Back To The Channel Islands-Will It Be Better This Time?

9/5/11: Left Santa Barbara at 10:00am, sunny skies, calm out, not much wind. Motored 26 miles over to Prisoner”s Bay on Santa Cruz Island (one of the Channel Islands). We really hated to say goodbye to Santa Barbara.
We had grilled marinated flank steak, corn on the cob, and tomato/avocado salad.  It was so good. Up to now I haven’t been inspired to cook anything but the same old stuff, but after going to Trader Joe’s yesterday and stocking up, I’ve made a menu for the next several days and will be trying a couple of new recipes. It also helps that I’ve set up my iphone with the inventory from my freezer and the lower shelf of my fridge. I also put my grocery list on the phone, so now I can shop more efficiently, cuz I could never remember what I have in stock.
We went to bed pretty early. The air coming into our open hatch in the aft cabin smelled SO good—there are  eucalyptus tress growing right here. We had a roly night, this anchorage is not that protected from the swell, so we didn’t sleep all that well.

9/6/11: Left the roly anchorage and motored for two hours over to Little Scorpion, which is really nice. Gina had invited us over for potluck—she was making risotto. We took pork chops and sesame/garlic green beans. I had taught the kids Nertz several years ago, so they got me involved in a game of that. The dinner was so good, we all ate too much. I really liked the lemon bars she bought at Trader Joe’s. It’s too bad Terry doesn’t really like lemon stuff. We plan to leave here at 5am tomorrow morning and head for Catalina Island. I can’t believe how close we are to LA and San Diego. The weather is great and the water temp is 69! I finished reading The Girl Who Played With Fire and have just started The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. Terry’s reading the ‘played with fire’ one. It’s been fun to read the same book at the same time.

9/7/11: Got up at 4:30 am. We were already awake because it got a little roly towards daybreak. We all left the anchorage at 5am sharp as planned. We have about a 10hr trip to Catalina. We dumped the holding tank. We also ran the watermaker and charged all of our devices like phones, kindles, computers and cameras while we motored. I also am trying to get caught up on the blogging while we motor, so we don’t have to use battery power when we are at anchor. Now that we’ve left the marina, our power consumption is important to monitor. We are so glad we put in those four new solar panels. They really help keep us charged up pretty well. We are considering unplugging the Engle freezer at night to see what difference that makes. The key will be remembering to plug it back in in the morning! So now we are learning to be 12 volt power experts!
Our first port on Catalina Island was at Two Harbors, or more specifically, Isthmus. It’s this way-laid-back sandy, dusty small little place that has a 50’s kind of feel to it. We had a bit of a hard time picking up a mooring buoy because they have this special system where you go to the bow and grab this long flexible pole that’s on top of the buoy, you pull it aboard and keep pulling till you come to a loop in the line, attach to a cleat on the bow, then keep pulling the line till you come to another loop and attach to a cleat on the stern. Of course, we have to try this is a strong headwind. I’m at the bow wrestling the damn thing, but the wind kept blowing us back. Finally Terry and traded places, I took the helm, and he did the wrestling. Anyway, we love this place, it’s so quiet, not very touristy at all. We took a walk over the isthmus to Cat Harbor, then had dinner at the local restaurant (calamari piccata). The meal was tasty, but so big I had to get a ‘go box”—which I promptly smashed flatter than a pancake trying to board Harmony from the dinghy. Will I ever be graceful????? Maybe when I grow up.

9/8/11: We left the Phillips family behind in Isthmus. They wanted to start school this morning, then maybe snorkel. We decided to head to Avalon to see if we could get a mooring. The Phillips’ will come tomorrow. There are two, count them, two, fishing derbies, an outrigger event and an art show in Avalon this weekend which means it will be packed, and there are only 250 mooring buoys-first come, first served. We will get a mooring and the Phillips’ will raft up to us if there’s nothing available tomorrow. Avalon was only 11 miles away, so Terry and left around 9am this morning for the quick trip down. When we saw Avalon and the casino and the inner harbor we remembered how Terry’s parents told us about getting on a charter boat from LA and coming over to Avalon, and how much they enjoyed it. It made Terry miss his dad a bit, but we laughed to think of Sally being wild and crazy enough to take a boat all the way from LA to Catalina Island—she has since decided she doesn’t really like boats, but she always talked fondly of their trips to Catalina Is.
Avalon is a major resort spot, with a casino, hotels, busy busy harbor and lots of exclusive and spendy shops. We just spotted a Google catamaran, don’t what that’s all about yet. I preferred dusty little Isthmus, but it’s nice to have internet again (not free ) and get caught up! More later, after we venture out for a walk.

We dinghied out to the Google boat. It was formerly the PlayStation boat, has been renamed. We talked to one of the crew and Terry told him about the Americas Cup winner Oracle being built in Anacortes. He said the Goggle boat has one of Oracle's old masts on it. I'll post pics of it in the picasa web album tomorrow.

9/9/11: I’m ashamed to say I have not yet been ashore! BUT, I have finished the last of the three books, (the girl who kicked the hornets nest), and can now move on with my life! Those books are unputdownable. Endeavor just got here a bit ago and got the mooring right next to ours. We’re going ashore soon.

So we all went ashore and had pizza for lunch on the waterfront. We were laughing because there we were in an Italian restaurant staffed entirely by Mexicans--who didn't speak English too well! After lunch we went walking along the walkway past the casino and on over to the last beach where they had lots of cabanas set up. Terry found out if you wanted to rent one of the beach lounge chairs you had to part with $50! We have no idea what a whole cabana cost, but Gina said probably around $500--she had been places like that before and that was the going rate. The guys returned to the boats while we girls hit the shops. I thought the shops would be very upscale, but we were surprised to find that much of the merchandise was of mediocre quality. I did buy a pair of really cute flip flops, Gina got a couple of tops/coverups and Sydney got some leopard sunglasses that are very cute on her. Happy Hour was on Endeavor. Gina and I have observed that Happy Hour causes the "I don't feel like cooking" syndrome, because we get all happy and before we know it, it's 7pm and too late to start cooking. So we went ashore and had Mexican food--HUGE margaritas. By now, we were all exceedingly happy.

9/10/11: Just puttering around on the boat today, paying bills, getting caught up on emails and phone calls. We are planning to leave tomorrow and head for Newport, CA, where we can anchor out. Endeavor has to hurry on to San Diego, where they have rented a slip for a month. Then they will rent a car and go up to LA where they are meeting a few family people to do the Disneyland thing. Our trip to Newport is somewhere around 30 miles, so that will take us only (only!) a few hours. We'll catch back up with Endeavor in a week or so I think. I hope to be able to go to Mass before we leave. I'm trying a new recipe tonight, one of Pioneer Woman's called Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta. We'll see how that goes. Has anyone watched her cooking segments on the Food Network? I wish I could see them. I probably could if I had a good internet connection, and figured out how to do that.

4:30pm: Terry just strained a muscle on the back of his thigh. Rick had used an ATM earlier this afternoon and had left his debit card in the ATM. So he and Terry dinghied over to retrieve it. Terry was trying to get out of the dinghy onto the dock and the dinghy backed away. Terry had one leg on the dock and  one on the dinghy, pulled his muscle and fell into the water. Rick had to lift him out of the water. Terry is in a lot of pain. I put ice on it right away. We'll keep that up every hour or so and see how he does, but he says he really felt it when his muscle went-twice. On top of that he had my cell phone (not my iphone) in his pocket, and Rick's ATM card was not in the machine when he got there to retrieve it. Not a good afternoon in our little world.

9/11/11: It's very strange to feel so isolated from the 9/11 anniversary. I really would liked to have seen the coverage on TV. My memory of that day was watching when the 2nd plane hit the tower and knowing for certain that we were now at war. I called Terry, who was working in Bellingham, and told him about it, and while I was on the phone with him, the first tower collapsed. I was crying and all upset and just wanted him to come home. It's one of those days that you never forget. So I have felt a little separated from what the rest of the country is doing today.

We decided to stay here another day, so Terry could rest and heal a bit. He's been trying to move around, but he's very sore. So I took the water taxi, which only had to move me 50 yrds, it cost $4.75--pretty much a ripoff, but we can't use the dinghy right now because Terry can't get it set up and I'm not that great at driving it. I'm going to have to work on that in the future. We had Rick put our dinghy up on our davit last night after Terry got hurt. As soon as Rick got it up there, it came crashing down in the water because a splice made by Northwest Rigging failed. Anyway, Rick got it back up there, so no more dinghy use until Terry is better.

So I went to Mass at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church. It was great. A visiting priest from Michigan who had performed the wedding for his niece yesterday was the celebrant. He was priest of a parish in lower Manhattan on 9/11, and he told us about that day. It was very interesting. After Mass, I went to the grocery store, and to the drug store to get Terry some kind of hot/cold compresses for his leg. Then another $4.75 for the water taxi to take me the 50 yards back to the boat!

We were then enjoying a quiet afternoon down below, when we felt our boat get bumped hard. Looked out and the sailboat next to us had drifted over and hit us. I'm trying to get fenders between the two boats, and Terry is trying to help and I'm yelling at him to go away, I could handle this and he's yelling back. It was funny. He's a difficult patient. One moment he's complaining about his pain and won't stop talking about his leg, the next minute he's trying to hurt himself worse! Honestly, he's nuts sometimes. Oh, and no damage to the boat!

 I'm going to be glad to leave Avalon. We have been cursed here, lol! Tomorrow, we'll go to Newport for a day or two, then meander our way down to San Diego.

PS: I forgot to mention that here they don't really have that many cars. They use golf carts to get around. They're everywhere!

PPS: I made Pioneer Woman's Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta last night-yum! Leftovers tonight.