We left Marina del Rey and sailed about 40 miles to Catalina Harbor on the rugged south-west coast of Catalina Island.  Pulled in a small Striped Sea Bass using a hand line along the way and grilled it with some spices and olive oil for dinner.  Mooring buoys here have bow and stern ties so they can pack a lot of boats into a small area.  The water is crystal clear so we could see the bottom in 30’ of water.  Ashore we walked a half mile across an isthmus to “Two Harbors”, which is on the north side, where there is a small general store (with ice cream), a restaurant, and a bar.  Back at the boat after dark we were treated to a feeding frenzy of seals catching fish.  We first noticed the splashes alongside the boat, so went up on deck with a spotlight and saw the small fish jumping out of the water just ahead of the seals.  Was amazed at how fast swimmers they were in pursuit of their evening snack.  With the water being so clear, we could shine the light on the seal and watch them dart around and under the boat chasing the fish.  This continued until after we went to bed and every now and then I could feel the bump from a seal brushing against the hull while chasing fish.

After 2 days in Catalina Harbor, we set sail for Avalon, about 25 miles away on the north-east coast of Catalina Island.  Coincidentally on the way there, I read an article from the New York Times about the revival of Avalon in the past few years and how the town is trying to deal with emergency water shortages due to overbuilding.  The marina is similar to Catalina Harbor, with mooring buoys having bow and stern ties to prevent swinging.  When you enter the harbor, a patrol boat assigns you a mooring ball within a huge grid where boats are packed together about 15’ apart.  The first thing we did was to finally unpack and inflate the dinghy, then row to shore for showers where we paid $4 for a 5 minute shower and were told we got there just before they reached their quota on how many shower tokens they can sell for the day!  At the pizza restaurant they could not give us water in a glass due to water restrictions, but could sell us bottled water for just 50 cents (we later found out that was par for all the restaurants).  Despite the severe water restrictions, we found Avalon to be a great place with lots of good food, shops, a grocery store, sandy beach, and just a nice atmosphere.  On our second day at Avalon we had Mexican food for lunch, went swimming, got some groceries, and relaxed on the boat.

Part of our daily 2nd grade home-schooling (or boat-schooling) is for Jacintha to write in her journal, which I sometime add to the blog.  She does 3 pages of math about every day and reads a lot.  We also have discussions on things we see along the way (eg why a bronze sculpture tarnishes green) and she draws lots of pictures in her journal.  She also writes post cards and sends emails to some of her friends.

Jacintha’s Blog (from Catalina Harbor):  Lick, lick!  I was licking ice cream.  I had bubblegum, poppy had french vanilla, daddy had coconut pineapple.  After that poppy went to a shop to buy me a fly swatter (we had flies on the boat!) while daddy and me went to the beach.  At first me and daddy found cool rocks and shells.  After that daddy had a nap while I got stuff to make a shop.   I had explosions, sand cookies, shells, a rubber  band, rocks, and sand crab skeletons.  Then poppy came back and poppy and daddy bought stuff (from her shop).

Jacintha’s Blog (from Avalon):  I was at the beach.  First me and daddy saw an angel fish.  After that I made a sandcastle, then went swimming.  Then I went to a part where I could walk and there was a lot of seaweed and I tried to get seaweed stuck to my legs.  After that I went fish searching and saw a school of big zebra fish right next to me.