As seen in the picture, the Catalina was a far cry from Hodge Tuckers homemade John boat. She was three hundred foot long and fifty two feet across. This early in the tourist season there was not nearly a full passenger load. A fact that made the ship seem even larger. The ship had three decks with full service restaurants and ballroom dance floors on each deck. No music today and only sandwich shop service on the main deck. Restrooms everywhere. After one walk around my folks made little brother and me "park it".

The ship's public address system informed us that we were departing the main land and would reach Catalina at 12:45pm. The ship backed away from the pier and came about and headed out of the harbor. The harbor was enclosed behind sea wall or breakwater which protected it from the open sea. The ship moved pretty slowly as we navigated the channel that took us out to the end of the breakwater. Once out of the channel our speed increased to about 15 knots. Except for the breeze and the flutter of the ships flags there was little sense of speed or movement.
 
We had seated ourselves on the top deck in front of the bridge and pilot house. The view was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The ocean seemed to actually rise to meet the sky. Almost like we were climbing up to meet the horizon. The water was glass smooth. Blue green under a beautiful, cloudless blue sky. A typical California day. The air was clean and sweet. The only noise came from the sound of the water as the bow created it's wake by slicing thru the calm water. The mainland slowly disappeared behind us. We now were completely surrounded by the Pacific. A small man made island adrift in a vast sea tha reached the horizon at all compass points. My mom told brother and me to take a good look at and remember this for the rest of our life. It would be comfort in troubled times. How right she was!!