Around Catalina - East Coast to Isthmus Harbor

After resting easy on Saturday, we waited for a breeze to come up on Sunday morning and after motoring a short distance out of the harbor, put up the sails to traverse the East Coast of the island. The shoreline is very pretty, and we were very lacksidasical about sailing until we realized we hadn't gone a mile in over an hour. We decided we were too close to shore at Goat Harbor, and turned away from the island to try to catch a better breeze. But we didn't start the motor :-)

Instead we started playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony really loud and sure enough, after 20 minutes or so, the wind god Zephyr must of liked it because the wind picked up to 15 knots or so, and before we knew it we were moving along at 6 knots.

But the sailing was great as we cooked up the coast. Apart from that, there was only one other minor mishap as we were putting the sail away and motoring into Isthmus Harbor that afternoon. It was pretty warm, so I took my life jacket off and threw it down into the cockpit, but missed. The life jacket slipped over the side of the boat, fell in the water and instantly inflated with a "pop", which was good to know, since I'd wanted to test it somehow anyways, and we rescued it on the first attempt, so all was well as we pulled into Isthmus Harbor and got a mooring for the night.

Isthmus Harbor was absolutely charming. And since it was the off season, we were nicely nearly alone in the harbor. The place will be filled up by July 4th, everyone tells us.

We took the dinghy in and had a few drinks and a very nice dinner at the restaurant there.

Approaching Isthmus Harbor

In Isthmus Harbor