CATALINA by SEA - The Catalina Express

  Catalina Channel Express is a passenger ferry service that operates scheduled passenger service between Avalon and Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island and San Pedro, Long Beach and Dana Point on the California mainland.

Jet Cat Express - Built in 2001 (Newest Ship)

Jet Cat Express

Catamaran

145'

381 cap.

42 knots

60 crossing time

2001 constructed

  The service was founded in 1981 with one sixty-passenger retrofitted vessel to make the channel crossing between the mainland and Catalina Island in about an hour and fifteen minutes, with 2 departures daily. The current fleet now includes eight high-speed vessels that make the channel crossing in under an hour, with multiple trips daily. Catalina Express controls ninety-five percent of passenger and freight traffic to and from the island when including its sister company, Avalon Freight Services.

Catalina Express has various ports that are located in Long Beach, San Pedro, and Dana Point, and vessels depart from all to the Avalon,Two Harbors and many Ports on Santa Catalina Island. Catalina Express runs throughout the entire year, and runs up to thirty trips a day in peak season. The ferry service transports over one million passengers each year,and over 17 million in their first thirty years. The company has reported it has transported over 25 million passengers as of August 2015. Catalina Express celebrated thirty-five years of service in July 2016, being founded in the year of 1981.

EXPECTATIONS...

  I must admit I am very excited to take a trip on specifically the JET CAT EXPRESS.  What a great way to get some fresh sea air, witness occasional marine life & visit our neighboring Islands.  The catamarans are very smooth, fast & in this case comfortably furnished.

My only disappointment is the lack of any high frame-rate video from the bow of the JET CAT?  Maybe even get some 4K footage of some kind?

I plan to take my son on a trip soon & I am committed to get some serious footage of no less than 1080p@60fps & maybe some decent 4K video.  Would love to do a time-lapse also, but the lack of videos with good quality seems like a missed opportunity for this company.  Many times I notice large corporations or local businesses FAILING to showcase their 'wares' with GOOD quality video footage.  When they do try it seems DRY & UN-INSPIRING.  That said ... Looking forward to travelling with Catalina Express, but not until the weather clears up here in SoCal!