7 minute read
catalina stories
Catalina — and the Channel Islands at large — offer everything that the Bay Area does not. Sitting a mere 20 miles offshore in a temperate climate with mellow summer winds, Catalina has long been a warm(ish)-water haven for all manner of cruisers. And while the summer months are certainly the prime season, being in SoCal, Catalina is cruise-able year round. Catalina is of course just one of eight islands making up the Channel Island archipelago. The rest of the islands offer their own unique beauty, idiosyncrasies and complex, wildly different microclimates. But for now, we're focusing on the crown jewel itself. As with most of California, Catalina was fi rst populated by Native Americans, claimed by the Spanish, and squabbled over with Mexico before being absorbed into the United States. Catalina has been populated for between 7,000 and 8,000 years, and "Archaeologists excavating on a limited scale at Little Harbor on the seaward side of the island have found evidence of increasingly complex material cultures," said the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau. After Cabrillo claimed the island for Spain, hunters moved in to prey on seals and otters, while pirates and smugglers enjoyed Catalina's many hidden coves. The island had a brief and unsuccessful history with mining and cattle ranching, and several investors tried to make a go of turning Catalina into a high-class getaway. Many saw fi nancial ruin before the town of Avalon was founded, and the fi rst hotel was built in the late 1800s. But it was William Wrigley Jr. — the gum magnate, if that doesn't sound too weird — who put the resort-island touches on Catalina almost exactly 100 years ago that have shaped the island as we know it today. "[Wrigley] brought the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which he owned, to the island for spring training from 1921-1951, with the exception of a few years during WWII," the Visitors Bureau said. Long story short, sailors have been enjoying the 22-mile-long, 8-mile- wide Santa Catalina Island long before our tenure as the West Coast authority on these matters. We've heard of families who have made pilgrimages to the island for generations — kids who were playing on the beach in Avalon Harbor in the '60s are now watching their grandchildren do the same. Catalina is full of history and stories. "I grew up going to Catalina on powerboats with my parents from the late '50s, and have never stopped loving it," wrote Jim, 'Goose' Gossman, who now lives in the Bay Area, but trailers his 18-ft West Wight Potter pocket cruiser all over California. "Its basic charms have not changed: The sense of adventure leaving the mainland, dolphins rushing to surf your wake, and the anticipation of landfall with the fi rst whiff of the island's scent are the same as ever. As a kid, I dove for coins tossed from the SS Catalina while it was docking (always with some kid braver than I grabbing the bow for a tow in), and watched sea planes skirt the Casino's rooftop to land inside the harbor." Kent Carter, who sails his Beneteau 40 Lynn Lee out of Marina del Rey, echoed the draw of childhood memories. "Growing up in Southern Cali-
Catalina can seem like the most crowded place in the world or the most remote. All it takes is a short walk or bike ride.
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GOOSE GOSSMAN
KENT CARTER
shortage of sailing destinations for a weekend or so. I miss being able to dash out of Ventura Harbor and go to Catalina, even for one night. Having the islands close by was a great time." In the Bay Area, the Farallones are off limits to all but scientists. Even if they weren't, the "Devil's Teeth" aren't exactly a warm, welcoming archipelago (just getting there can be a harrowing act of survival). Simply put, we have no equvalent to Catalina here at latitude 38. "It's quite possible to sail to the Channel Islands all It's not all calm, 10-knot days on Catalina. When the Santa Anas blow, the 12 months of the populated east side of the island becomes a slightly treacherous lee shore. year," according to Chad Kominek, fornia, I have fond memories of visiting who used to sail his Islander 38 Bella Catalina Island as a child. Though it Dama out of Ventura, but now calls was defi nitely America, it still felt like a San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico, home. "The world away from the hustle and bustle weather varies more November through of the mainland. I remember walking at night in Avalon with my mom, hearing the laughter and smelling grilled food coming from the boats in the mooring field. 'Someday that will be me,' I thought." Lamenting on a complaint that we often hear from Northern California sailors, Tom LeDuc, who sails his Catalina 310 Bubbly out of Monterey, told us that, "While Monterey is a nice place for day sailing, there is a real April (compared to the summer, where the wind seems the same almost every day), but if you listen to NOAA forecasts and avoid the Santa Anas and other occasionally hazardous conditions, one can sail, overnight, to the Channel Islands all year long. In the winter months, you'll sleep inside your sleeping bag, and wet landings in your kayak or dinghy are more bracing. In the summer, sleeping requires only a sheet, and getting wet in the surf can feel good, depending on the time of day. "Catalina feels like it's within reach of a densely populated city and frequent ferry boats, while Santa Cruz Island is much harder to reach. In my own experience, keeping my boat in Ventura Harbor was the best of both worlds. The numerous, naturally protected overnight anchorages at Santa Cruz Island could be found starting at around three and a half sailing hours from Ventura Harbor — perfect for a weekend sail. Catalina is around 13 hours away, downwind from Ventura Harbor, but upwind on the way back (funny how that works). "Fortunately, Catalina has ample charms to make the longer trip worth it: Two large, protected, harbors with plenty of mooring balls, plus a real city at Avalon, a more rustic boater's paradise at Two Harbors, and even several remote, natural anchorages around the island. "A note to San Francisco-based sailors: If you're sailing southward through
The Casino in Avalon is Catalina's most iconic structure, but don't expect to gamble there. The building is now a ballroom and movie theater.
the islands and come across San Miguel or Santa Rosa on a calm day, enjoy! It's hard to get to those islands from Ventura Harbor or Channel Islands Harbor, and pleasant sailing and anchoring up there is hard to predict."
Many of our readers talked about the change that's swept through Catalina over the last few decades — or, in some cases, the lack of it. "Isthmus [the colloquial name for Two Harbors] is still a time capsule," said Jim Gossman. "Regardless of the new 'improvements', it's largely the same. The walk over to Cat Harbor on the same dusty oiled road hasn't changed, except for the possibility of encountering bison, which still freely roamed into Two Harbors in the '60s. I went to a baseball camp there in 1960, and would hike to Little Harbor. The sea planes (which used to buzz over the baseball fi eld before touching down) are gone, but the Greek-island feel and pure west wind are still there." Tom LeDuc said his fi rst experience on Catalina was the Boy Scout camp at Emerald Bay in the early 1960s. "The tent cabins seemed quite plush compared to the pup tents and tube tents we used on our regular camping trips. Wild boar would wander through the tent area at night.
This beach could be anywhere in California, right? In fact, it's an offshore island getaway.
"There were lots of water activities: swimming, canoeing, even diving (I don't remember sailing, although I imagine it was available). They had an old hard-hat dive helmet with a hand operated air pump on a raft. The weight of the helmet was enough to hold a kid on the bottom while we walked around. Of course, being normal juveniles, your friends could be counted on to stop pumping at some point." Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their Catalina stories — we'll bring you more, soon, in a future installment. If you have any stories, insights or cruising knowledge to share, please write us at editorial@latitude38.com.
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