Barges Provide Crucial Lifeline for Catalina : Survival: All the necessities for living on the island must be brought over from the mainland. If the weather turns foul or the tides are bad, Avalon residents start to worry.

It’s a thought that may not cross the mind of the average tourist to Santa Catalina Island this weekend, but almost everything he buys or eats was sent over from the mainland.

And more than likely, that souvenir T-shirt or those fresh salad vegetables made the 22-mile crossing to the island by barge.

Catalina’s most vital links to the mainland are based at Berth 184 in Los Angeles Harbor.

Dubbed Islander and Islander II, the two 128-foot-long barges transport food, fuel, clothing, cars, construction materials and just about everything else it takes to live in Avalon or Two Harbors, the even more isolated community on the other side of the island.

Their task is awesome: to supply the necessities of life to Catalina’s more than 3,000 year-round residents and as many as 15,000 visitors a day during the peak summer tourist season.

Making more than 200 round trips annually from their Wilmington berth to their island landing near Pebbly Beach Road, about a mile east of Avalon, the flat-bottomed barges are Catalina’s umbilical tie to “overtown.”

The barges, pulled by tugboats across the channel, make round-trip crossings at least five times a week in summer and three times a week in winter, depending on the tides and the whims of the weather, said Jim Radcliffe, vice president of Catalina Freight Lines.

“The barge is definitely the one and only major necessity on the island,” Sally Freeman said.

She and her husband own a wholesale food supply company, as well as Fred and Sally’s, one of Avalon’s two supermarkets.

Catalina’s remoteness is one of its greatest attractions, but it also means that residents and merchants must rely heavily on sea transport, particularly for items like fresh fruit, vegetables and other perishables. Mail and some small packages are delivered by air.

In June, the Santa Catalina Island Co. announced a sweeping, 15-year development plan that will overhaul much of Avalon. The plan includes the construction of new hotels, a new fire station and, eventually, a new City Hall and civic complex. Once development begins, the barges’ importance to the island’s existence will increase because builders will rely on them to transport needed materials.

“One of the challenges of building over here is our geographic isolation and the need to plan out exactly how the construction process is going to work, because it’s totally different from the mainland,” said Ron Doutt, vice president of the Santa Catalina Island Co. “You can figure anything built on Catalina is going to cost at least 50% more (than on the mainland).”

The logistics include coordinating the arrival of the right kinds of construction workers with the right goods, he said.

“If you forget an order of 4-by-4s or you forget some bolt, you can’t go down and just pick up what you’ve forgotten,” Doutt said. “You’ve got to wait for the next barge and hope that is a priority item and will get on.”

Whether a last-minute order makes it onto the barge depends on the item--food and fuel take priority--its size and whether the barge is full, said Leo Hernandez, who manages freight company operations in Wilmington.

The barge is a “roll-on, roll-off” operation, meaning that already loaded truck trailers are driven over a ramp directly onto the barge, where the trailers are disconnected from the truck and parked for the cross-channel ride to Avalon. There, the trailers are either unloaded at the company’s warehouse or reconnected to a truck and hauled to their island destination.

“In those trailers, we put all of the island’s building products, all of the food services, all of the clothing--everything,” said Ed Fine, manager of barge operations at Avalon. “Everything that it takes for a community to live.”

The barge also carries nearly 3 million gallons of fuel a year, including diesel fuel to operate Southern California Edison Co.’s power plant on the island, Radcliffe said.

Catalina Freight Lines, which employs about 18 people in Avalon and Wilmington during the peak summer season, has operated the barges since 1958, Radcliffe said. Before that, the Santa Catalina Island Co. transported goods by steamer.