Around Catalina - from San Diego to Avalon

For spring break, and after giving the IRS their due, we decided to take Mandala up to Catalina Island for our first circumnavigation. There were a number of other firsts on this trip, most notably including our first all night sail. It took us about 21 hours to get from San Diego to Avalon Harbor.

We left San Diego at about noon on Friday, and soon caught a favorable wind out of the bay and towards the island. About 6:00 pm the wind died down and we motored away from the shore to find more prevailing winds. It was absolutely beautiful, as around 9:00 pm, 15 or so miles from land, the wind freshened and we were able to sail along at 6 knots with the full moon peaking thru slight clouds and then shining full right there above the mast as Mandala cut thru the water.

We had to motor again from about 3 am until 6 am and then sailed for a bit more before finally putting the sails away and motoring into Avalon Harbor where we took a mooring at about 9:00 am on Friday. Since we had been up all night, we slept away part of the day and had a nice bar-b-que on the fantail of the boat that night.