Un-chill.
A few months ago, now, four great friends and I sailed around the entirety of Catalina. We started at the southeastern end, a heavily strip-mined corner, anchored and slept of a rock-n-rolly small cove, moved on to Ben Weston, after breakfast, anchored again in Two Harbors for a luncheon of chips, guacamole and Buffalo Milk, made it around the northeastern end sometime after noon then made the traditional way down past Two Harbors, from the mainland-facing side, Empire Landing, Moonstone before heading back to Newport Beach.
It is very odd that such large, mostly desolate, island floats off Southern California. The Wrigley family, of gum fame, built a few beautiful buildings in the largest city, Avalon, and a few more in Two Harbors but overall the architecture leaves something to be desired and the scene is downright unchill.
Day tourists zipping in from Long Beach. Newlyweds too poor to go on a proper honeymoon getting wasted in dank beach bars.
Messy.
I often wonder how the whole place didn’t get colonized by Los Angeles’s uber-elite and walled off from the unwashed. What could be more exclusive than an island a hop, skip and sail away?
Bizarre.
In any case, a kayaker who dipped his or her hand in the water off the northeastern end had it bitten by a shark. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department the beast had been bumping the kayak, before the incident, which sounds needlessly aggressive.
A mile of the island was promptly shuttered for 24 hours.
No other details given.