Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, the weather finally held for a few days and Scott and I made it to Catalina Island, after a lovely time with friends in Long Beach. Long Beach was a wonderful break for us. It's where Scott calls home and we spent a lot of time walking and re-visiting some old haunts of his. He is always so happy when we are able to visit there. It's also very expensive in the marina. It was by far the most we've paid for a slip yet, but it's location was nearly perfect for provisioning without a car. The weather looked good on Tuesday and we decided it was time to make our way to Catalina (Avalon to be exact). It looked like good weather everyday but Thanksgiving, and even then the chance of showers is diminishing. It went from 80% at the first of the week down to 20% this morning. It is overcast, but that's kind of perfect pie baking weather! LOL! Well, our trip over was rather uneventful. A few crab pots, but it was clear and sunny, we were able to spot Catalina just a few miles outside the breakwaters of San Pedro Bay. For my non-boaters out there, most of the time we steer by compass, but on this trip we have visual point to steer by most of the trip. Our tradition is 2 hours at the helm, 2 hours off. This trip was so short we decided to do 1 on/ 1 off. We actually had perfect winds to raise our jib, it was the first time since it ripped and we repaired it. Our speed went from 5.5 knots up to 6.7 and our over all average getting here was 5.9. That's our fastest yet. Well, Avalon Bay is for lack of a better word "BEAUTIFUL" We were a little nervous because of reports we'd heard from other visiting friends. It's almost 50/50 of like and don't like Avalon. Definitely, we are in the like. The first thing that happens when you are visiting by boat is the Harbor Patrol comes out to you and takes your money and assigns you a mooring ball. He gave us great directions and we found it with no problem. Then there is the dreaded picking up the ball. We've watched videos and had several friends tell us how to do it. I'm on deck in foul weather gear and rubber gloves, I'd been forewarned about the slimy stern line. Scott drove us up to the ball, I plucked up the pendant and secured it the first try over our bow cleat, then hand over hand the stern line back and Scott fastened it to the cleat. All done in about 2 minutes. I was so proud of us! Not a mistake and there are always people watching when you do it, as well as the Harbor Patrol boat that came out to help us if we needed it. As soon as we were secure he began the normal questions about the holding tank being secure and no discharge over board. I informed him we had a composting toilet, we get a lot of confused looks on that one. He came aboard anyway and dropped the dye tablet in the compost. I have to laugh to myself, there is no way anything from our boat can go over board with this style of toilet. Oh well, it's his job! What a job! Poo Patrol! Yesterday we walked around down town and started meeting some of the people on boats around us. On the dingy ride to shore I was able to really see how clear the water is. We can see all the way to the bottom 40 feet beneath us!

Well, if you want you can see our boat on a live feed they have:
1) www.gotocatalina.com
2) click on "webcam"
3) click on "navigation"
4) click on "casino cam"
5) click on "beach"

We are in the bottom right hand corner, it's the yellow hull with the tall black mast between two power boats.

That's about all for now! Happy Thanksgiving! We've got all the trimmings and are looking forward to a nice lazy day! Hoping the same for all of you!