TravelTales: Week 3, 4, and 5

Week 3, 4 and 5: Santa Catalina Island

Total Swam: 16.3

Total Hiked: 48.28

Mylar Balloons Retrieved from Mother Ocean Total on Moonshine: 51

Lauren, who managed to complete her 31 day straight challenge of swimming every single day, is going to let you know what the last three weeks were like. So without further ado, my favorite person on the planet...

Lauren writing here!

Moonshine is Hotel Catalina and we LOVE it! When my mom told me that her and my dad wanted to come stay on Moonshine for 8 days I was excited but a bit apprehensive. My dad has stayed on Moonshine before, he has camped in extreme weather and seems to even enjoy “roughing it” so I was not concerned with him staying on the boat for that long. But my mom? She isn’t exactly the roughing it type of gal- which is totally fine. She enjoys her showers, always has her hair and makeup done and is dressed like she has walked out of a magazine shoot on the daily. I explained to her that a hotel for a day or two during their stay may be in her best interest. See, what our Instagram shows is photos of a beautiful island full of clear blue and green waters. You can almost picture yourself sipping on a pina colada while soaking up the sunshine: which DOES happen. But what it doesn’t show is how some creature comforts aren’t included in Moonshine’s hotel package. For example:

-We don’t have a shower. Our daily swims make us feel clean and about once a week we enjoy a campground shower. You pay for the amount of time you shower. Usually we take 3min showers before the water shuts off. Those 3 minutes are plenty of time but you need to make every minute count.

-You can’t put toilet paper in the boat’s head. Toilet paper must go in a trash can. We don’t have an electric button or a little flusher to pull down on. You have to manually pump your bodily fluids and solids down the toilet.

-Cooking means you have to open deep storage containers in search of items, moving things from one area to another and then back again, multiple times.

-You are guaranteed to say “ouch” at least once a day but realistically it’s more like 3. Stubbed toes, hitting your head or banging your body against a sharp corner is common.

-We call it boat yoga: you will put your body into poses/shapes you didn’t know you were capable of. We do this even with the simplest of tasks, like crawling out of bed. --There are SO many noises. As the boat rolls: It will creak, lines will slap against the mast, water will splash against the hull, and Twinkie, our dinghy, has been known to cause a ruckus during the night. As the wind shifts Twinkie will thud without any rhythm at all against the stern of the boat.

- You are constantly balancing yourself. You will be sore even if you just sat all day. You also have to try not falling into the ocean as you get into and out of Twinkie.

So, when my mom called me two weeks out from their arrival to tell me she had a bad ankle sprain, I thought she was royally screwed. I had pretty much convinced myself that she was not going to make this trip and if she did she would not enjoy herself. I got a text a few days later saying she had made up her mind: she was coming! Turns out Daniel had sent her a text explaining we would navigate around her sprained ankle the best we could and explained how badly we wanted her to come. When my parents arrived, my mom’s ankle was alarmingly swollen but I put on my brave nurse face of “show no expressions of worry” in order to keep the calm. We got her from the dock into Twinkie and from Twinkie into the boat without any spills into the ocean. Over the next 8 days, I witnessed a version of my mom that I never knew existed. She embraced the no makeup, salty hair lifestyle with ease and her natural beauty glowed. My mom slept better on the boat than she has in years. Just so you know, she was sleeping on top of a saloon table that was lowered down with cushions placed on top of it. Just to get my point across one more time: She was sleeping on top of a TABLE, roughly the size of a double bed with my dad and sleeping better than ever before. She got excited for the cold plunges off the boat and never once asked for a wetsuit. She never complained about the head (toilet) situation. She worked her magic with a two burner stove and small oven-making the best meals we have had on Moonshine thus far. She took her first campground shower. Showered only once during their stay. Before I knew it, she was researching trawlers(a larger motor boat) and toying with the idea of potentially purchasing one to vacation on in order to escape the brutally hot Louisiana summers. I have to be dreaming right? I think my dad was as surprised as I was. Dad, if you are reading this, you need to take this opportunity and run with it! Go buy yourselves a trawler!

Speaking of my dad, he also surprised us. On our 10-year wedding anniversary we thought it would be a good idea to all rent mountain bikes. This way my mom could have less pressure on her ankle and we could all be together while trying out a new activity on the island. Well, that was hopeful thinking. My mom’s ankle was still giving her problems and the “flat” road Daniel and I had promised them wasn’t as flat as we had made it out to be. After about 5 miles her tire blew out (we are all convinced she sliced the tire herself in order to be done with that journey)and the bike company had to pick her and the bike up and take her down the mountain. Daniel, my dad and I continued on. What Daniel and I didn’t realize was that my dad seemed to be a natural born speed biker who we struggled to keep up with. At one point, we were going downhill a lot and Daniel called out, “this means we will have to come back up”. My dad shrugged at his words of caution with a smile on his face.

Daniel and I gave each other a look with every hill we went down knowing that coming up was going to be a struggle. We have been frequently going for hikes and swimming everyday. My dad, who just retired and lives in the flat state of Louisiana was absolutely crushing this bike ride more so than us. On the way back up no breaks were needed even though I was wishing someone would have asked for one (I’m too competitive to ask for one myself). My legs burned but I also was proud to see my dad charge through this physical activity. As we turned in the bikes, Daniel looked over at me and said, “he’s an ox.”

The ox continued to charge through our physical activities during their stay: he did a tough hike, paddle boarded next to us during our swims and snorkeled.

My parents stepped out of their comfort zones during this trip and they both absolutely thrived. I think everyone should challenge themselves to try something new whether it’s escaping from life’s everyday creature habits, trying a new physical activity, or just saying yes to something new. You may surprise yourself!

As a side note- By the end of the trip, my mom’s ankle had significantly gone down in swelling and she no longer hobbled as she walked. I guess all you need is some Vitamin Sea.

Daniel from here on out to bore you with nonsense...

What did the momma tomato say to the baby tomato that was falling behind? Holy crap week 3 and 4 AND 5 flew by. What the hell just happened? We haven't figured out why we're here or how to slow this raw, ephemeral life that is slowly becoming a distant memory. The only thing we don't seem to get more of…is time. Use it wisely. We have, however, pondered life's greatest mysteries like...where did we put the second bottle of piña colada mix? Or should we swim then hike then cold plunge then second cup of afternoon coffee then spear fish? Or maybe the reverse order. What are your favorite 3 Jimmy Buffett songs? Hint: We've narrowed it down to 30. It took a long time for my brain to readjust to life on the boat. Life on the island. I'll wake up with not much to do and so much to do at the same time. Our prep for our northbound journey that will take us from Catalina through the northern Channel Islands is so close and so far away at the same time. Around the "Cape Horn of the Pacific", Point Conception, and north several days to San Francisco Bay has been a trip looming in the back of my mind since sailing through 25 knot winds, 6-7 foot seas on the nose, a small craft advisory, and tsunami warnings every 15 minutes from the coast guard last August.

More on that to come but a quote to intro my next thought:

“It’s Tuesday on the island, not much going on” -Jimmy Buffett(but you already knew that)

I’ve always had an aversion to Avalon. It felt like it wasn’t real. It was always just the plywood building facades seen for parts of the fake town set up in Blazing Saddles. Except it wasn’t a trap for bandits, it was a trap set for cruise goers. And it still is. But this island breathes. It has a pulse. A soul. Not just the hobby-horsing of the boat on its mooring before the waves hitting the rocky beach telling you the wind was out of the east the majority of the day, but an almost tangible feeling that comes and goes. We have been in Avalon for 3 days now and will be staying two more. It was always just a stop for food. An early morning to stand in line with the locals off to work before the Canival Curise vomited up 1000’s of passengers onto its shores. The past three days have been different. We stopped into an empty fish restaurant and had long conversations with the guy working there who told us about how he never sees his boss because “the guy is always out fishing!”. We sat down at what I thought was a late night pizza joint only to chat with the owner's daughter who was serving us Abita root beer and telling us stories of growing up on the island. We only ended up there after being at the hardware store, a place her father also owns, and smelling pork shoulder being smoked out back. The guy at the front counter told us about the bomb ass Mexican pizza they make with that smoked pork. Everyone here is connected. Everyone here has a purpose. Sure, they see another tourist as we walk by because they don’t know our story, but there is that special little something in the air when the daily ferries haven’t arrived yet and the cruise ships aren’t here for another 3 days. It’s almost as if the locals let down their guard during the week. It’s only something I’ve felt in a small coastal town in Martinique. So while the weekends and cruise ship days remain an entire prickly pear cactus in my side, weekdays on a relatively empty island are what this life is all about. I looked up at Lauren with wide eyes this afternoon at the realization that this is an undiluted form of happiness. I haven’t sat at ONE. SINGLE. REDLIGHT in 5 weeks. I haven’t merged on one interstate. I owe it all to this place. So to the island, I raise a toast. To the ships and the shores. You’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

That being said, I want to walk you not through the past 3 weeks but just the past two days…

The in-laws were on the boat for 9 days. We dropped them off yesterday at the ferry at 7 am. The past few weeks with Siggy and the fam on board have been phenomenal to say the least. So many laughs, so much good food, so many miles hiked, so many bikes thrown, and so many pina coladas drank. We rewired the 12V system, added solar panels, fixed shit that’s been bugging me for months…it was truly an amazing few weeks. I say the last two days because that’s not only as far back as my concussed memory goes, but as you’ll see, I’m far too occupied on a day to day basis to sit down and write.

Yesterday we ate blackened white sea bass burritos for brunch, showered at a public shower($3/person), grocery shopped for two weeks(the Vons in Avalon has to charge the same prices as Long Beach), and filled our gallon water jugs....slowly. I ran 12V wires to the chart plotter in the cockpit for phone charging outside and added a 12V charger to the chart table. I also tightened the steering cables, replaced zincs in the heat exchanger, went to get some bolts from the Avalon hardware store, got pizza, fixed mount for heat exchanger, measured hoses across the boat for replacement, ordered replacement hoses, added chafe protection to all water lines, ordered a new raw water pump, and only bonked my head 3 times. It was a day.

Today, I woke up around 6. I made coffee and read. I read like the wind. I want so badly to finish this next book. Once Lauren got up, we got ready for a hike. We found out it was $12.50/person to enter the Wrigley Memorial Garden to do the Garden to Sky hike. It was 3.5 miles from there. Us being frugal, we found out you can stretch out the hike and come in through the back of the gardens for free. We sent it. Depending on who you’re with, the extended version is worth it. From the Avalon Pier and back round trip was roughly 8.5 miles. We saved that $25 though! Once back Lauren needed a nap and I needed to research boat shit. Due to a f*!k up with TurboTax, we had to go to the USPS here in town and send off our signed, paper amended return like its 1972. We decided to stay an extra night in town to get to see the Art Festival tomorrow so we headed back to Moonshine. THEN we dawned our swimsuits and proceeded to get in a 1000 yard swim before sitting in the cockpit to warm up with a beer and the sun. Now I’m here, talking to you. It is a wild and crazy world where I never thought this is how I’d be living it. Get out and create your own madness. You won’t be disappointed.