While the title may be misleading, there can be issues in Avalon.
I enjoyed 1960 - 1988 sailing these beautiful waters, but if you were on a mooring or at
anchor on the east side of
Catalina and woke up to dry decks and/or a easterly
wind, you better get to the other side.
Mid-70's we were at The Isthmus on our
Cal 25 around Thanksgiving when a Santana
wind came up. We immediately dropped the mooring and headed for the northwest end of the island. Since we were primarily a
racer, we did not have storm
sails, so we reefed the main and headed out with our trusty Johnson 5.5. At times I had to sit on the
outboard to keep it in the
water. We rounded the end of
Catalina in winds that were reported as 70 knots, then tried to get down to Catalina Harbor. We finally got in the lee of the mountains and could put the 155 up and make it in. We hung out until the winds went back to the normal northwesterlys.
Wonderful memories! Still not as bad as
Hurricane Ivan 2004 in Bayou Chico with 140 knots on Satori, our
Cal 46. Short fetch across the bayou vs 26 miles from the mainland to Catalina. Remember the song, "Twenty six miles across the sea, beautiful Catalina waiting for me."
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