California Cruising Guides
Detailed, accurate cruising guides for California — written for real conditions.
Newport Beach Harbor Cruising Guide
The largest recreational harbour on the US West Coast — 9,000+ boats inside a sheltered estuary, the Newport-Ensenada race start every April, residential islands with private docks instead of streets, and a 26-nm direct line to Catalina. The Orange County working sailor's home water.
- ✓ Largest recreational harbour on the West Coast — 9,000+ registered vessels
- ✓ Newport-Ensenada International Yacht Race — 400+ boats start here every April
- ✓ Catalina Island 26 nm WSW — the working day sail or comfortable overnight
Catalina Island Cruising Guide
Twenty-two miles off the Los Angeles coast, with turquoise water, kelp forests, mooring fields at Avalon and Two Harbors, and a herd of bison roaming the interior since 1924. The first-Catalina-crossing is the rite of passage for every Southern California sailor — and the trip they keep making for the rest of their cruising lives.
- ✓ 22 nm from the mainland — a working day-sail from Marina del Rey, Newport, or Long Beach
- ✓ Avalon Harbor — 700+ moorings, town, restaurants, the 1929 Casino on the waterfront
- ✓ Two Harbors (the Isthmus) — quieter, wilder, the cruising community's preferred base
Marina del Rey Cruising Guide
The largest man-made small-craft harbour in the United States — 5,300 slips across 19 basins, dredged in the early 1960s out of a Ballona Creek marsh, with immediate ocean access pointed straight at Catalina Island. The Los Angeles working sailor's home water and one of the most-active charter and sailing-school harbours on the Pacific Coast.
- ✓ Largest man-made small-craft harbour in the US — 5,300 slips across 19 basins
- ✓ Catalina Island 22 nm offshore on a heading of 210° — the working day sail
- ✓ Direct ocean entrance — no bar, no bridge clearance, no tidal gate
San Diego Bay Cruising Guide
Twenty-two square miles of protected water at the most consistent latitude on the US Pacific Coast — 70°F average, 10–15 knot afternoon NW thermal almost daily May–October, the Coronado Islands 12 nm offshore in Mexico, and the only American harbour where a sailor can race in shorts in February.
- ✓ 300+ days of sunshine and 70°F average — the most reliable sailing climate in the US
- ✓ San Diego Bay — 22 square miles of protected water, current under 1 knot in the open bay
- ✓ Coronado Islands — 12 nm offshore in Mexican waters, dramatic anchorages
Channel Islands Cruising Guide
Five volcanic islands rising from the Santa Barbara Channel, 20 nautical miles offshore from one of the most populated coasts in the United States, and one of the least-visited national parks in the system. A wilderness anchorage 25 miles from downtown Ventura — the cruising trip every Southern California sailor should make and that most have not.
- ✓ Channel Islands National Park — five islands accessible only by boat
- ✓ Pelican Bay, Santa Cruz Island — the working showpiece anchorage
- ✓ Painted Cave on Santa Cruz — among the largest sea caves in the world
Monterey Bay Cruising Guide
A 25-mile arc of cold, productive water between Santa Cruz and the Monterey Peninsula, with one of the deepest underwater canyons in North America running through the middle of it. The bay between the bays — and the cruising ground that most Pacific Coast passages pass through too quickly.
- ✓ Monterey Submarine Canyon — 10,000 ft deep, deeper than the Grand Canyon
- ✓ Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary — 276 miles of protected coastline
- ✓ Humpback, blue, and gray whales feed within sight of the harbour
San Francisco Bay Cruising Guide
Four hundred square miles of sailing inside one mile-wide gate, with 400,000 cubic feet of water moving through it every second at peak tide and the world's most reliable afternoon thermal funnelling 25 knots through the same gap. The hardest sailing classroom on the US West Coast and the most rewarding.
- ✓ The Golden Gate — the only sea-level breach in the California Coast Ranges
- ✓ 20–30 knot afternoon thermal winds, May through October, almost daily
- ✓ Tidal current at the Gate — 4.5 knots peak ebb on a spring tide
Southern California Cruising Guide
Six hundred miles of coast between Point Conception and the Mexican border, with reliable summer thermal winds, year-round sailing, the densest marina infrastructure in North America, and Catalina Island just over the horizon. The most beginner-friendly bluewater region in the United States — and one of the more underrated working cruising grounds.
- ✓ 300 days of sunshine and a reliable westerly thermal May–October
- ✓ Catalina Island — 22 nm offshore from LA, 26 nm from Newport Beach
- ✓ Marina del Rey — largest man-made small-craft harbour in the US (5,300 slips)
Morro Bay Sailing & Cruising Guide
Halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with a 576-foot volcanic plug at the entrance and a sometimes-challenging entrance bar between the boat and a tidal estuary that is calm in almost any weather. The only genuine shelter on 200 miles of central California coast — and the working overnight stop on every Pacific Coast passage between Santa Barbara and Monterey.
- ✓ Morro Rock — 576-ft volcanic plug, peregrine falcon nesting site, navigation landmark
- ✓ Well-protected estuary behind the sandspit — calm in almost any weather once inside
- ✓ Sea otters, brown pelicans, harbour seals — among the more biologically rich estuaries on the coast
Santa Barbara Sailing & Cruising Guide
Midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on the only stretch of California coast that runs east-west instead of north-south. The result is a south-facing harbour protected from the prevailing northwest swell, reliable beam-reach sailing in both directions along the channel, and the Channel Islands rising off the southern horizon 20 miles offshore.
- ✓ South-facing harbour — unusually protected from the prevailing NW swell
- ✓ Channel Islands 19–25 nm offshore — Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa accessible
- ✓ Reliable afternoon thermal 12–18 knots, May through September