12.24.2012 9:08 PST 58F

This is actually our third Christmas at Catalina Islands. First time was in 2007, we chartered a Beneteau 10R (32ft), “Arrow”, from Long Beach. We had so much fun, and decided to bring our previous sailboat, Blue Moon, down here. We sailed Blue Moon to Channel Islands the next year and brought it over the Catalina on Christmas Eve in 2009. One side effect of that whole California offshore trip: the passage was brutal on our 40ft sailboat, and we decided we needed something else for our cruising dream. Well, here we are, on a Nordhavn 62 for our third Christams at Catalina, on our way to Australia. All very logical. 🙂

Being the third time at Catalina, this is actually the first time we moored at the Isthmus. We love it. Some infrastructure (thanks to the FAST wifi from the USC marine center across the bay), but still very quiet and peaceful –- 5-6 boats even on the Christmas holiday weekend, although it’d be a completely different story in the summer. We went on a hike yesterday, and took some beautiful shots of the Two Harbor

Christmas holiday “crowd” Continue reading →

12/20/2012 17:50 PST 58.7 F
We spent our last night at an anchorage on the south side of Santa Cruz Island, Coches Prietos, apparently means “Black Pig”. It is a really charm anchorage, cliffs on both sides and a sandy beach in the middle. We even managed to pull off our first dive, off the cliff on the east side. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality –great visibility (for california), colorful coral, kelp forest and lots of fishes. Will take our camera in the furture.

Continue reading →

12/18/2012 18:08 PST 58F

Forecast was spot on. NW wind howling pretty much whole day, gusting up to 40 knots. We re-anchored twice, finally got settled down in 20 ft water, with 200 ft chain out. The day was gorgeous, just windy like hell.

The wind finally calmed down a bit around 5pm, to only 25 knots or so. We are happy that our anchor system held on pretty well in such windy/gale condition, while we enjoy the heat and comfort inside Gray Matter, Nodrhavn 62.

We retracted our flopper stopper half way during re-anchoring. Seems to work really well.

Yellow Bank Anchorage. Gorgeous anchorage. Wild cliff, beautiful beach. But it was too windy to go ashore.

12/17/2012 16:00 PST 62 F

Settled down at Yellow Bank, east side of Santa Cruz Island. This is a refuge anchorage for N-NW winds. We chose it in anticipation of the NW gale warning starting tomorrow morning.

Anacapa Island

A spectacular sunset, but can definitely see the storm forming in the distance.
[google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”34.02,-119.54{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

12／17／2012 13:30 PST 65 F

It was a rough day yesterday. East wind blew directly to our anchorage, Cuyler Harbor. After a long haul in the head sea to Santa Cruz, we struggled to find a good anchorage. wind wakes and swells seemed to come from all directions. Finally, We settled down at Cueva Valdaze Harbor. This is a great spot for protection from East wind and west swell. We had our best anchor-out night.


After all that roughness yesterday, today was gorgeous. Sun was out, no wind. The confusing sea we battled with yesterday became a big lake today. We took the dinghy out, went to exploring the painted ave.



Dinghy driver Mark



Going through

[google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”34.05,-119.81{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

12/15/2012 19:30 PST After 280 miles, We pulled into the Cuyler Harbor, San Miguel island around 7PM. It was raining with no moon light — could not see anything outside. Luckily the harbor is wide open and well marked. GPS + radar, we managed to get settled in. It was not exactly a calm anchorage, but served us well for a good night sleep. [google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”250″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”34.06,-120.34{}cruiseship.png” kml=” https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12142193/GPS/Day1_SF_CH.gpx” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

12/15/2012, 14:30 PST, 60.1 F

Just passing the notorious Point Conception. No wind, just ocean swells. Once in a while, a big swell caught us by surprise. Fortunately, the only damage so far is a coffee mug. Having done this exact trip two years ago on our previous sailboat, we are loving the ride this time. Nordhavn 62, rocks! Continue reading →