We arrived at Avalon, Catalina Island, yesterday evening around 8:30 PM, and picked up a mooring in the harbor. The mooring system at Catalina is famously well designed. I wish Ayala cove would implement such a system; they could double the number of boats in the mooring field this way.

We had a leisurely breakfast (I made huevos rancheros), then dinghied the boys to the beach, and later joined them, to have lunch at a restaurant on land. This restaurant was called the Busy Bee. All the waitresses were very fat. I reason they get probably free meals as a job perk.

While the new RIB dinghy was on the beach, we stenciled on the new CF numbers and tags. We dropped a snorkeling mask in about 20 ft of water, and used the dinghy anchor to retrieve it. The water is so crystal clear, you could easily see everything on the bottom at 20 ft depth.

We cast our crab/lobster net without success. Small fish (small enough to fit through the net fabric openings, about 3/4 inch), apparently stole the bait.

I went up the mast today, to unsnaggle the flag halyards, and add shackles to the radar reflector to reduce chafe in the reflector-to-halyard connection points.

We barbequed hamburgers on the barbie for dinner. Also ate the kids' leftover pasta and had jello and wimpy creme for dessert. It was delicious.

Tomorrow, very early, we will cast off from Avalon, and head to San Diego. The trip will take the whole day. I hope very much we get some winds so we don't have to motor too much.

The watermaker is working well. We made 12 gallons of water today, which is likely about what we used, with showers and laundry.

The easy way to do laundry, we have found, is to put the clothes in a mesh bag, and drag it through seawater while we are sailing. It doesn't help our boat speed much, but it gets the laundry washing done. Ditto with the watermaker filters.