Chicago Cubs spring training site. Wrigley loved Avalon so much, he designated it as the Cubs spring training site from 1921 to 1951.
It's a bird, it's a plane, no...
The flexibility provided by owning a plane was demonstrated to us by friends Leo and Carlotta from the Bay Area. A phone conversation on Saturday morning resulted in them arriving on Catalina around 5:00 pm Saturday afternoon. What fun. During dinner, we explained the algorithm and process for the next morning as we wanted to get Whisper back in to Avalon. Leo and Carlotta are originally from Spain. Much of the dinner discussion and laughter centered around the differences between Europeans and Americans. Thoroughly amused by the wacky "only in America" challenge of getting back in to Avalon, Leo acted as the point man with the harbor patrol on Sunday. After making certain we were on the list, we ate breakfast in the cockpit while maintaining a vigilant watch for the harbor patrol to call us back to the major league. Leo flagged down the harbor patrol to check our status. Before we finished our first pot of coffee, we headed back in to Avalon. Exploring Avalon by foot and by dinghy provided a beautiful view of both the town and the coastline.
...it's Leo and Carlotta
On Monday, we accompanied Leo and Carlotta to the airport, Airport-in-the-Sky, via the airport shuttle. The shuttle driver knew the roads a little too well. Several times during the 30 minute ride we thought we were on a bus in a third world country. You know what we mean. Typically, the bus has chickens and baskets on top. The driver swerves around the mountainous corners with reckless abandon. The smell of gasoline wafts in through the open windows. If you blink, you might miss a great view. Somehow, you end up at your destination.
At the airport, we walked out to the plane. Leo's beautiful plane, a Porsche Moony, looked fast. The top speed of the plane is around 180 mph. No wonder they made it to Catalina so quickly. We said our good byes and watched their plane rapidly head north.
What a view!
Since we made it back in to Avalon on Sunday, the prospects for remaining in Avalon for the week looked good based on the seniority algorithm. Another week of swimming and people watching preoccupied us. More visitors, Jim and Catherine, arrived on Friday. Jim crossed his fingers for us to receive the call to move to a different mooring. He was intrigued by the setup of the Catalina moorings. The moorings are bow and stern moorings to allow more boats to moor in the harbor. Unlike most other moorings, the pick up device is a convenient tall stick near the mooring buoy. The person on the bow grabs the stick and quickly puts the loop on the attached line on a cleat. Then, the line is followed back to the stern where the line is pulled to attach the stern loop to a stern cleat. The main tricks are to stop the boat quickly to prevent the line from getting tangled in the propeller and to get the stern loop on quickly to prevent blowing sideways into the boat on the next mooring. The setup is much easier than the setup at Angel Island in San Francisco bay where the bow and stern mooring is accomplished with lines each boat sets up and threads through the moorings while trying to fight the current and wind. Jim and Catherine participated in the re-mooring process three times during their visit. Perhaps they will try to influence Angel Island to change the mooring setup.
Thanks for the sunshine and beauty
Both of us are anxious to go sailing which means our time in Catalina is drawing to a close. Over three weeks in Catalina on moorings allowed lots of opportunity to run the watermaker and genset. Thankfully, the genset issues seem resolved. Shout's shear pin issues appear to be gone. We now understand why so many people in Southern California own boats. With a beautiful island like Catalina only 27 miles away, resisting the urge to visit the island by boat is futile. Perhaps some day we will return to this beautiful island.