Brian,
there are several islands around here including the ones you mentioned.
The closest are Los Coronados , about 18 miles due south.I have been on several dives to this location and has abundant wildlife.
http://www.horizoncharters.com/coronados.html
Further north /West are a series of islands.
the closest I think is san Clemente which is a big military range so not much visited.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...nte-island.htm
The other catalina, is a very popular tourist destination with a famous port named Avalon.
http://www.catalina.com/main.html
We hope to visit Catalina ,but usually it is easier to trailer the boat up and launch from Long Beach or Newport beach.
There are also islands further North offshore of Oxnard and Point Hueneme(right where I picked my boat up from after shipping from UK) and those are Santa Cruz / Santa Rosa/San Miguel.
So want to get some hours under my belt learning to handle my boat and then start to explore these regions.
cheers Dal