We left Two Harbors, the more rustic town on Catalina Island,4 days ago (Oct. 6,2022) and sailed 17 miles to the quaint and historic town of Avalon. It is located on the southeastern leeward side of Catalina island. It is an interesting anchorage here on the island. Mooring is done with a bow and stern tie, and sand line. We’ve never seen this set-up before. They don’t tell you in the guide books you need gloves for the dirty/slimey sand line that has been laying on the bottom of the bay and you have to pick it up and tie it to your boat. This system if used because it allows for many boats to anchor in the bay at one time. It looks like a parking lot for boats. The Harbor Patrol greeted us at the entrance and escorted us to our mooring buoy. They give you red tablets to put in your holding tanks so its obvious if any boat dumps their holding tank in the harbor.
Julie and Dan are with us doing a trial sail to see if they want to commit to crewing for us on our trip from San Diego to Mexico at the end of the month. Its a good thing they came along because they are familiar with the island and this type of mooring.
Today we rented a golf cart and the four of us went on a tour of Avalon and stopped at several incredibly beautiful scenic viewpoints. There are about 4,000 people that live on the island in everything from beach cottages to the Wrigley Mansion overlooking the beautiful bay (from Wrigley’s chewing gum).
Snorkeling and Scuba diving are popular here at the Casino Point Dive Park. Our group has gone snorkeling a few times but the water is still too cold for me. I’m waiting until I get a further South. I’ve been told I’ve missed out on seeing the popular garibaldi gold fish that are only in the Catalina Island area.
It’s a fun coastal town to walk around with many interesting shops and restaurants. Every 15 minutes the big clock tower high on the hill chimes so you always know what time it is. There’s a big black bat on it for Halloween.
At 5:00 pm all the boats in the harbor honk their horn for the start of Happy Hour. It’s a bustling town with several foot ferries each day bringing visitors to the island as well as a stop for crew ships. (We were thankful a crew ship did not stop while we were here). We did see one tonight all lit up passing the harbor probably returning to Long Beach. I spoke too soon. We woke up this morning with a big Carnival crew ship anchored in front of us.
Tomorrow morning we will pull up the anchor and sail about 25 miles to Alamitos in Orange County.
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