My favorite island.............

Summer's coming! Now's the time to get all those projects done so you will have a trouble free and comfortable time aboard your boat in your favorite anchorage. The picture above needs no caption. I'll put Avalon (only about 25 miles off the coast of Southern California) up against any quaint anchorage in the world. Yes, it's a bit too on the commercial side in summer but it's still a huge amount of fun. Give the kids a twenty dollar bill and send them ashore. The video arcade, miniature golf, the pleasure pier and white sandy beaches will entertain them for hours. Not wanting to become a "boat potato" I make it a point to hike the loop up to the bell tower (ran into a 8 point deer at the Zane Gray hotel last time I was up there) and keep going to the top of the new zing line and then down past the new Wrigley home and back into town. Another great walk is up to the Wrigley mansion on Mt. Ada and keep going all the way to the Edison power plant and the boat yard. You better have a good heart to make these hikes cause it's all uphill. Catalina Island is a very special place to our family. My dad lived there and went to high school and my grandfather ran charter boats off the pleasure pier in the 1930's. Yes, it's time to get our boats ready for summer fun. I'm in a little log cabin in Colorado as I write these notes. It's snowing outside and what am I doing? Making my list of boat projects. Replace windows on trunk cabin, replace steering cable, caulk seam between cap rail and bulwarks, pull rig or at least go aloft and make sure I can get another season with what's there and on and on and on...........

Catalina Island in the late 40's and 50's

Pictured above is Errol Flynn on Casino Point with his large ketch "Sirocco" in the background. Also pictured is one of the "Miss Catalina" speed boats taking a turn in front of the 68' schooner "Shearwater" which spent her summers anchored off Catalina island. "Shearwater" was owned for many years by a patent attorney named Wilton Wann of Los Angeles. "Shearwater" got a bit of a bad rap when a later owner of the schooner took a hammer and tried to kill himself by killing the pilot of one of the little sea plane he was traveling to Avalon on. Other passengers subdued "Shearwater's" owner and the plane landed safely on Avalon bay. My father, George Minney was raised on Catalina island and for several years he skippered the powerful "Miss Catalina" speedboats which were a popular tourist attraction operating off the pleasure pier in Avalon. The photos were courtesy of the Avalon museum.....

Hanging on a mooring in Avalon.....

Lovely day in Avalon today. The tourists have gone home. Still, the harbor is two thirds full of power and sailboats. Southern California boaters the best time of the year to be here.