Re: SANTA CATALINA

Gordon (hlg@pacbell.net)
Fri, 15 Jan 1999 20:57:28 -0800


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>I have sailed to Catalina each year for the last four years. My sail is late
>July or August (the water is warmer then) and the prevailing weather is calm
>in the morning with a westerly wind developing from gentle at about 10:00 AM
>to quite strong by 3:00 in the afternoon. It stays strong (18 to 25 mph) until
>around sunset, but by then I am comfortably anchored in the shelter of some
>headland. Currents are negligible. DO have a compass, chart, and a gps is
>nice. A P-15 can sail out of Anaheim Bay, where I leave from because a buddy
>of mine from childhood still lives in a house on the water at Sunset Beach.
>(You must power in and out of the harbor as it is Navy property and they
>insist.) You could easily leave from Alamitos Bay or Long Beach. The best
>strategy is to get somewhere off Point Fermin, at the Northwest extreme of LA
>Harbor, about the time the wind comes up, then it is an easy tack to almost
>any point on the whole Island. I stay away from Avalon and all that,
>preferring mid-isand and the West end (Emerald Bay, etc.) it gets very windy
>around the Isthmus in the afternoons. Snorkeling is great, though a light wet
>suit is almost a necessity most of the time. Coming back is a broad reach and
>can be very exciting!
>
>Ralph Aeschliman
>HMS-18 #67 Moby Duck
>(and formerly P-15, Hunky Dory)
>Flagstaff, AZ

Ralph:

I presume you launch from the ramp at Huntington Harbor. If so, are you
able to get under the bridge with your mast up? No problem with the P14,
but I wondered about the HMS-18 mast. It is possible to leave the mast down
until you get past the bridge, then anchor and raise the mast. That is what
we did in the Venture 21.

I lived in Westminster, a few miles from there, when I bought my Potter,
back in 1970, and my first sails were all from the Huntington Harbor ramp.

The Navy does enforce their motors-only rule in Anaheim Bay. Motoring into
the bay one time, I tried to surf on a wake, causing my Seagull to swallow
water and die. It refused to restart so I saw no choice but to sail in.
Immediately, from a bull horn on shore, came, "Get that sailboat out of the
harbor!" Fortunately I was able to get a tow from a passing powerboat.

That's a good tip about heading first for Point Fermin instead of Catalina.
I didn't know that, but it sounds reasonable. I was wondering how it would
be to just start from Marina del Rey. It would be further but might be a
more favorable tack to the island.

My concern in a P14 would be to get to Catalina before dark. I used most of
the daylight hours crossing Monterey Bay, which is only about 20 miles.

Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA