After all kinds of work and no play, it was finally time to take a fun trip to Catalina. We invited our friends Jessi, Jesper and Sean to make the voyage with us. This would be the first time we’ve tested our new motor out on the open seas. But before we could dip in to the fun jar, we still had a few things to tidy and finish up.
First order of business, we had to get the boat cleaned up from being in the yard for 9 weeks. Let me tell ya, the boat was a MESS! Not only did we have dust and debris all over the place, we also had tools ALL over the place. I won’t mention any names, but I do believe they belonged to a handsome gentleman that I call, Captain. It’s OK though, lots of tools are better than no tools at all. We had a few weeknights to address each dirty space from top to bottom. It felt so great to finally get her cleaned up and to her former glory. The previous owners did a superb job of keeping the interior in tip-top condition; she cleans up really well even 30 years later!
Brad and Jesper feverishly worked on last minute projects to have the boat ready for the trip. One of the projects included a climb up the mast! This made me extremely nervous because we had no idea how strong the running rigging on this boat was. Even with a redundant safety line I still felt uneasy watching him inch his way up the mast. But rest assured, he handled business up there and came down in one piece. He even liked it! Hopefully I can say the same when I make my trip up the mast.
I was also in charge of putting away all the food/drinks that Brad bought the night before. He always does an amazing job of provisioning for our trips; we never go hungry! Perspective has ample storage for food; we have a large refrigerator, a separate freezer, deep cupboards, and plenty of storage under our settees. Surprisingly the only thing we put under the settee cushions was extra beverage cans.
Ok enough about getting things ready, it was time to get this boat out of its slip and on her way to Catalina! We set a personal record of getting out of the harbor at 7pm with plenty of daylight left to navigate around the kelp beds outside of Point Loma. I don’t know about everyone else, but I certainly had a nervous/excited feeling in my gut because this was our first major outing since the boat had been in the yard. It was time to put their work to the test!
The five of us caught up about life in the cockpit while the sun went down and the darkness began to surround us. We decided on a watch schedule and yours truly went to bed at 8:30pm, can you believe that?! Sean took the first watch, from 9pm to 12am, Jessi and Jesper gracefully accepted the 12am-3am shift and Brad and I took the 3am to dawn shift.
Each of us had an uneventful shift and we ended up plowing our way to Catalina in record time, 11 hours! Upon arrival, we radioed the harbormaster to see if any mooring balls were available. No such luck. Instead we were left to find room in the anchorage. After doing a pass through we decided on a spot to put the anchor down. We put a bow and a stern anchor out as the other boats around us were configured this way. This was our first time being on anchor in Two Harbors and it wasn’t too bad! We did have a northerly swell hitting the boat that ranged from a vigorous rocking, to a calm, rock-a-bye baby motion. We spent Saturday catching up on sleep and eventually made our way to shore in our dinghy!
We shall call Saturday evening “Things that go bump in the night- part 1”. You know the northerly swell I mentioned? Well, it was rocking and rolling at times and things were making all kinds of noise. I am pretty sure Brad and Jesper hardly slept that night trying to locate the source of each noise, keeping their fingers crossed the bumps and bangs weren’t another boat coming to say hello. Turns out some pesky water jugs were one of the culprits!
We survived the night and Sunday was upon us. We headed to shore in the morning to rent some diving gear for the boys and to check on the status of any open mooring balls. We were in luck- there was one ball available and it was in a fabulous location! We gracefully accepted the mooring and headed back to the boat to pull up the anchors and grab our new ball. Catching the mooring ball was a success and we all took a deep breath because being on a mooring ball is a little more reassuring than a busy anchorage.
While the boys geared up for their dive, Jessi and I made our way to shore to hike and grab some killer views of the boat from the hillside. With each step up the hill we were rewarded with even better views of the harbor. The shallow water was a light crystal blue, every now and then you could see orange glowing blobs aka garibaldi, swimming and going about their day. When we felt like we had stretched out our legs enough, we decided to turn back and head to the shore bar for some beverages. The boys later caught up with us and told us about their dive. It sounded like they had a fantastic time! This was Jessi’s last night with us as she was unable to take extra time off from work. We found it appropriate to enjoy her last dinner with us on shore. With full bellies we headed back to our boat to play some cards and chat the night away.
Fast forward to Monday morning at 3am, we were awakened to the sound of a thunk and some yelling. This is called “things that go bump in the night- part 2”. Turns out our neighbor on our port side got a little too close and we collided. Luckily the damage was minimal, but the situation was a bit jarring to say the least. We turned on our radio and heard reports of other boats having the same problem due to the spring tides. Coincidentally this neighbor provided us with hours of entertainment the day before and most of Monday as well. It was an ASA 104 course in action with an instructor that didn’t appear to be too bright.
We headed to Avalon at 6am Monday morning to drop our dearest Jessi off. Each of us felt exhausted from the drama just a few hours before, and we were sad to be losing Jessi! But before you start feeling too bad for us, we were completely spoiled by a stunning sunrise off our port side; it was BEAUTIFUL! To make matters even better we spotted a few dolphins as we approached Avalon. The morning couldn’t have gone any better!
After saying our goodbyes to Jessi we headed back to Two Harbors. The wind was nonexistent so we were once again forced to motor. We felt bittersweet about seeing our portside neighbor still there. They did provide endless entertainment, but we were hoping they would have left already. Monday was kind of a wash overall and things weren’t the same without Jessi around to help me deal with boys and their antics. Speaking of wash- we took our first “showers” of the trip Monday evening. We were unsure of the status of the shower drains inside the boat, so we took matters outside. I soaped up inside the dinghy and rolled off into the water to rinse, then took a fresh water rinse with the aft deck shower on board. The experience was wildly funny and completely rewarding!
Tuesday was our last full day in Two Harbors and the boys had plans to take their last dive of the trip. While they were away I had the boat to myself and managed to tidy things up a bit and enjoy some sun on deck. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day! From the sounds of it, they had a wonderful dive along bird rock and were full of smiles upon their return. We devoured a quick lunch on board followed by a snorkel along the cove. During the snorkel we came across a school of anchovies, a handful of garibaldi, and even a small horn shark. My favorite was the school of anchovies; the way they moved through the water was magical, I’d never seen anything like it!
Sean cooked up a delicious dinner and we all decided a mellow night would be best. Sean did most of the cooking on the trip and kept our bellies very happy and very full! Our plan was to be under way at 5am Wednesday morning. When morning rolled around Brad put me in charge of handling the boat while the boys unhooked us from the mooring ball. You could definitely say I was nervous! The sky was pitch black we had a bit of fog, which made visibility very poor. With some guidance and a lot of coaxing, we were out of there! I handed the helm over to Brad after we rounded the harbor and went down for a nap. I had some nervous jitters to sleep off.
I woke to the motor easing up; I hopped out of bed as quickly as possible because usually a slow motor means something awesome is out there to see. This time there wasn’t anything amazing to see, but instead we were slowing down so we could plan our entrance in to Avalon to refuel. Brad checked our fuel tanks and determined that we needed to refuel before making the long trip home. The fuel dock didn’t open until 8am so we had some time to kill. When it was time, we did some tight maneuvering and got ourselves tied up to the dock. Whew!
Now it was time for the long motor back to San Diego. The wind was light at best for the majority of the trip home. We did take full advantage of some stronger winds as they came along and put all the sails out. Once again Perspective surprised us with her ability to glide through the water at such a quick pace! We kept the sails up for a few hours until the winds died down and then furled them all back in. We motored the rest of the trip while Brad made a list of the things we needed to fix when we returned. We discovered a few new noises, and as Brad mentioned, the prop cavitation wasn’t completely gone so that is still on the list. In addition to that we have some serious plumbing work to be done and I suspect some new toilets will be at the top of the list.
When we arrived back to San Diego harbor we felt a little defeated by the list mentioned above and were ready to get things cleared off the boat and get home. Overall the trip was amazing but we definitely have some work cut out for us! Stay tuned!
Each project has been a learning experience and I’m happy to be adding sewing to our arsenal of skills. 🙂
