Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
After the Catalina Flyer had some unexpected gear box issues in October 9th of last year, they fixed the issues, but another one arose in it’s place. On a boat this large, fixes are both expensive and time consuming, as you can’t exactly go buy a replacement gear box for the Catalina Flyer in the Walmart Clearance section.
Alas, the new gearbox failure puts the Flyer out of commission until at least April 14 of this year, and possibly longer.
The boat, which originally broke down on October 9th, had Harbor Deisel pull out their gear box and ship it to specialists in Washington State (the only place outside of Lousiana and Florida who can fix this particular problem in the US), however, the parts to actually repair it were in Germany– and they had a hard time obtaining said parts, for a variety of reasons. The repair process this time will likely look very similar.
In the meantime, if you need to get to Catalina, you can always use:
1) San Pedro & Long Beach ($73.50 round-trip), and Dana Point ($75.50 round trip): https://www.catalinaexpress.com/schedule-fares.html
2) Helicopter rides are available from Long Beach ($135 one-way) here: https://www.catalinatours.com/tour/long-beach-helicopter/
and from San Pedro ($150 one-way), here: https://www.catalinatours.com/tour/island-express-helicopters-san-pedro/
Catalina is a great island to site-see, hike, scuba, fish, boat, and of course, to get your “free” WikiWacker Hat.
