We spent Sunday on the boat tightening the squeaky alternator belt and getting better acquainted with her systems. The second leg of our trip began early morning on Monday, June 13th, 2016. Our alarm beeped us awake at 3:45am and our plan was to be under way at 4am. The journey is 82 nautical miles and takes between 12-14 hours.
Surprisingly the whole crew was up and ready to go at 4am and once again we were navigating the mooring field in the dark. The setup was the same; Jesper & Sean at the bow, Brad at the helm, and I was the translator between the 2 positions. This time we had much better luck and managed to get out without too many close calls. After coming around parallel to the island, we set the autopilot and relaxed while we cruised along at a steady 5-6 knot pace.
While the others were awake, I took full advantage of sneaking down for a nap on our port side settee. The settee is spacious as is, but pulls out a few more inches for additional comfort. A few hours later we were right along side Avalon, the main attraction in Catalina. At this point the engine was holding up great, no squeaky belts or signs of any other trouble. That is all we could ask for.
Brad was gracious enough to cook breakfast for the crew and we all sat in the cockpit enjoying every last morsel. After stuffing our faces, the crew alternated between resting, reading and being on watch. The water was calm and the wind was absent so we had no choice but to motor along.
It was around noon when things started to get really exciting. We spotted what seemed like hundreds of dolphins jumping out of the water. We were completely spoiled by a few dolphins that swam up to our bow and said hello. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life! We could actually hear them and they were SOOOO close! This same scenario repeated several times throughout the day and each time was as exciting as the first! Nature delighted our senses even further with a couple of whale spouts and tails, what a treat!
It wasn’t until we were about an hour or so off of Point Loma that the wind picked up. It was on our beam and we took full advantage. We pulled out all of the sails and practically squealed with excitement as we shut the motor off. The wind was around 15 knots and boy did our boat like it! She dug right in and gave us quite the ride! As we rounded the point and came in to the harbor we were making 8-9 knots (the incoming tide obviously helped us out). I have to admit, it was at this point that I realized that I should start some heavy-duty weight lifting. The boys handled all of the sails while I helmed or hung on for dear life in the cockpit. There is an enormous amount of pressure on each sail and that will definitely take some getting used to.
Now it was back to reality. We furled the sails and began motoring to our slip. Did I mention that this slip was brand new for us, and we hadn’t seen it in person yet? Luckily Brad had a diagram of the slips and we were able to find ours in time to start planning. We were told that the slip was an upwind slip but found it to be the opposite. We learned a few things while trying to connect to a mooring ball in Catalina and one of those things is that our boat doesn’t turn like our old Beneteau 34 did. The wind was still blowing a steady 10-15 knots. You could say the mood was a little tense as we made our first pass in to dock. Brad as at the helm while Sean, Jesper and I were all positioned around the boat with lines in hand. It took 2 tries but once we got her in, she fit like a glove and once again we all took a big sigh of relief. Our girl was home!
Photos from the voyage
