Yesterday we sailed across Santa Monica Bay, passing Los Angeles in what felt much more civilized than driving I-5 (but what isn't really?). We arrived just after sunset to Paradise Cove WPT 34°01.00"N 118°47.75'W. This is a beautiful cove protected by Pt Dume from westerly winds along a stretch of coast just south of Malibu, boasting extravagant homes, a beautiful sandy beach, a small pier, one restaurant, and believe it or not.. no other boats.

Anchoring in the dark was a daunting experience in and around multiple kelp forests. We felt the anchor might not be dug into anything more than a couple of large kelp plants and kept a close eye through the night. A little after dawn, Dave and I both felt we were just a little to close for comfort to the beach in just over 10 ft of water at a lowering tide. We moved to a much better location between two areas of kelp (much easier to see what we're doing in the morning light). Of course all that maneuvering through kelp got our prop tangled again. It was my turn for the chilly morning swim to unwrap the tough plant from around our propeller. Getting in actually isn't the hard part its getting back on the boat with our make shift rope ladder that is tough.

It seems there is a SW wind forecast end of this week and we feel this is a great place to spend time till then. I have a tasty meal planned for this evening, a mexican style pork stew with sweet potatoes. Then, just maybe a beach day tomorrow.

For our second and final full day in Redondo Beach we have a bunch of chores that need to be done. The big ones are laundry and grocery shopping. Most marinas have coin laundry facilities, but Port Royal Marina doesn't have it. Carolyn looked up coin laundry places on Yelp and the closest one she found was a mile and a half away in Hermosa Beach. Fortunately, we ran into the 2nd Street Laundry half a mile from the marina. Laundry is a breeze when you can use three washers and three dryers at the same time - it made the whole experience less painful.

While we waited on the laundry we headed two doors down to the Mickey's Italian Deli where I had a 7" Egg, Cheese, and Bacon sandwich with onions, pepperoncinis, and lettuce. The default bread was italian and it was fantastic. Perfectly fresh and perfectly toasted. It was enough food to satisfy both Carolyn and I for breakfast.

After laundry it was back to the boat to put away laundry and do some cleaning. While Carolyn was organizing some bags in the v-berth (the front of the interior of the boat) she accidentally pulled the "Pull to Inflate" tab on one of our life jackets. It was effective!

It turns out the re-arming kit for those jackets is $78 at West Marine. Definitely an expensive mistake. We will be sure to store the life jackets more securely in the future. Oops.

Tonight is our last night in Redondo Beach. Tomorrow we head to Paradise Cove. The forecast is for mild West winds through the week, so we might try to make it to Santa Barbara for 4th of July. When we make it to Santa Barbara we plan to stay there for a week. Anyone want to join us for a weekend and do some wine/beer tasting?

After three expensive nights in Cat Harbor (the moorings are $38/night and the beers are $8) we had one more stop to make on the South side of the island - Little Harbor.

This little cove is big enough to hold two or three boats at anchor, but we had it to ourselves for the night. There is a nice beach and a busy, primitive campground in Little Harbor, but no stores or services. This made for a quiet and free stay for the night.

Since Little Harbor is on the south side of Catalina, it is exposed to the west swell. The boat was rolling all over the place as we slept. Fortunately our anchor was well set and it held through the night. Carolyn and I planned to stay in Little Harbor for just one night, so after breakfast in the morning, when the wind seemed like it was going to pick up, we pulled up the anchor and sailed North West in a South breeze to get around the West End of the Island. It turned out to be a great sail - Carolyn did all the driving.

Our destination was Doctor's Cove. We had stayed there for one night on our way to Cat Harbor, and we thought it would be a good place to start our trip back to the mainland.

Carolyn made a fantastic 13-bean-chicken-and-rice-curry for dinner and we shared our last bottle of wine before turning in for the night. In the morning, the swells started making the anchorage a little uncomfortable because we were anchored fore and aft (translation: we set one anchor in front of us and one behind us) and we did not have the boat pointed into the waves. When the waves hit the side of the boat, it causes the boat to rock from side to side. We took this as a sign it was time to leave. At about 9:00am we were underway towards Redondo Beach (King Harbor).

We pulled into our guest slip at the Port Royal Marina at 3:30pm. The trip was 23 miles. The first 10 miles went quickly but then we were passing through the traffic separation zone so we had to dodge a few big ships.

After registering at the Port Royal Marina office we showered and headed out for dinner. We walked about a mile to Pitcher House Upper Deck for dinner, drinks, and Padres baseball. I had the pizza, Carolyn had the burger. Coors Light was enjoyed by all at the low, low price of $3. After watching the Padres play poorly, we headed back to the marina. About 100 yards from our boat the Cheesecake Factory was kind enough to put one of their establishments. We stopped for a decadent slice of cheesecake, another beer, and some fun people watching. After that, it was off to bed for us.

Carolyn and I will be in Redondo Beach until at least Tuesday. The plan is to wait here until the weather (wind) is right for the 20 mile sail across Santa Monica Bay to Paradise Cove. We will anchor there before rounding Point Dume (pronounced: Point Doom) heading to either Channel Islands Harbor (Oxnard) or Ventura Harbor. Next stop after that is Santa Barbara. Point Conception is getting bigger on the horizon.

Today is Monday. Carolyn and I rounded the rocky, rugged, and undeveloped west end of Catalina headed for Catalina Harbor on the south side of the island. We started early - early for us is 8:30 - and pulled into our mooring at Two Harbors at five till noon. After a quick lunch of Mac and cheese with hot dogs - because five year old cuisine doesn't require refrigeration - we pumped up the dinghy and rowed to shore to explore Two Harbors and have a few $8 beers at the only restaurant and bar in town. Today is Monday and it doesn't suck because I was drinking beer in the sun at 2pm.

Catalina Harbor does not have its own town but instead shares the town of Two Harbors with Isthmus Harbor about a half mile walk to the North side of the island. It's a small tourist town and was not busy when we arrived. There were trucks hauling gear for campers and backpackers hauling their own gear in the center of The main Street when we arrived. There is only one store, the General Store, one restaurant, Harbor Reef Restaurant and Bar, and one hotel with 12 rooms.

How we got here...after leaving Avalon on Wednesday we headed west and ended up in hen Rock Cove for two nights at anchor which was uneventful except for Sal the Significant Sea Lion. We left Sal's cove on Friday and headed West again for a fresh weekend view. Completely by chance Crazy Love took us to Big Geiger Cove which is leased by the great folks of the Blue Water Cruising Club. Completely by chance, the Blue Water Cruising Club was having a weekend long 'Invade the Isthmus' event and were expecting a decent number of folks to anchor in their cove. We arrived before most of the club arrived - we were the second boat in the anchorage - and we anchored bow and stern - as our cruising guide suggested - so the folks that showed up later didn't mind Carolyn and I invading their space. Over the course of the weekend we met a few of the club members. We even got a dinghy ride to shore and a tour of the 'Private No Trespassing' shore facilities. The fine people of the Blue Water Cruising Club were generous with their space, had great advice for our Crazy Plan, and have crazy anchoring skills that I hope to have one day.

Both evenings in Big Geiger cove I was woken by Sal's cousin Sally who was not interested in boarding. She was merely cruising the fishing grounds on the outskirts of the anchorage for a snack. Sally was a much more significant sea lion than Sal so my theory is that she knew she was too big to jump (do sea lions jump?) from the water to the boat which involves ducking under lifelines that are 10 inches off the deck.

Anyhow, Carolyn and I are moored in a very empty Cat Harbor next to the Island Supplier - I always wondered how stuff gets to the island - and plan to stay here until Thursday when we, weather permitting, will continue our circumnavigation of Santa Catalina Island.

During our last day in Avalon, Carolyn and I went for a beautiful and challenging hike in the hills. We hiked the Hermit Gulch trail and the Lone Tree trail.

After the hike we headed to - from what we could tell - is the best happy hour on the island at Sandtrap. $2 beers and $1 tacos, not a bad deal for Avalon or anywhere in SoCal for that matter.

On Wednesday morning we decided to head for an anchorage between Avalon and Long Point. While leaving the mooring, I put the engine in gear before the mooring line had completely sunk to the bottom and the line wrapped around the prop and caused the engine to stall. Ugh! Fortunately, we have experience dealing with situations just like this. Unfortunately, It was a cold, overcast morning and I got to go for a swim. It took about 15 minutes to unwrap the line from the prop and we were finally on our way out of Avalon. Lesson learned.

We headed West to pick out a nice anchorage to spend the next few days. We settled on Hen Rock Cove, a protected, calm, and uncrowded spot for our first open water anchorage. There was some interesting sea life in the area. In particular, there was a sea lion that we called Sal the Significant Sea Lion. He woke us up about midnight with a loud thump to our hull. I slept through it and Carolyn heard Sal's noisy retreat. She assumed he had run into the boat on accident. We heard another thump a few minutes later and realized he was trying to come aboard. Carolyn and I normally sleep with the cabin open (for fresh air) so I quickly ran into the cockpit to grab the hatch boards and close us into the cabin in case Sal was successful. Several thumps later, Sal was still not aboard. We could hear him circling the boat, trying to decide how he could board, but he never made it. In the morning we were surprised to note that our hull was not dented, however Sal had left a few marks that cleaned off easily.

Tomorrow we head to a new anchorage, we're thinking Ripper's Cove, to get a new view on the island and attempt our first bow and stern anchoring.