Bucket List Item #15: Circumnavigating Santa Catalina Island

[DesertAlbin736]

Bucket list item #15: Circumnavigate Santa Catalina Island: Done! Just back from 4 nights moored in Two Harbors on Catalina Island in Southern California, a transit from Two Harbors to Avalon via the West end and around the seaward side on Thursday, July 13th for 1 night on a mooring in Avalon before returning to Two Harbors to complete the circumnavigation. We had launched from Sunset Aquatic marina at Huntington Beach near Long Beach last Saturday, July 8th, and after spending one night there we crossed 28 NM of open ocean over to Two Harbors on Sunday, July 9th. 4 nights in Two Harbors, 1 night in Avalon, a final night on mooring in Two Harbors before returning to Huntington Beach on Saturday, July 15th & taking a guest slip overnight before hauling out & trailering the 390 miles back to Phoenix on Sunday, July 16th. A total of 105 on water nautical miles, 760 round trip road miles trailering. Fuel use for the boat, between 7 and 8 gallons.

Pics to follow soon.

[DesertAlbin736]

Some photos from Catalina Circumnavigation Cruise. Notes: No marina slips on Catalina, all on moorings or anchoring. Anchoring is difficult due to steep shore & rocky bottom. Boats moored bow and stern with 20 feet or less between boats. There are dinghy docks for landing, which tend to get crowded, and at Two Harbors you can also land a dinghy on the beach, but not at Avalon. For boats without dinghies there is a water taxi shore boat service that can be called by phone or VHF. Mooring is much preferred, even though it's $38 per night for boats 30 feet & under, otherwise anchoring puts you on a steep lee shore far from access to facilities.

[DesertAlbin736]

Update: Took the boat over to a local gas station yesterday (another advantage of trailering) to fill up the fuel tank at $2.29 per gallon. Took 8.2 gallons to fill the tank back to full for 22.4 hours running time, for about 108 NM, which works out to about 13 NM per gallon, 0.37 GPH. Fuel cost for 1 week's cruising, running 28 miles offshore, circumnavigating Catalina & back to the ramp was all of $18.52. Love this boat! We're not likely to use the boat again this summer until the weather cools off in October, but I like to keep the tank full with fresh fuel to minimize condensation, and added stabilizer and cetane boost additives.

[WillieC]

DA, how do you know when to quit pumping fuel? I use 5 gallon jugs so less chance of overflow. We are headed out this week for a run to bham.

And nice pics with great documentation!

[catalina_mike]

Going around the island is beautiful. Congrats...

[DesertAlbin736]

DA, how do you know when to quit pumping fuel? I use 5 gallon jugs so less chance of overflow. We are headed out this week for a run to bham.

I religiously track and log every drop of fuel purchased since we bought the boat and engine hours between fuelings. So I have a pretty good idea of GPH burn rate (between .37 to .40 GPH, 0.50 max), how many hours run since last fill up, and about how much fuel it'll take. When it gets close to that amount I keep a close eye on the fuel gauge, which is a mechanical float gauge in the tank that you read through a hole in the floorboard over the tank. I never pump it in at full blast, plus I listen closely for the change in pitch of the gurgling sound at the filler fitting, which happens as you get close to full. Whenever possible I fill it up on land at a regular gas station. On this last run of 105 miles we did not need to refuel while on the water. So unless we're on a real long cruise I never have to fill up at fuel docks. They don't sell diesel at the marinas on our local lake anyway. Yet another advantage of trailering. I could tell you to the penny and gallon how much we've spent on fuel since we bought the boat 3 1/2 years ago.

[jcamill55]

Desertalibn
I'm headed to anacapa and Santa Cruz island , out of Ventura or Oxnard for a little fishing and diving I will let you know how's it goes. i also have a 3gmf30 . I seam to get 2 12 hours per gal also . It may be someplace you might want to go

[DesertAlbin736]

jcamill55,

Let me know how that goes. Often hear about the Santa Barbara channel up there getting rough with winds & big seas. No immediate plans to return to SoCal this year. One of these days would like to get out there during whale migration season. Right now we're committed to an extended road trip back East (without the boat) next month, and next year back up to Pacific NW.

[sail149]

La Dolce Vita,
Looks like a great trip. Suprised to see so few boats in the mooring field or is that normal? Is Burl Ives's old N'orsea 27 still there? Cream colored I'm told by the guy that sold it to him years ago.
Cheers Warren

[DesertAlbin736]

Pictures of the mooring field are a bit deceiving. Avalon was very crowded, especially later in the week & on weekends. Two Harbors was less crowded, but filled up quite a bit on Friday afternoon when a large group of sailboats came in. We headed back on to the mainland on Saturday morning, 7/15. No sign of Burl Ives boat. No Arthur Godfrey either.