Avalon

10-8-06 We sailed back to Catalina. We left late after spending much of the day happily socializing. But our destination was Long Point which has a good navigation light, so we had no trouble finding it and anchoring in the lee of the point. We spent a couple of night there reading and visiting with other cruisers who are also headed for Mexico. They had been having good success with their fishing and made me want to start catching fish.
So on the way down to Avalon, I tried trolling and caught nothing more than seaweed. We took a mooring in Avalon Harbor and went a shore to be tourists along with the hoards disgorged from a huge cruise ship. The cruise ships have been good business for the Avalon merchants and the town was obviously booming. We had lunch, did some shopping, and noticed how the town returned to normal as soon as the ship left. Obviously I liked it better less crowded. We had sundowners with some more new friends headed for Mexico and went to bed early in order to leave for San Diego in the dark. We didn't want to be getting to SD after sundown and have to figure out that large and confusing harbor in the dark. It is 70 miles to SD and at 6.5 knots, that would be almost 10 hours.