Day 53 - SKUK (NDK) 'Explorer HV' - Catalina For Lunch Solo -

A plan was hatched a few months ago for a small group of us to paddle over to Two Harbors on Catalina island to have lunch with some friends that were camped out over there then paddle back all in one day. I had done the famous "Catalina For Lunch" crossing on three occasions before but never with the novelty of being able to say hi to friends on the island while we were there. As luck would have it work, school, family, or health issues whittled the group down to just me. Rather than scrub the idea all together I figured I'd try the trip solo. So the day before my 34th birthday I woke up at 3:10 AM and drove two and a half hours up to Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro CA to be ready for a 6:00 AM launch. Five hours and thirty three minutes later I arrived at Two Harbors and was greeted by a half dozen paddling buddies that were camped out there on their first rest day of a leisured circumnavigation of the island.

The crossing was rather uneventful as I saw only a small pod of dolphin and one small sea lion (ten miles from shore). The most notable wildlife I did see was a shark that jumped at least 8 feet in the air and did a perfect back flip like Dolly the Dolphin at Sea World. I thought I may have been imagining things until I stopped for a break and a five foot "man eater" jumped again right behind me. I think it may have been a small white or mako but I've never personally seen them jump like that before. I had a gentle head wind most of the trip that did little more than keep me from over heating. The last hour and a half into Two Harbors was a bit of a slog into a stiffening head wind that was being channeled through the isthmus where the town is situated. There was very little fog or haze so I was able to simply steer toward the island by sight for the entire crossing. The lack of fog also allowed me to take an interesting series of photographs showing the island getting bigger one half hour at a time.

My welcoming committee quickly helped me bring my boat up the beach and escorted me to the cafe for the traditional burger and fries lunch. I opted for the grilled chicken and while I munched on that the guys did their best to try to convince me to stay the night and paddle home the next morning. They had even figured out how I could keep the 100 consecutive days streak alive by paddling one of their boats on the island that evening. I entertained the idea and had enough bivvy equipment to be quite comfortable for an overnight but after a few phone calls back to work I realized that it just wasn't meant to be. I did notice that Duane was the loudest voice trying to convince me to stay on the island. The thought occurred to me that if I didn't go back that day he'd still be the only person in our paddling circle that had ever done a solo Catalina For Lunch. When I called him out on it he laughed and said it didn't matter because he already had my time beat for the crossing over. He had done the crossing about 5-10 minutes faster than me. Right then the challenge was set and I had to beat Duane's time back across. His time was 6 hours and five minutes including time to shoot some video so I had to beat about 5 1/2 hours.

As I pushed off the beach after a rejuvenating two hour break I hoped the head wind that had slowed me on the approach would hold and help me on my way back across. My plan was to use the localized isthmus wind to slingshot high across the prevailing NW wind and swell and hold that line as long as I could before running with the wind and swell all the way in to Cabrillo Beach. The plan seemed to work because after working across the wind for two hours I changed course and found myself surfing from wave to wave on a straight course toward my destination. As I watched the miles tick away on my GPS I realized that I was setting a pace to beat five hours. With that little extra motivation I kept my paddle cadence up and came into the beach with a full head of steam four hours and forty minutes after leaving the island. The wind and chop I encountered on the crossing back wasn't good for sighting wildlife but I did manage to see another jumping shark. In all my years of paddling I'd only seen a shark jump once before and this single day I saw three.

The solo trip was an amazing experience and I'm very glad I took the Explorer HV with me. This is exactly the kind of thing that this boat was made to do. The thought did occur to me about half way across to the island that up to that day the longest I'd ever been in the HV was about an hour on a simple paddle around Mission Bay. While I had spent a bunch of time in regular size Explorers and loved how they fit and paddled, I had no idea the HV would work for me when I left the beach that morning. In the end it worked out perfectly, I actually appreciated the extra room the HV provided and never felt like I was too loose in the boat.

Explorer HV Review

Manufacturer = SKUK (formerly NDK)
Model" = Explorer HV
Type = Touring
Material = Fiberglass
Length =17' 8"
Width = 21.5"

Location = Catalina For Lunch - Cabrillo Beach (San Pedro CA) to Catalina Island (Two Harbors) and back
Time = 6:00 AM
Distance = 46 miles
Duration = 10:10
Avg. Speed = 4.52 mph
Conditions = Light headwind for first half, generally calm - Good quartering tail wind for second half, few whitecaps