Running from a Gale to Cat Harbor on Catalina Island
Season 4 | Episode 71 | Running from a Gale to Cat Harbor
On this episode we awake on a mooring ball in Isthmus Cove. As we approached the mooring field the day before we heard the harbor master telling another vessel that they could spend the night but that there were clearing everyone out of the Isthmus and all mooring fields on this side of the island due to a forecasted Gale that was expected to come in at 1 am.
The wind event that was forcing everyone out locally is know as the “Santa Ana’s” and is a Sou’Easter created when hot winds from the desert blows through the valleys of the mountain ranges in Southern California acting much like when you place your thumb over a garden hose. The narrow valleys increase the winds speed creating very dangerous conditions for sailors with a lee shore.
This natural phenomenon has been tormenting sailors for as long as their have been ships on this coast. Richard H. Dana wrote several accounts of what we now call Santa Ana’s in his famous book “Two Years Before the Mast” describing how they were forced to slip the anchor and sail for the back side of Catalina to Catalina Harbor… The very same harbor we are now running for.
We had a very rough passage with little wind and building seas averaging between 4-6 ft. Both of us feeling sea sick all day long we did the 12 nm passage in 5 hours. and got safely tied up on a mooring.
We spent the rest of the evening walking steady on the back side of the island before rowing back to Triteia and turning in early from exhaustion of the days passage.
Thanks again to all of our Patrons, We are very grateful for your support!
Until Next Week,
James & Camille & Mr. Steady & SV Triteia
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Meet Sailor James Frederick: A solo voyager redefining the Alberg 30 legacy with technical grit, from a rudderless Hawaii crossing to his current 2026 refit in Thailand.
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