Not a good day. We awoke early this morning to a "bang!", something hit the boat. When I climbed up into the cockpit I realized that the wind was up and so was the sea. We had drifted back into a bouy that was attached to a fishing barge of some kind, fortunately there was no damage. I went forward and took in some of our anchor chain to pull us forward and away from this bouy. The wind continued increasing and the swells were now about 4ft coming straight into the harbor. All of the cruising guides warn; "Catalina Harbor is a suicidal place to be in Southwest weather of any kind". Why were we getting Southwest weather when NOAA weather radio said it was supposed to be from the Northwest? One of the primary difficulties in long-range sailing and cruising is getting good weather info.
A sailboat behind us began dragging anchor, this boat was headed for the beach! Fortunately the owner realized what was happening and got the motor going. Then - as his wife was trying to get the anchor pulled-up, his anchor snagged on something and he began to swing over toward a big motoryacht! We began hearing Maydays on the VHF radio, and the Harbor Patrol was suddenly on scene. The patrol boat was able to get these people deeper into the harbor and on a mooring ( a mooring is a bouy that's securely attached to the bottom, usually with a giant "screw"-like apparatus). After this, the Patrol boat came over and asked if we would like to get on a mooring, since the storm was supposed to get worse. We said absolutely! Once again Sharon did an awesome job manuevering the boat under power while I was forward retrieving the anchor. By now the swells were so big that the entire bow was going underwater! Needless to say I got wet! We swung around and headed into the harbor, picking up a mooring bouy with some difficulty. The storm did increase, but by evening it was petering-out. I later asked the Harbor Patrolman how often this happens, he said once or twice a year, but usually not until winter! Kudos to our new "Rockna" anchor, it was so well dug-in that I almost couldn't retrieve it!