For the fifth time in six years, the CSULB Sailing Association made the 55-mile roundtrip sail to Santa Catalina Island for Spring Break from March 30 to April 2, 2015. 

On Catalina, the club spent four days and three nights camping, hiking, snorkeling, wakeboarding and kayaking at Two Harbors campground.

See the full gallery of photos on the CSULBSA’s Facebook page, here.

In all, 18 sailors made the trip, crossing San Pedro Channel in three of the club’s Shields: Karen, Isabelle and Dark Horse (with our SeaCraft powerboat in support). 

For the passage from Long Beach to Two Harbors, a combination of light air and fog got the trip off to a slow start. But by early afternoon, the winds jumped up above 15mph and some choppy seas made for a punishing beat to the island. In all, the crossing took nine hours. 

Normally, the trip home is an easy downwind run. But a big Northerly wind early in the morning delayed the homeward leg for about 90 minutes. After that a light breeze from the Northwest meant slow going the first two hours, as the boats were becalmed for about 15 minutes before the Westerly winds slowly built up and allowed a beam reach to Queen’s Gate and into Alamitos Bay.