Catalina Trip Lessons

We took off for five days to Catalina Island, Ca for our kid’s spring break and I learned more lessons in a few days than I have in a long time, both about life and about the boat.

The Boat:

1. We survived for four days on a mooring with me and three women on board, and didn’t run out of water.  Yes, we were water wise, but we were able to get by with what we had.
2. Unlike the trip to Cat Harbor in December, we had plenty of sunlight this time.  With all four solar panels deployed, we were able to be generate enough power to run what we needed without worrying about it.
3. I think I finally learned what’s needed to get the generator to start and run with a load on it, which is ten seconds or more of warm up, then it seems to be able to take the load of the refrigeration starting.
4. I can’t make power from the engine alone,  which I want to change.

Life:

1. Watching my wife and kids on the bow of the boat as 6-7 dolphins play in our bow waves for 20-25 minutes is truly priceless and paid off the boat with their pure happiness just in seeing these creatures wild.  Who needs SeaWorld or TV when the kids can see these majestic creatures life and real?
2. I had no idea of the simple joy my daughters (and me) would get from flying a couple of inexpensive kites (from REI) on a mudflat on afternoon?  The kids loved this simple pleasure of controlling and flying their own kites, and I loved watching them actually doing it.
3. The day we got back, my parents came down and spent the night on the boat with us.  They circumnavigated and still love boats.  Hearing my mother say how much she appreciated the time on Tulum and missed a boat made my day.

It was a great trip to Catalina, had to motor into the wind for the usual 10 hours on Tues to get there and had to motor back with following seas but little wind on Sat.  Still rough coming out of Twin Harbors early in the morning with confused seas, but as soon as the sun came up, it settled down on us.