Kayakers, For the Fifth Annual Catalina for Lunch, I decided to do things differently. Rather than a group crossing, like in all the previous years, I thought it would be fun, not to mention easier, in my Point Bennett double sea kayak. The best partner I could imagine, Jake Stachovak, was a go. With the two of us the double, we were boasting about how easy it was going to be crossing to Catalina Island and back the same day, at total of 38 nautical miles. We were sure it was going to take just 4 hours each way. Little did we know what we were in for. We launched at Cabrillo Beach on the mainland at 6:15 a.m., on Monday, August 27, 2007. The first half of the 19 nautical mile crossing was calm. During the second half, we had some wind and wave chop that slowed us down and made us soaking wet. We arrived at Two Harbors at Catalina Island at 10:45 a.m., making for a 4 = hour crossing. The crossing took 30 minutes more than we expected. We were also tired from the wave chop and chilled from being wet in the wind and not wearing our paddle jackets. Its best to arrive at the island with zero wear and tear, so we were more beat up than we wanted for the return crossing still ahead of us. At the island, Jake and I ate lunch, warmed-up in the sun, and reorganized our gear. We also switched seats. I was in the bow for the crossing over, and he was in the bow for the return crossing. We worked well together as a team, and as it turned out, both of us were comfortable in either seat. We launched from the island at 12:15 p.m. As soon as we were out in the channel, we were constantly getting broached by seas quartering us at a perfect 45 degree angle from the left rear. To fight the double kayak (without a skeg or rudder) from pulling to the left, we sat on the left side of our seats to help dig in the left chine and edge turn the kayak. We also kept our paddles extended to the left. All of this correcting still wasnt enough and was exhausting. For relief, every couple of minutes I threw in a hard right stern rudder with the paddle to overshoot our heading. Splashing from the choppy conditions soaked us too. Fortunately, we put our paddle jackets on for the return crossing and were able to stay warm. Halfway back across the channel, Jake and I took our sunglasses off, because all the splashing made them too hard to see through, and we really had to keep our eyes on the chop to react to it. Due to the wind direction, every time Jake took a stroke on the left side, water dripping off his paddle blew into my face. I told Jake to keep paddling normal, because there was nothing that could be done about it. Nonetheless, I felt like I was suffering Chinese water torture almost the entire crossing. With us getting blown downwind and correcting our heading, as well as the wave and wind direction changing, we finally had beam conditions and tracked nicely the last few miles. It felt good to finally paddle equally hard on both sides and not have to edge the kayak. Of course, we were blown downwind so far that we had to hook back and fight a headwind the last mile or so. As we approached Cabrillo Beach, wind surfers were whipping by all around us. It felt good to hit the sand back on the mainland, where we arrived at 5:15 p.m., making for a return crossing of 5 hours, much longer than we expected. We were also beat up. As tough as it was in the double, we were glad we hadnt done the crossings in those conditions in single kayaks. Instead of just 9 = hours on the water, we probably wouldve been out there for 14 hours. See additional photos at: http://duane.smugmug.com/gallery/3383997. An End of an Era Finally, I want to announce an end to the Annual Catalina for Lunch, at least under my leadership. Ive been contemplating this end for some time. I wasnt even sure I was going to do it again this year, but I thought that doing it 5 times was a nice round number. I feel lucky to have done it 5 times, with 12 different friends, for a total of 26 individual completions (or 52 individual channel crossings), with no one dropping out or being towed. My goal was always a success rate of 100%, so Im calling it quits with a perfect record now, rather than waiting for something to happen. Anyone willing to take over leadership of the Annual Catalina for Lunch is welcome to have the franchise. Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:46 PDT