Ski Resorts Are For Me

Dana Point, CA
Ocotber 11, 2009

As we sit here in a very nice anchorage (no room at the free dock - actually that's not true, the racers would have made room for us, but we were already very comfortably anchored), I can't help but compare this calm, quiet spot to our anchorage last night. We were in Avalon on Catalina Island. It is legendary, so we had to go see what it was all about.
We had spent two nice days and nights on the other less developed side of the island in Catalina Harbor on our anchor. There were mooring balls available, but the water in the anchorage was so clear and looked like a great spot for snorkeling (which it was). We did go into the little "town" of Two Harbors and could have stayed longer as there was a laundry and little store for emergency rations.

The line is training wheels for the novice snorkelers

Anyway, getting back last night. Avalon is a tourist town, so just get out the wallet and start paying for every little thing. We probably could have anchored, but decided to try a mooring. I think this is a three day weekend for some, so the inner harbor was full up and we got a second row spot in the outer harbor, around the corner from the famous casino (which houses a restaurant, movie theatre and museum in real life). The moorings are bow and stern ties so that basically all the boats are parked in rows, as in a parking lot. Imagine you are in a motorhome and you park it in a parking lot for the night - now you get the idea. One thing I like about anchoring is that everyone is so worried about swinging and dragging that you get a little space. The way the boats are on these moorings in most of Catalina's harbors remind me of the resorts in Hawaii where the lawn chairs are lined up next to the pool with about 2 inches of space in between in order to fit as many guests in as possible. It was very unclear where a dinghy could be left, so we just went with the flow, got out the wallet and hopped on a "shoreboat" to go into town for a look around. We celebrated our 16th anniversary over an Italian dinner with the boys (don't worry, we have raincheck for a special bottle of wine-thanks Ken and Joanna!!! to share alone at sunset one of these evenings). Said shoreboat took us "home" and everyone else in the anchorage until the wee hours. We also were serenaded by the band at the beach bar until also 2am. Since we were out around the corner from the actual harbor, we were much less protected from the swell and rolled most of the night. There are very strict rules about being off of your mooring by 9am, so we just gave up and headed for Dana Point. What a contrast to the other places that we have visited.
I do believe that I do best at resorts that involve skiing!!!

The Beach Bar adjacent our mooring

We did have a great view of the Casino