Around Catalina - Small Harbor and the Tole Mour

On Tuesday we decided to motor-sail over to Small Harbor, just a few miles away, and spend the night in a real primitive anchorage. We made the trip over in no time. There was one other boat in the anchorage, and it was pretty clear that he had the best spot, sheltered from the swell by a reef that tips the north end of the harbor. Resolved to anchoring, we took what looked like the best remaining alternative, on the south side of the harbor.

The place was pretty exposed to the west swell and winds that were coming in. After swinging on a single hook for a little bit, I decided to drop an additional stern anchor to keep us from swinging into the rocks about 30 yards away. After setting the second anchor we then found that that left us beam-to the ongoing 1-3 ft swell, and the boat was very rolly.

Since we didn't have to sleep there, we decided that it would be better to go back to Cat Harbor and grab a mooring, so after about 2 hours, at 2:00 or so in the afternoon, we pulled up the anchors and made our way back to Cat Harbor.

As we were heading for Cat Harbor, we saw, in the distance a tall ship coming in from the North, so we decided that since it was early in the day, and she was headed in our direction, we would intercept her and see her up close. It turns out that she was the Tole Mour, a sailing training vessel for High School students out of Anahiem California. A very pretty ship, we circled her and then followed her back into Cat Harbor where she dropped anchor and we took a mooring.

We went into town and had showers and a few drinks before dining on the boat that evening. When we got up the next morning the Tole Mour was already gone from Cat Harbor at 7:00 am.