Blowing off some steam in Catalina
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- Avalon Harbor
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- Avalon Harbor
We’re in the middle of our “spring break” in the World Challenge series. Four weeks off seems like a long time, but the Horton Autosport/Truspeed team has been busy planning and preparing for Watkins Glen July 3rd. Although there’s much to do, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a little fun from time to time.
Last weekend we enjoyed spending time at one of Southern California’s most treasured getaways, Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island. It was my first time on Catalina and while I had a blast touring the historic town, eating at the great restaurants and learning about its rich history, most of the fun for me was in getting there. My good friend Sander and I didn’t ride out with the rest of my family on the boat, nor did we take the ferry. We thought it’d be better to ride our jet skis across the 30 mile channel and meet up with the fam in the harbor.
Friday afternoon I sat in Santa Barbara in front of the computer watching the market trade down (I was very happy to see a correction in the market), but my head wasn’t in my work. All I could think about was hitting the water and taking a trip/adventure over to Catalina. The Seadoo RXT-X’s were loaded behind the truck, our gear was packed and all we were waiting for was that stupid little bell in New York to ring so we could blast down to San Pedro. 1:01 PCT and we were pulling out of the driveway…
After fighting LA traffic for 3 hours, we unloaded the Seadoo’s into the LA Harbor and began our trek to Avalon. The wind and chop off the coast of San Pedro was pretty serious and I began to have second thoughts about our little adventure. To add to the stress of the conditions Sander’s handheld GPS couldn’t seem to find our location which we’d need to set our course. As we looked out towards where Catalina should be all we saw was a vast marine cloud layer… not ideal if we’d have to find the island by sight. We fought the waves and wind to venture further into the channel in hopes of getting our position on the GPS. It was becoming hard to distinguish the San Pedro coast now and I was really hoping Sander’s GPS would sort itself out so we wouldn’t have to scrub our trip. Fortunately Sander was able to locate our position and we started making headway towards Catalina. Mile by mile the seas got calmer, the wind died down and before we knew it we were cruising at 45+mph on what felt like a lake. Then we saw a magnificent thing – land! The spectacular coastline of Catalina began coming into view, exposing the massive bluffs and hidden beaches and harbors. We hit the coast just a few miles north of Avalon and ran down the coast at 50mph with big smiles on our faces. Just before reaching the harbor we gassed the Seadoo’s and let the supercharged rotax motors push us to nearly 70mph… such a rush!
The family was already anchored and enjoying the afternoon. Mom, Dad, Kielle, bro-in-law/team owner John Horton and Capt. Paul were there to welcome us. We tied off the jetskis and started an amazing weekend that I’ll always remember. The ride back to San Pedro was uneventful and I really enjoyed skimming across the waves marveling at how vast and amazing the ocean is. I remembered the first few words of the Bible which describe the Spirit of God hovering over the water. Our creation is truly amazing and boggles my mind every time I step outside.
We have just a couple weeks before we run our Porsche in preparation for the Watkins Glen event. I’m really confident that the Horton Autosport guys are going to put a great car under me for the next race. Racing a Porsche in World Challenge is a much different kind of adventure than jet skiing across the California Channel, but it’s what we love to do. See you at The Glen!
