San Diego to Avalon Harbour to Ventura, pushing hard to get north, but with dinner out each night

We left San Diego before sunrise with a mission to make the ~85mi north-west passage to Avalon Harbour at Santa Catalina Island. Our plan was to take little hops north but sleep anchored (or on a buoy) each night.

We worked our way out of the San Diego harbour and past the New Point Loma Lighthouse before heading offshore and a beautiful sunrise. Light winds with a bumpy sea-state.

New Point Loma Lighthouse

Sunrise over San Diego

An hour or two later we sailed by a NOAA buoy, unclear if it was anchored or floating free. Good reminder to stay on our toes and keep watch! Two hours after that we saw a monster aircraft carrier launching and landing helicopters from the back deck. Very impressive, such a massive ship, with many other smaller (but still huge) boats nearby.

NOAA buoy

Aircraft carrier w helicopter landing

Sometimes while sailing there's a lot to do: sail trim, sail changes, tacking, reefing, chart plotting, navigating, you get the idea. Sometimes there's nothing going on, the boat is sailing nicely, and you're just along for the ride. Doublehanded sailing means you take every opportunity to rest.

Sara catching some shuteye

Lunch

Avalon is as amazing as we remembered. We did the bow/stern mooring dance, much more expertly than on our first visit what felt like eons ago, and caught the shuttle bus dinghy service into town. That was great, we didn't need to wrestle Purpeat off the foredeck, we just pressed the easy button and hailed a water cab.

Parking in Avalon Harbour

Empty boardwalk

Avalon was empty, maybe two other boats moored and no one walking the boardwalks. We saw a couple on the beach bundled up for an artic expedition. It was only 6pm, but March/April must be the off-season. Most shops were closed, but we found a restaurant with lights on.

Sara is pretty much the best sailing buddy you could ever hope for, but she won't stand for any guff.

Happy Sara

No Guff McGee

We were a little nervous about getting stuck ashore, we took our handheld VHF just in case we needed to holler for a ride, but our water taxi driver had nothing else going on and was exactly where we left him a few hours earlier.

Fantastic night's sleep and we were off early again for the 85mi passage to Ventura. Same light winds but much calmer sea-state. Lots of shipping container haulers heading into Long Beach. They move fast; we kept a close watch.

The two smokestacks are from the Mandalay Generating Station, a retired natural gas power plant in Oxnard, just south of Ventura.

Container ship heading into Long Beach

Mandalay generating station

We paid for an overnight slip in Ventura Marina and tackled the laundry pile. Hey, it can't all be rainbows and unicorns.