Alamitos Bay (Long Beach)

It was time for the family to get home so before we left Catalina I called around looking for a slip in the Long Beach area and found a slip at Alamitos Harbor. Its in a great location with Long Beach airport (LGB) just a few miles away with direct access to San Fran via Jet Blue which I could use next week to go home and help Sophie start High School. Ali and the kids stayed one more night and then started their trip back to the car parked at Santa Barbara Marina using the local train system.

One of the many parks around the bay

Over the next few days I got a chance to explore the local area on the bike and found all my favorite stores, get some laundry done and even located a Trader Joe's to stock up on chocolate. There is a nice downtown area that runs parallel to the beach on 2nd St, plenty to do and see.

I flew home for 5 days and then was back on the boat Tuesday. Its was quite depressing flying home in 50 minutes over the distance it had taken me 6 weeks to sail, the plane even starting braking over Monterey bay for landing at SFO, it took me 2 weeks to get that far ... Arghh....

Flying over Alamitos Bay, I can see the boat down there!

Everything was looking good when I got back to the boat, so I planned a trip back to Catalina. I wanted to find a quiet anchorage where I could fish, swim and do a little exploring of the island. The next day I stocked up on food and fuel and left Alamitos.