[Paddlewise] Easter egg hunt in Catalina - trip report

  "I can't wait, we're going to find the most eggs. We'll have a significant
size advantage over those five year olds!"

  "Yeah we should dominate the Easter egg hunt on Catalina this weekend!"

  "Who has the ferry tickets?"

  "I don't."; "Not me."

  "Uh oh...."

  "Anybody have money?"

  "Uh... oh, we used it all on the hotel room last night."

  "Let's kayak over the 22 miles instead!"


I was jerked back to reality and found myself in the middle of the ocean, over
ten miles from land. The Magnificent Seven, a mish mash of kayakers from San
Francisco to LA, mostly for the Santa Barbara area, was deliberately plodding
our way toward Two Harbors, Catalina from San Pedro. My daydreaming was
abruptly ended by the sounds of one of my brave buddies contributing shark
chum to the sea.

There he was rafted up and leaning over another bow, waking me from my
hallucinations. I watched intently making sure that nobody dumped during this

This prompted an informal "competition" for the rest of the trip by most of
the Mag 7. There was the technique of quite suppression and continuous
paddling as if they were avoiding a sea monster. Then there was the quick hurl
while nobody was looking. Most impressive was the Exorcist-like projectile
vomitting straight ahead onto the front deck and skirt! Unfortunately, I
couldn't join into the fun.

The trip started as we left our hotel in San Pedro at 4:40am after a 4 am wake
up call. A few of us met the night before for dinner. This was the first time
that I had met most of them. I was the only one that had made the Catalina
crossing before but I have never been to Two Harbors. Many earlier emails had
helped us plan this crossing. I joined late in the endeavor and all worked out
fairly well. 

We arrived at the gate to Cabrillo Beach before 5 am in the dark. The
attendant arrived about 15 minutes later and we rushed to get ready in the
dark. Original plans called for a Friday 5:45am launch but various delays put
us back to a daylight launch at ~6:40am

On our way we navigated by compass and GPS. The sky was fairly clear and we
could see our destination on the horizon. We adjusted our ferry angle to
counteract the wind and current. We went fairly smoothly in the morning thru

I paddled over my Looksha II, an extreme 20' x 20" with a banana-like rocker.
The last time I borrowed another boat (Arluk II), too scared to paddle my
racing boat thru the expected rough waters and wind. I also kept borrowed
sponsons stowed in my cockpit just in case I or one of the "competitors"
needed them. I was very anxious being in that boat if the waters turned very
bad. I had been preparing in challenging conditions under and out of the Gate
in various conditions of large swells, large currents and ~30kt winds to see
if I could handle the boat in the different conditions. I did fine. Luckily
the forecast called for a nice weekend anyway. 

A brand new original design baidarka, just finished the week before made the
trip also. How brave to use a greenland paddle carved from a 2x4 to paddle a
boat just finished and barely tested to cross over to Catalina. I was jealous.

The afternoon winds picked up as usual. A "nice" day in the strait still meant
~~15 knot winds, large swells and some breaking wind waves. We were tag-team
passed by sailboats that were part of our group. Our trip leader's son
proposed on the way over in his sailboat and she said "yes"!

After the "competition" and some heavy duty paddling, we landed on the beach
of Two Harbors Catalina mid afternoon. Many of us loaded up on food even after
eating the whole way over. A whole group of newly acquired in-laws and
significant others were there to greet us. 5 of us camped at Two harbors while
the ones with significant others played the more touristy route and stayed at
the Banning Lodge which incredibly overlooks both harbors on opposite sides of
the island.

Our campsite was extremely nice. I was just a few yards from the beach and I
slept very well thru gently crashing surf all nite. Many were asleep by 8pm,
barely dark. I stayed up the latest, 9:30pm. Coin operated showers, sinks, a
restaurant, and empty sandy beaches made this a top choice on my expedition
destinations.

I liked it much better than Avalon, where I crossed the last time on an annual
Catalina trip with the San Diego Night Herons. And it is closer too.

Saturday was an extremely lazy day for me with zero plans until a 6 pm dinner.
I started on an impromtu hike towards Parsons landing but turned around since
I didn't have gear to carry my stuff. Actually, the warm sand and sandman were
calling me. 

After a lazy afternoon talking with various people, the mother of the
bride-to-be gave an invitation to me join them for a celebration dinner! This
was very generous since I was a scruffy, hungry, paddling stranger. I was to
alert the other members of the Mag 7. The invite was just too generous to
resist and we all joined the festivities. I had already eaten two dinners
withing a span of 3 hours the night before at the only restaurant. The
celebration food was much better, plus we ate and drank on the beach to the
sounds of a live outdoor band.

I met the German grandfather of the bride to be. We exchanged stories in my
broken german about the fatherland and my old oompah band from yesteryear.

Very cool.

We went back to camp to do some prepacking for the early morning launch. The
previous morning launch plans called for a 10am launch. I lobbied hard to get
that changed to an earlier time considering some of the previous difficulties
and the boats some of us were in. I really wanted to avoid the risk of the
afternoon winds which would likely slow us down. The plans were changed to 7
am launch.

The next morning we packed up launched without incident at ~ 7:20am and headed
back. A Christopher-Columbus-like feeling came over me as we headed out into
the fog. We could not see the mainland. The conditions were great with a
gentle breeze from our side. 

We had to radio many times to warn ships of our presence. This included a
cruise ship relatively close to Catalina that did a complete 360 as if she
were looking for us. She spotted us and headed right at us out of the shipping
lanes. We franctically waved our paddles and alerted the captain by radio.
Finally she acknowledged and turned and passed us withing a few hundred yards.
Big boat!

We made great time with very short breaks and a fast cruising speed. The
conditions made it fairly easy to paddle and stay on course.Our early launch
gave us great conditions with no time for "competitions". The surf at Cabrillo
was tame and we all landed without incident. We beat all the sailboats and
ferry back that were part of our group. We all celebrated the first successful
Catalina Crossing for most of the group.

I took a celebratory swim in the ~50F water and took a full parking lot bucket
shower. I changed to fresh street clothes and cleaned up. Many still had some
of their paddling clothes on. When we went to get food, we were rejected by
the seafood restaurant claiming that they were cleaning up after Easter brunch
and getting ready for dinner. Likely story, kayak bigots. We ended up in a
Mexican dive and devoured chips faster than they could bring them.

I had the long drive back the Bay Area after food. I kept the expedition
routine going short breaking every hour. I really hate driving and this leg of
my journey was harder than the first from Catalina to the mainland. I arrived
home to a pile of emails and did not get to sleep until 1:30am last night,
close to my normal time. A long day it was.

I am hoping to make the Catalina crossing an annual event. Anybody interested
let me know. I much prefer Two Harbors, in honor of Natalie Wood and the fine
scenery and atmosphere.

live long and paddle,

albert

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