Week 2: Santa Catalina Island

Total Swam: 9.14

Total Hiked: 32.35

Mylar Balloons Retrieved from Mother Ocean Total on Moonshine: 51

Looking back at week 2 I can’t help but revisit week 1. What was it? I didn’t really see it at the time but my mind had to shift. From constant stress to oh so quite the opposite. From having things I HAD to do to doing things I WANTED to do. This was a monumental shift. How could we comprehend it at the moment? When your daily concerns, daily commutes and daily stresses you’ve had for years just melt away, you’re left with one thing…a sunburn. We’ve yet to set an alarm for anything but the launch of a SpaceX rocket, laundry timer, or most importantly 5 o’clock. We fill those times now with exercise and boat repairs/upgrades. We make time each day for creative expansion. We plan our route north on Moonshine. We buy plane, train, and automobile tickets for random places around the world the internet tells us we need to see.

A lot of people asked me what I was going to do with all my spare time. I always answered “I don’t know”. How could anyone know what they would actually do with their time freedom? Is it just an expansion of what your weekends look like? Now we know. So for the time being, we will live in this time, in this moment because we don’t know if, when, or where the next one will be. I’m not the first one to say this but don’t wait for tomorrow. Find what’s holding you back from living the life you always wanted and charge towards it, full steam ahead. Enough of this. Here is a story from the end of week 1 that we’ll claim came from week two that wouldn’t have ever been an answer I would have given when asked what I would do with all my free time…

One afternoon, Lauren wanted cinnamon rolls. It was always her family's tradition on Easter. I am sure that’s one of the million reasons I married her. Our love of sweets. We were, however, moored up in a cove too far away to dinghy in Twinkie to the store. Seeing as how it was just a 20 min boat ride, we figured we could just hike along the cliff road to the store. A store we didn’t even know if they had cinnamon rolls. So we laced up the hiking shoes, drug Twinkie onto the beach, lassoed a rock, climbed the hill and set off. Couldn’t be more than 2.5-3 miles to the general store, we thought. Several miles in, we passed a rattle snake on the side of the road. We didn’t see it until we were 3 feet away and it shook its terrifying tail at us. Lauren jumped 12-15 feet in the air and took off running. I stopped and turned to try and get a look at it. This is one of the many reasons women live longer than men. Four and a half miles in we realized we weren't going to make it in time. With packs and the wrong shoes, we started running. We ran about a mile. I still regret running but you gotta do what you gotta do for the sugar. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. We drifted down the cold section and decided the $9 island price for the rolls at this point was worth it! Then we realized we had 6 miles back to the boat as the sun was setting. No Uber here to take the easy way back. We did however pay the Harbor Patrol $8 each to take us a few coves down in his boat to knock a couple miles off the trip back. We got treated to a beautiful sunset as we hiked the 4 miles back. We were walking up to Twinkie on the beach when Lauren looked at her watch. 9.85 miles. I knew what she wanted and said “you can walk circles around the dinghy until you hit 10 but I’ll be sitting here watching”. We got back to Moonshine just at dark 30. Mission successful. Although I’ve had those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls a thousand times, those were definitely the best ones I’ve tasted to this day. And that’s the jist of it, is it not?

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Yes, that's a quote from a great thinker that I used to emphasize the gravity of us hiking for cinnamon rolls. You’re welcome.

We technically started week two leaving 4th of July Cove and heading east. We popped into Moonstone Cove with Moonshine to stay the night on our way to Avalon to pick up my parents the next day. A few snooty yacht clubs(“yacht clubs” should be said through your teeth) litter the land here. There were only a few boats anchored up here as well. No fish and no swimming here. The water was crazy cloudy with the direction of the wind on the cove. After a great night's sleep with the ASLOWYAROLL(See Note 1) deployed we dropped the mooring and headed for Avalon.

Once in Avalon we picked up our ball, we cleaned up the cabin and prepped for the arrival of my parents. We prefer the more secluded areas of the island but Avalon is a history rich town and deserves an afternoon of its own if you are visiting the island. We spent the afternoon of their arrival getting a tour of The Casino before all climbing into Twink Twink and heading outside the breakwater to the dive park. My dad hopped right in but mom was a little hesitant. And for good reason. The water here is cold. She let out quite the yelp as she hit the 64 degree water in her wetsuit. She took a few peeks around underwater and sea -lioned her way back up onto the dinghy. What a way to spend the day!

The next morning Moonshine was topped off with fuel and water before we motored up the coast, close inshore, to avoid the NW swell outside of the lee of the island. We got to Isthmus cove and hunkered down the remaining few days they were here. We had some long walks/hikes around Two Harbors and had some amazing dinners. One day we went and picked up a ball in Emerald Bay to go snorkeling. It’s one of our favorite reefs. We swam around the reef for a couple hours before Lauren got in to do her 1000 yard swim for the day. Once back in Isthmus, we had a great dinner at the only restaurant in town, Harbor Reef. It wasn’t easy saying our “see ya laters” but Lauren and I sat on the bow of Moonshine and waved them off as the ferry headed back to San Pedro.

Lauren has decided to swim every single day for 30 straight days. I’m always happy to swim along but I like taking breaks every few days. 2 weeks in and she is still crushing it. I’ll dinghy alongside her on the days I don’t swim for support. We’re settling into our groove here of slow paced island life and loving every second. Week 3 has more visitors inbound. We’ll update soon! As always, fair winds and following seas. YEW!, still afloat. Moonshine out.

(Note 1: ASLOWYAROLL is simply a roll reducer I built to help us not roll back and forth as much in the swell when at anchor or moored up. It is a 3’x3’x3’ 3/16” thick triangle. On one corner, I mounted a heavy piece of steel. I then drilled a hole in each corner. Using an old halyard, I hang it from the end of the boom with a preventer line forward to keep the boom from swinging wildly. I’ll tighten the main halyard to take some of the pressure off the gooseneck and release the lock on the rigid boom vang. As the boat gets hit with a wave, it rolls in one direction. The ASLOWYAROLL dips and sails downward in the water in the direction of the weighted corner of the triangle. As the boat goes to roll back in the other direction, the apparatus gets pulled upwards and the surface area of the triangle stops the boat’s rolling motion. So far I give it a 10/10.)