Several days were enjoyed in Prisoners Bay on Santa Cruz Island. 8 days in total. We enjoyed hiking and rowing around. We also had the pleasure of meeting a live aboard couple who had spent some time cruising around the Sea of Cortez. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner hosted by them and eagerly listened to all the stories they would tell us. It was a fantastic night and one we will remember for ever. We had seen the weather and knew the wind was going to be picking up and had also been told by our new Navy friend that they were coming. Our new cruiser friends explained what they were and that they shouldn’t be messed with. Here is where we really start to understand the difference of weather reports and actual local weather. Up until this point we hadn’t had much wind and we had been excited seeing that the winds were picking up in a day or too. Tim and Leah helped straighten us out and gave us the advise to leave a little earlier, even if it meant we needed to motor and get around to the east side of the island where we wouldn’t be as affected by the Santa Anna’s as they began to pick up. Tim and Leah were heading back to the main land the next morning and we had an extra day to think about it. What was weighing heavy on our minds was that we where very low on diesel after motoring all the way around Point Conception. Our choices were to head back to the mainland to Santa Barbara with Tim and Leah where we could fuel and provision or we could make a run for Catalina Island. The next morning was calm and quiet so while Tim and Leah set off we walked to the top of the hill to check in with family and check the weather one more time. While we were up there we seen that Tim and Leah had actually begun to sail. We also could see off in the distance fog or haze. The weather report hadn’t changed but if we left for Catalina now we could be around Santa Cruz Island before the winds picked up and further from the main land. We decided to go for it and raced down the hill towards Hiraya.
We quickly returned to Hiraya and with in 30 minutes had raised the dinghy, main, and anchor and sailed out of the bay. Just over an hour we were covered in a dense wet fog and slowly moved forward relying heavily on AIS and our chart. The light wind kept us pointed in the right direction. We continued to have just over a mile of visibility in all directions and we continued to head around Santa Cruz Island and then out toward Catalina. For the first nine hours we continued on at 3 –4 knots with the fog slowly dissipating. As we sailed around Anacapa Islands the sun set and the wind began to die. We had two thoughts. Either this is the quiet before the storm or we were going to be drifting our entire way to Catalina. We had 14 hours to go and we held on. Surely the wind will come. We begin hearing reports over the radio of the small craft advisory and boats hailing the Coast Guard. But we silently bobbed around. Sam rigged up a preventer line and we began our night shifts. At least we will be able to sleep if nothing else. We each took turns at the helm while the other one slept. We were visited by dolphins and watched the stars. There were about 100 cargo ships anchored out waiting for their turn at the port and we quietly dodged them as we drifted along as the current goes straight to Catalina. All night waiting for the wind to pick up. At one of our shift changes I came to the cockpit and Sam was laughing saying we had made a complete 360 at one point in the night and showed me the track. It was kind of crazy seeing it. Sam tried to get some sleep and I continued to drift. Doing everything I could to drift in the right direction. Sam came up to find me with the bow facing away from our direction. We were still drifting in the right direction there just wasn’t enough wind to keep Hiraya’s bow forward. One might ask why we didn’t start the engine.
I did mentioned earlier that we were concerned about being low on fuel after having to motor around Point Conception. We had found a severe discrepancy with our hours traveled, our math, and what we thought the tank should hold. We believed we had just a gallon or two left. All the time thinking it just didn’t seem right. We continued to re work our math but it just wasn’t making any sense. According to hour hour meter we had motored a lot longer than we had thought. For fear of running the engine dry we drifted on. Our plan was to use the motor only for an emergency and to anchor when we got there. So we continued on. Some times backwards. Some times sideways. Some times with a little puff of wind. We napped and snacked. Enjoyed the birds and dolphins. Off in the distance there is Catalina Island. When we got to 50 hours we had made it around Catalina and was looking at Cat Harbor. We had just enough wind to fill the main. The thought of spending another night out here staring at the Island had us question our sanity. So we did what any body would do.
We hoisted our dinghy down and craned the motor on. Then lashing the dinghy to the starboard side of Hiraya we set the throttle to just above idol and off we went. We had full control of Hiraya and with her Main up and the dinghy motor going we made 4 knots and would arrive at Cat Harbor with enough time to set the anchor just before sunset. We laughed and laughed at our selves. It had to have been a strange sight. We didn’t care. It was time to set foot on land again. The dinghy motor worked amazingly well. We got all the way in to the harbor and started the diesel right where we dropped the hook. Running only long enough to bury the anchor and we shut the motor off. We sat there enjoying a beautiful pink streaked sunset and thanked our ingenuity that we didn’t have to spend another night looking longingly at Catalina Island.