Category Archives: Travel

Tales of adventure and photographs to prove it!

Seaplanes in Catalina

Sea Planes have been crossing from the California mainland to the Channel Islands for almost a century.  The first service was operated by Charlie Chaplin’s half-brother Syd in 1919. Operating for a couple of years, other firms moved in to operate the service until 1931 when Wrigley stepped up.

Phillip K. Wrigley, began the Wilmington-Catalina Airline, Ltd. through his Santa Catalina Island Company, and took over the sea plane services.  The airline’s fleet were mostly comprised of Douglas Dolphin’s designed by Donald Douglas.

Douglas Dolphin Sea Plane, Avalon, Santa Catalina, circa 1940
Douglas Dolphin Sea Plane flying over the casino and Avalon Harbor, Santa Catalina. Circa 1940

In 1931, Wrigley helped design a unique airport at Hamilton Cove, the 2nd cove north of Avalon, to accommodate the Douglas Dolphin ‘Amphibion’ planes.  The twin-engine Dolphins landed just offshore & would taxi up a ramp to a large turntable mechanism.  The airplane would then be rotated until it was facing the water & ready for a trip back to the mainland. A small Spanish-style terminal building welcomed residents, business people & tourists to Catalina.”  There was also a large hanger behind the terminal building.

Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base
Hamilton Cove Sea Plane Base, north of Avalon Harbor, Santa Catalina, California

According to the Catalina Goose, Wilmington-Catalina Air Line was noted in the March 1941 issue of Flying & Popular Aviation as “the shortest airline in the world.” The article points out that not only was Wilmington-Catalina Air Line, serving 2 towns less than 30 miles apart, the shortest but also the safest airline, having flown the channel 38,000 times carrying over 200,000 passengers with no accidents or injuries between 1931-41.

Seaplane service was discontinued & replaced by a landplane base in the spring of 1941 and following the entry of the USA into WWII, civilian air traffic to Catalina Island was shut down and the Coast Guard took over the Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base.

Sources:

Sea Creatures

Just a few photos of the creatures we share the sea with. Future web posts will have some of our smaller creatures.

Octopus close encounter
Octopus Close Encounter

A close encounter of the octopus kind! This is one of my favorite creatures. They are incredibly smart and very adaptive. They change colors depending on their mood or environment.

Barracuda Belize
Barracuda

Large barracuda like this guy usually swim around alone. When they are small you will see them in large schools. They have large sharp teeth and the unwarranted  reputation as being dangerous. I have been in the water with them hundreds of times and have found them to just be curious. If you catch one on a fishing line… getting him off the hook could be dangerous. This was taken in Belize.

Caribbean Reef Shark
Caribbean Reef Shark

Caribbean reek shark. I love diving with sharks. They are fun to photograph and add an element of excitement to any dive. This guy and his pals were keeping us company on a dive. There are really only a few species that are of much concern to divers.

Lemon Shark Bora Bora
Lemon Shark

Lemon shark in Bora Bora. This was a large pregnant shark about ten feet long. She was a little far away for the photo and kept her distance. The photo shows how well they blend into the surroundings. You look into the distance and see nothing and then suddenly they are there. We saw several sharks of the same size on this dive but only a few came close to us.

Pamela Marchetti 70 feet down Bora Bora
Pamela Marchetti

This is my wife, Pamela, diving in Bora Bora at about 70 feet down. The water is warm enough that you do not have to use a wet suit but keep in mind that in the ocean there are lots of little stingy things that can get you. I learned that lesson with fire coral many years ago. Clear warm water with lots of fish… just like an aquarium.

California Spiny Lobster - Panulirus interruptus
California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) in Casino Point Scuba Park, Santa Catalina, California

Garibaldi damselfish - Hypsypops rubicundus
Garibaldi damselfish (Hypsypops rubicundus) is the state fish of California and is prevalent in the shallows around Santa Catalina Island, California

Green Abalone - Haliotis fulgens
Green Abalone, Haliotis fulgens, is a species of large edible sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk, found in the Casino Point Scuba Park, Avalon, Santa Catalina.

California sheephead - Semicossyphus pulcher
California sheephead exposing his teeth against the backdrop of the kelp forest in Casino Point Scuba Park, Avalon, Santa Catalina.

Diving Cormorant
Cormorant diving for dinner in Casino Point Scuba Park, Avalon, Santa Catalina

California moray - Gymnothorax mordax
California moray (Gymnothorax mordax) is a moray eel of the family, hiding in a crevasse in Casino Point Scuba Park, Avalon, California

Wreck Diving

Wrecks offer great places to dive and they are located all over the world. As technology evolves divers are able to go to sites much deeper than in past years however those dives involve greater risk to the diver and advanced training. In my younger days I did dive to much deeper wrecks but now I focus on shallower sites within what is referred to as “sport diver limits”. Wrecks provide areas that attract wide varieties of marine life and many of the sites have interesting stories attached to them. All of the sites I will post on this web site are wrecks that are within the sport diver limits of no more than 130 feet down. When you travel on a dive trip, the local dive shop can be the focal point to find those interesting sites that are attractions in the area. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can find a local who will take you to a site that’s not on the tourist trail.

Airplane wreck Mexico
Airplane Wreck, Mexico

Airplane wreck – Mexico. As with most airplane wrecks, it’s upside down and now a home for the fish.

Airplane wreck Bermuda Triangle
Airplane wreck, Bermuda Triangle

Airplane wreck found upside down…somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. The story is that it’s the results of a drug smuggling operation gone wrong.

USS Bluegill WWII Submarine Conning Tower Hawaii
USS Bluegill WWII Submarine

USS Bluegill WWII submarine once located in 130’ of water off Lahaina, HI. This is the view looking up at the conning tower.

USS Bluegill WWII Submarine divers on deck Hawaii
Divers over USS Bluegill WWII Submarine

Divers swimming along the deck of the USS Bluegill towards the bow. These photos were taken during the late 1970’s before the boat was relocated to very deep water out of the range of divers.

USS Bluegill WWII Submarine conning tower to bow Hawaii
USS Bluegill WWII Submarine

Dive conditions were a bit murky on the day of the USS Bluegill dive. This is the base of the conning tower looking forward. The boat was used as a training location for Navy divers and a popular site for recreational divers before being relocated.

baby barge reef honolulu hawaii
“Baby Barge” Hawaii

This is the wreck of the “Baby Barge”, a small barge that was sunk to become a reef near Honolulu, HI. The bubbles are from the divers under and in the wreckage.

Turtle YO-257 WWII Navy fueling vessel
Turtle on YO-257 WWII Navy Fueling Vessel

This turtle was taking a nap on the wreck of the YO-257, a Navy fueling vessel from WWII, before the divers woke him up! There were three turtles hanging around the wreck when we arrived.

oil pump connections YO-257 WWII Navy Fueling Vessel
YO-257 WWII Navy Fueling Vessel

These are the oil pump connections on the YO-257 used in pumping oil during the refueling process. The YO-257 was 174’ long and now home to much marine life.

Top Structure YO-257 WWII Navy Fueling Vessel
YO-257 WWII Navy Fueling Vessel

The top structure of the YO-257. I love diving on wrecks, partly because of the history of the ships and partly because they attract a wide variety of marine life. The YO-257 was intentionally sunk off Honolulu to become a reef structure in 1989.

San Pedro Reef Wreck Honolulu Hawaii
San Pedro Artificial Reef, Hawaii

A short swim from the YO-257 lies the wreck of the San Pedro. The 111’ vessel was sunk as a reef off Honolulu, HI in 1996. Two turtle gracefully swim into the wreckage.

james marchetti 50foot sailboat wreck caribbean
James Marchetti

This is my youngest son, James, diving with me to a sunken sailboat at about 125’deep in the Caribbean. The boat was about 50’ long and was now the home of tropical fish and moray eels.

turtle sugarcane barge wreck caribbean
Sleeping Turtle on Sugarcane Barge

This turtle was located during a night dive on a sunken sugarcane barge that sunk off a small Caribbean island in about 30’ of water. It makes a perfect sleeping station for the turtles. They find a comfortable spot on deck to sleep and when they need air, it’s a short swim to the surface then back to the boat for more sleep. The remora on his back just tags along for the ride.

ray sugarcane barge wreck caribbean
Night Ray in Caribbean

On the way to the sugarcane barge this ray went swimming by in the darkness.

Wreck of 54' Gaff-rigged Schooner, SueJac
Sheephead swimming through the hull of the 54′ Gaff-rigged Schooner, SueJac, which sank in 1980 in Catalina Harbor

 

Mayan Ruins

Part of the inspiration for the book, Lizard Key, came from my travels to the Yucatan Region of Mexico many years ago. This was before the region became as large a tourist destination as it is today… before the cruise ships came! Back then the large hotels and resorts didn’t exist… only a handful of hotels and lots more jungle around them. It’s still a great place to visit with a great deal of history. Just a couple of photos to see where the book started. There are many books written on the history of the region but the two I like the best are; Incidents of Travel in Yucatan by John L. Stephens and The Americas Before Columbus by Dewey Farnsworth (the old photos in this book are great). The Stephens book is the classic. It documents his archaeological exploration of the region between 1839-1842. Since photography wasn’t available all the pictures are illustrations. There is some level of controversy around the Farnsworth book (primarily involving his religious beliefs) but that withstanding, it is interesting and has lots of old photos.

Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza

This is the famous pyramid in Chichen Itza.

Mayan Ruins
Mayan Ruins

As I would travel through the jungle in the region you could see many sites of unexcavated ruins. Most were taken over by jungle growth and almost unrecognizable as sites of ancient buildings… certainly not as easily seen as this.

Island Golf

When ever I travel I try to find a golf course. Some of your more remote islands don’t have the most well groomed courses but island golf combined with island cocktails can’t be beat! Sometimes the beauty of the tropical settings provides a good excuse when your game sucks… I was just over come with the scenery and couldn’t concentrate (always a good excuse!).

Moorea Green Pearl Golf Course French Polynesia
Moorea Green Pearl Golf Course

This is the Moorea Green Pearl course in French Polynesia. It was a quiet day and we had the place to ourselves.

"Old Course" St Andrew's, Scotland
“Old Course” St Andrew’s, Scotland

St. Andrews, Scotland… the “Old Course”. We played there for three days and the weather was PERFECT… no rain, no wind. I’m told they get weather like this about once every fifty years or so. It’s the birth place of golf and still island golf!

Catalina Island Golf Course, Catalina, California, USA
Catalina Island Golf Course

Catalina Island is what I consider my “home course” since I live there a good part of the year. It is one of the oldest courses in the western US, established in 1892. Catalina is a small island off the California coast. It’s one of the few places in America where the most common form of transportation is a golf cart. The courses in Hawaii, Jamaica, the Florida Keys, etc. may be more dramatic, but your home course is always your favorite

Garibaldi Fish

Garabaldi Fish
Garabaldi Fish

The Garibaldi is a brightly colored orange fish of the damselfish family that is native to the North-Eastern subtropical parts of the Pacific Ocean, ranging from Monterey Bay, California, to Baja California. The name is a reference to the Italian military and political figure Giuseppe Garibaldi who wore a trademark red shirt.

Not only is this fish a regular sight whilst diving off Santa Catalina, it is also the official marine state fish of California.