and I can tell you flat out that the Catalina Channel can get about as bad as it comes. Sure, their are worse places but I've seen some serious shit in that channel and been driven out of Avalon more then once when the wind and seas have totally blown the place out. I was on a mooring once and woke up in the middle of the night in the air. The boat had just dropped right out from under me from a swell that came rolling in.
When the waves can hit the sea wall and blast up into the sky as high as the tops of the palm trees you know it would not a good place to be in bad conditions. I was in a 70 foot dive boat back in the late 60's in the middle of the channel that had all the back railing and tanks swept away by a wave. That got my attention and I never forgot it. Not very good weather predictions back then and the boats sometimes took the hits because of it. It seems like not much has changed. Usually in the winter the harbor is pretty empty and the boats that do go over get tucked up in the corner by the Casino and gas dock. When you're back in the corner you miss the big stuff that comes in. The harbor fills up for New Years and this year the weather didn't play fair. It's very sad indeed.