Catalina August 2026
It's time for our annual Catalina trip!
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| View of Whites Landing |
We debated staying at ocean side or Dana point on our way to Catalina.
But oceanside YC is full and Dana point harbor cost $85 a night.and will only take more time.
It's cheaper and faster to go straight to Howland with overnight crossing again. So we left on Thursday and got there on Friday AM.
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| Making a beeline to Howland at night again |
After getting to Howland in 14.5 hours, we went directly to sleep for a couple of hours.
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| View of Howland when we got there |
Bill started the process of the inflate party, as we need to get dinghy, swim float and splash the paddle boards in the water.
First day at 3pm we took a dinghy tour to the snorkel area and realized it's so clear!It's ironical as we had a hurricane and high swell warning 2 days ago and boats are chased off moorings!
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| First sunset at Howland |
So the next day we made a beeline to the snorkel area with the paddle board and snorkel gear and snorkel all the way to emerald cove! Saw a lot of pretty and big fishes
After that it's time for micheladas and our first steak and zucchini dinner.
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| Had a couple of Steaks nights and a couple of Lox/Cream cheese Morning |
The next day it's hiking day. We started early to avoid the hot sun. We hike towards emerald cove and the boy scouts camp.
We keep going towards Parsons landing and saw the camp ground for hikers with camping permits
Saw a red fox along the way too but he's too fast for pictures!
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| View of Howland from the trail |
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| Emerald Bay clear waters! |
On the last day at Howland's, in the morning we took the paddle boards and went for a paddle early in the morning. Saw a turtle and seal. Had a spam breakfast sandwich after that =)
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| Spam sandwich! |
It's quite entertaining on the last day to see the talent show and obstacle course of the kids camp. They string a bunch of paddle boards and got them to run across. And they have water sports competition and water ballads shows by the kids.
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| The kids camp at Howland |
The next am Bill and I made our way to Whites Landing for 3 nights.
We took the opportunity to tune the auto pilot along the way as we replaced the encoder system. Made a nice quesadilla for our breakfast when we got to White's
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| Chicken Queasadilla |
Then we check into buffalo beach camp and then we head for a snorkel at Hens rock.
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| View from Oasis at White's |
Saw the coolest thing ever during the snorkel! A huge turtle (at least 3 feet across) landed in front of us and started eating the kelp and we just watch it for very long time! It's certainly aware that we are there but didn't seems to care. It's so graceful!
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| Beautiful wooden boat that moor next to us at White |
The next day we woke up early and went for a paddle before it got windy. Then Bill had a meeting with the Catalina conservancy while I fished and got a striped bass for ceviche for our happy hour.
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| Ceviche and watermelon margaritas! |
There's a bison in the Buffalo beach camp area and he decided to stick around for more than a day. Apparently he blocked the path to the men's bathroom too =)
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| Bison sightings! |
We also used the carcass of the fish and put in the lobster trap to see what it will get. Surprisingly we got a lobster but it was returned to the ocean unharmed!
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| Lobster! |
The next day we woke up early again and went for a hike before it gets too hot. We hike up the road and came back after seeing a nice view of Buffalo beach camp
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| View of the mountain range at the top of the hike |
After that I did more fishing and caught our 2nd fish for ceviche and more watermelon margaritas!
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| Repeat of ceviche happy hour |
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| Sunset on our 3rd night at Whites |
The next AM we made our way to Avalon as we wanted to play miniature golf at Avalon.
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| Entrance to Avalon harbor |
It's super crazy with all the boaters packed into Avalon and we were lucky to get a mooring for one night.
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| View of Avalon harbor from the oceanside |
We learned we can't book for more than 1 night of mooring at Avalon. They don't charge for more than one night at a time and they only inform you the next AM at 9am if they have to kick you off the mooring. The reason is the owners of the moorings at Avalon and 2 Harbors can inform with 24 hours notice to get their mooring back.
Anyway, we got into Avalon and spend the day playing miniature golf and drinking cocktails.
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| Playing miniature golf at the Golf Garden |
We hide at Marlin's club for a bit before going to Lobster Trap for a late lunch and Sand Trap for a margarita.
Lobster trap is a decent place but still a tourist trap =) Marlin club is probably still the coolest bar at Avalon.
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| Late lunch at Lobster trap |
We went to Catalina museum to learn a bit more of Avalon history.
Saw this poster and it's pretty funny.
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| Unique fun facts of Avalon |
After a night at Avalon, we decide it's time to go home instead of waiting for 9am mooring verdict. We left for San Diego at 7am and Bill had fun downwind sailing for 2.5 hours with the spinnaker.
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| Oasis spinnaker in action! |
After the whole trip, I captured some of the food for this trip. My takeaway for this trip is I have learned how to bring the right amount of food for us, after doing it 3 times. We also have a good way now to maintain freshness of food with solar powering the fridge and Yeti with frozen drinks. But we need to get more than 1 week worth of food storage for us to go further!
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| Yum! |
