Author: kerri

Dear F&F,
Our sail from Santa Barbara Island to Catalina Island was uneventful until
we arrived at the West End of Catalina. Where we saw a 90 foot long BLUE
WHALE, 100 yards off the beach.
We took a few photos and enjoyed tagging along enroute to Cherry Cove at the
Isthmus of Catalina. We enjoyed the hiking, getting the laundry done and
generally had very nice Fall weather.
This was the week that the Santa Ana Wind event was predicted to be a
memorable one. We moved to Big Geiger Cove awaiting our friends, Mike and
Beth aboard s/v \”Scotch Mist\”. We had the cove to ourselves and went for
some wonderful long hikes.

Here we came across the Catalina Island Conservancy and Fish and Game staff
who had just trapped a Catalina Island Fox. These are endangered animals
and are currently down to about 1500 animals on the Island.
They are having an epidemic of ear cancer (of all things!) and the
Vetenarian who was with the group was cleaning out the Fox\’s ears and taking
tissue samples. Photos of this will be posted on the website.

When Mike and Beth arrived, Beth and Cindy went for a long hike and came
across several Catalina Island Buffalo. We came across these very large and
splendid beasts several times during our stay. Photos of this will be posted
on the website soon. We cut our visit short at Big Geiger Cove as the winds
were predicted to be fierce and the Southern California Wildfires began. We
moved around to Catalina Harbor in very bumpy conditions while Mike and Beth
headed back to Redondo Beach. We were moored in \”Cat Harbor\” with about 50
other boats awaiting the winds. The wind event lasted about 24 hours for us
with the last gust to 42 knots being the strongest. When the winds finally
died off, the smoke from the fires on the coast had covered every boat in
ash. At night you could see the ash raining down in the light of a
flashlight. This lasted for almost a week!

We met up again with new friends Eric & Emmy out of San Francisco who were
former caretakers of Palmyra Island, (800 miles SW of Hawaii) owned by the
Nature Conservancy. We would be loosely following each other down the
Pacific Coast. After a few days in Cat Harbor, we started to head toward
Avalon going around the \”backside\” of the Island. We took a detour into
\”Little Harbor\” and instantly fell in love. Photos will be posted….soon.
We went snorkeling, watched the ash fall from the sky and had a magic day at
this beautiful spot all to ourselves. Hiking, MORE Buffalo and a glorious
day.

The next day we motored to Avalon and saw USCG Cutter \”Blackfin\” checking on
various boats. Something was up, but we will never know what. We arrived
in Avalon, had a few great days of hiking, saw wild deer, did somemore
laundry and generally relaxed. The ash still fell and I had to wash what
looked like mud off the boat every day for a week. It was now time to get
back to the coast and continue the \”Good Bye Contractor Tour\” from Long
Beach to San Diego………

Dear F&F,
It has been one of the greatest days I\’ve ever seen here in Catalina. We came upon naturalists from the Dept. of Fish and Game in conjunction with the Catalina Island Conservancy and a Veterinarian from UC Davis. They had captured an endangered Catalina Island Fox (Their are only 500 estimated on the Island, up from 100 recently). They apparently are susceptible to a particular type of ear cancer and the Vet was taking samples and cleaning out its ears! We will have photos on the web next week!…..

Weather Wise: Its been up to 88 degrees and the wind is calm. We are waiting for friends Mike and Beth aboard \”Scotch Mist\” and will be keeping a close eye on the weather as Santa Ana\’s are predicted to start sometime tomorrow. If necessary, we will scoot around to the south side of the island to Cat Harbor which is the best protection against these winds should they occur. If WX PERMITS, we will go to Avalon Sunday or Monday…..
KIT,
S&C

Dear F&F,
We had a week of one night stands at Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands.
Stopping in Potato Harbor, Pelican Bay, Bechers Bay, Coches Prieto, Scorpion
Anchorage, Smugglers Cove and winding up at Sea Lion City, Santa Barbara
Island before we arrived here. A fabulous sail was had from Santa Cruz
Island to Santa Barbara Island (40 miles) and then……..

We saw a 60 foot long Blue Whale, the largest animal on earth, about the
size of 4 Bull Elephants.
The unusal thing about our sighting was that it occurred 100 yards off the
coast of Catalina Island just as we arrived from Santa Barbara Island. A
small power boat went right over it and didn\’t even see it!
We will be heading to Avalon next week after a brief visit from friends Mike
and Beth Lonnes at Big Geiger Cove this weekend……WX PERMITTING (Santa
Ana\’s are predicted). After Avalon, we\’ll be headed back to the coast for
some F&F visits and boat projects (the ever present boat projects!).

Definition: Cruising the Oceans of the World in a small sailboat is defined
as: \”Doing boat projects in exotic locations……:)\”
KIT (keep in touch). You can write us at our shoreside emails or through
the \”Contact Us\” form on the website till at least the end of November. We
will post \”sea (and land) stories\” and lots of photos on the website by the
end of next week.
Hugs to all,
S&C s/v Beach House – Cherry Cove, Catalina Island, California

Dear F&F,
We left Smugglers Cove, Santa Cruz Island on 14 October 2007. in
clear, cool, overcast skies. Hopeing for a lovely sail, we got it.
Cindy and I hoisted the main and set the big kevlar reacher, averaging
about 7 knots, we sailed almost the entire distance to little Santa
Barbara Island, 42 miles Southwest of Marina del Rey. Santa Barbara
is the second smallest of the Channel Islands to Anacapa and except
for San Nicholas, (The Island in the Scott Odell book, \”Island of the
Blue Dolphins\”), the most remote. Santa Barbara Island was no
stranger to us as we had been there on three previous occassions. We
show a few photos of our arrival in the gallery \”2007 – Catalina &
Santa Barbara Islands\”. This was to be just an overnight stop enroute
to Catalina. Despite the cool fall weather, a great sail was our
reward for the previous weeks cold and blustery conditions.