August 15th, 2021
Land Ho!
Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3,084nm, 615 hours, 25 and a half days after leaving Hanalei Bay, Kauai, we have arrived at Cat Harbor, Catalina, California! Cat Harbor is the backside of Catalina, where boats do not often visit from the mainland. In a few days we will be traveling to Fourth of July Cove at the Isthmus on the front side of Catalina, chilling out on a friend's mooring ball for a few days. We were able enjoy one more sunset on the water before anchoring. The last two nights have been amazing sunsets. Two nights ago, we had a green flash. Then last night was a spectacular red sun with sunset streaks across the sky. Will definitely be posting a picture on facebook of that sunset. Last night's sunset was very welcome after a day of drifting in the high. Absolutely no winds, glass sea, just floating along from early in the morning till the late evening. Then thankfully the wind finally picked up and we were back on our way. Blowing steady 15+ knots all night and into the morning. We scooted along at 7-8 knots.
These last few days have been the coldest!! Even at 40N it was warmer than here close to Southern California. Socks, sweaters, and stocking hats are out!! The weather had definitely been unusual this trip. Last time I crossed to southern California at this time of year we were still in shorts. But it's all good, cause as I have mentioned, the weather was overall pretty incredible this trip. Of course this also meant that we did go slower, had to make a much higher arc, which all added to the number of miles and time it took to cross! At 25 and half days, this was my longest crossing time wise and Greg's third longest crossing time wise. And our first together on Sirena :)
Greg's main sail jury rig with his 1/8 inch dyneema survived 1100 miles, and his spinnaker patch lasted the entire trip as well! We caught 9 fish over the trip, and kept 6, out of 12 hours of fishing time total. We ate great! We saw dolphins, jelly fish, tuna, mahihai, barracuda, albacore, booby birds, albatross, seaturns, and turtles along the way. Sirena was awesome and treated us well! Bilge pump still sucks, except when it doesn't suck, which will be addressing once we are at dock. Greg fixed up Nemo before leaving, and he held in there great, minus the small compass issue which we fixed. We had a few other issues like any boat does after a crossing, all of which will be fixed in Long Beach and Ensenada.
Thank you everyone for reading about our latest adventure. We will continue posting on our facebook pages until our next leg!!