Sunday update: Register editor David Whiting called in at about 5:30 p.m. with news that he has made it back to land from his “Crew of Two Around Catalina” race.

For those of you who don’t read Whiting’s Thursday column in the OC Outdoors section, he’s never short of stories that tell of magnificent adventures around the world, whether it’s climbing high mountains or running long marathons.

So it was no surprise when he said last week he was joining the “Crew of Two” race, which generally takes a crazy amount of endurance during the more than 30-hour race.

 Read an article Whiting wrote about the race here.  

“We had a wonderful time, unfortunately, the winds were incredibly light,” he said. “We struggled at times to even move forward.”

Whiting and his partner Bob Ritner ended up getting a bit of a breeze to help them to the finish line, and it even rained while he was out there. He said there was plenty of entertainment out there on the open ocean, including a pod of four pilot whales, ocean sunfish, and dolphins. 

I’m pretty sure he’ll be doing a write up about the event next Thursday, so keep an eye out for his column.

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Saturday: Register editor David Whiting gave me a call at about 5:30 p.m. straight from the Pacific for an update on how his “Crew of Two Around Catalina” race was going.

It started at about noon today, with 80 boats in the race. At the start, the ocean was relatively flat, with a decent breeze, he reported.

“The winds are beginning to treat us a little better,” he said, as a northwesterly was blowing about 14 knots.

The sky was hazy, a good thing so they could stay cool all day, he said. 

“The sun is shimmering off the water, it’s beautiful,” he said.

His teammate and captain Bob Ritner took a gamble on the wind, and they set off on a different route than the rest of the boats.

“We’ll see if it pays off for us,” Whiting said.

They were headed off the coast of Palos Verdes,  toward Ship Rock. 

Whiting said they may be able to finish the race in less than the expected 36 hours, and they were making good time.

Check back for an update on how Whiting is doing in the race on Sunday.

For more on beach news, plus marine forecasts for local boating conditions, go to ocregister.com/beaches.

- Laylan

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