Days Five thru Seven

Friday, August 20, 2010

Our dryer was acting up so we hung our laundry out to dry outside.  It reminded me of a spot a few miles from here called Italian Gardens.  It was named for the Italian fishermen who, many years ago, would hang their colorful fishing nets on the cliffs to dry.

My brother and nephew arrived from Medford, Oregon this afternoon.  John took the dinghy into Avalon to pick them up at the boat dock.  Within the first thirty minutes David had dived off the top of the boat, swam, fished and went for a monster tube ride.

And Steve had no problem getting into relaxation mode:

Dad stayed aboard while the four of us went for a sunset dinghy cruise.  While we were gone he caught this beautiful calico:

John cleaned and filleted the calico and it was on the bbq within the hour.

Dinner tonight - ribs (or rips as David calls them), corn on the cob, tomato salad and fresh and delicious calico bass:

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Today kayaking, tubing and catching (and releasing) quite a few calico bass:

After dinner (BBQ shrimp, bbq zucchini and pasta) Dave was introduced to a few of John's "true stories that happened to a good friend of his":

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Dad, Steve & Dave had to depart this afternoon.  We made the short cruise to Avalon and put the boat on a mooring so Dad could take the shoreboat ashore.  The five of us walked around town, shopped a little and Dad treated us to lunch at Antonio's.

It was a great visit and we hated  to see them go:

Days Three and Four

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
 

 Aerial of Two Harbors - CAT Harbor (where we were anchored) is the light blue water

and the top of the picture is the Isthmus.

We decided to go to The Harbor Reef Restaurant at the Isthmus for lunch.  Only problem was the only way to get there is first by dinghy and then about a 1/2 mile walk across the island and Dad wasn't too keen on getting in the dinghy.  We convinced him that he would really be missing out so he was a good sport and braved the dinghy:

After our warm and dusty walk we were happy to sit in the cool shade of the Harbor Reef bar and sip on ice cold beers.  After our lunch of yummy cheeseburgers (the menu said Kobe beef, I said hmmm?) we stopped by the little store to buy ice before walking back to the dinghy.  Good thing we didn't make the trip for an ice cream cone:

 Not sure if you can read it, but the sign says "Sorry but we are out of cones they missed the barge". All supplies to the island have to come by barge, so if the cones miss the boat - well no ice cream cones!

Back on the boat Dad did a little fishing:

He caught and released this little shark - a Smooth hound:

Thursday, August 19, 2010
We left CAT Harbor and headed to White's Anchorage on the other side of the island.  Here are some of the sights along the way:

Arriving at White's - Paradise!

Day Two

August 17, 2010
We woke up to thick, thick fog and thousands of flies. The outside of the boat was a blanket of the disgusting little creatures. Thank goodness we still had the screens on:

We lifted anchor and planned to circumnavigate the island hoping to see the elephant seals a little closer.  Here are a few pictures before we decided it was too foggy and headed over to CAT Harbor:

 We were amazed at how high the sea lions climb:

Approaching CAT Harbor:

We turned the corner and there were our friends Dave & Kim (Sum Fun):

And Brenda & Larry (Abreojos):

We almost had this bass for dinner, but lost it bringing it into the boat:

Oh well, it's chicken for dinner tonight!

Island Vacation - Day One

August 16, 2010

We left the dock, with Dad joining us for the first leg of our trip, at 6:30 this morning. First stop was the fuel and bait dock. We filled up the tanks with diesel fuel and the bait tank with sardines. When we left the harbor entrance there were dolphin there to greet us, welcoming us back to the ocean. Our trip started off with bright sunshine, but after a couple of hours we were navigating by radar in thick fog. Our destination was Santa Barbara Island, 47 miles from Ventura.

There is a small campsite on the island. To get to the camping area you have to climb over 300 stairs. We were not ambitious enough on this trip to make the climb. Here is the first leg:

There are thousands of sea lions and elephant seals on the island – the sounds they make are incredible. The thick kelp kept us from getting close enough get any good pictures:

We started our dinner with a salad of heirloom tomatoes (both regular and cherry) and bay shrimp dressed with oil, vinegar, capers and fresh basil:

I stopped at Ocean Pride Seafood Market yesterday to pick up shrimp and crab and saw a beautiful piece of Wild Alaskan Salmon. I’m hoping we will catch plenty of fish on this trip, but since there is no chance of catching a salmon I bought some for our first dinner at anchor.

I marinated the salmon in soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, lime juice, sesame oil, olive oil, sirracha, hoisin sauce and sliced scallions. Then popped it on the grill – delicious: