Bill Mattson and I decided to take a trip to Channel Islands National Park to scout out the potential for a camping trip there. We decided to try to make the expedition a one day ordeal, with being prepared to spend the night if need be.
We chose Saturday June 23rd, 2001 because it was close to the Solstice and would give us plenty of daytime in which to sail our plan. Santa Cruz Island was our destination because it is the closest of all the national park’s islands that can be landed on with a boat. We obtained the appropriate permits to camp at the National Park and to land on The Nature Conservancy’s property, outside of National Park property, as well.
We prepared ourselves for potential and likely high wind and high seas sailing and prepared to camp out on the island. Lots of planning went into all of our possible routes and alternate plans. We chose an early departure from Santa Barbara and a return to Ventura, visiting from one to five spots on Santa Cruz Island along the way.
Bill arrived in Marina Del Rey on Friday for a test sail and to help with breaking down the boat, a Mystere 6.0, for travel. We sailed a round trip of about 20 miles and became comfortable with each other’s ability. After readying the boat for highway travel, Bill agreed to drag it up to Ventura County so that I would not have to deal with it in the early morning.
Fellow Beach Cat Sailor Buzz invited me over for a Burger and Martini party on Friday evening where I proceeded to attempt to cause myself a hangover.
Saturday morning I was up at 4 a.m. so that I could finish packing and be on the road by 5 a.m.
In the rush and in the wake of a party night, I packed the tent, food, clothes, and other dry items in my large waterproof bag that I had just purchased. I bought a new one that was large enough for both the tent and the sleeping bag along with all the other dry items.
Right on Schedule, I arrived at the Ventura Harbor launch ramp and pulled all my personal gear out of my car. This is when I realized that while I did remember the tent, I forgot my sleeping bag. This is also when I realized that my brand new waterproof bag had two female closure buckles instead of a proper pair.
Before Bill arrived, I had time to walk to the parking permit machine and buy a 3-dollar, 24 hour parking permit. The machine refused to take any paper money. I discovered that it was also supposed to accept coins so I went to the store and to my surprise, I found somebody in southern CA who would actually give me change for my paper money. His name is Gary and he has a nice little store there at the ramp where you can, and should, buy some last minute snacks or drinks.
The coins worked fine and the guy in the store, Gary, also had the harbor patrol there to fix the machine within only a few minutes.
Bill arrived and apologized for being a few minutes late. I forgave him on the condition that he would give me all his extra available clothing if I would have to try to sleep overnight on the island.
We got underway and headed for Santa Barbara where we were to launch the boat. On the way, Bill was telling me about how confusing the town is with three major freeway off ramps named Cabrillo, Carrillo, and Castillo.
Bill found the one that he was looking for and proceeded to get us lost while dragging a huge catamaran through streets that were narrow and had cars parked on both sides. Once we finally found the correct place to leave the freeway, we arrived at the ramp.
We threw everything onto the boat and got it into the water so Bill could leave with the truck and trailer and return them to the other lot at Ventura where his friend would pick him up and return him to Santa Barbara.
I stayed with the boat to continue with rigging and preparation Pic, waiting for Bill to return from trailer transferring with some breakfast. Bill returned with breakfast, Pic but he also returned with the truck and trailer.
It seems that his friend was unable to do the pick up and delivery due to our lateness that was caused by Bill’s minor lack of navigational skills in driving to the harbor. We would solve the problem later, by having the friend show up and give us a ride when we would return from the island.
I thought that this would be a good time to tell Bill that I had just realized that I had not only forgotten my sleeping bag, but had also neglected to bring the fiberglass poles for the dome tent frame. We decided that if we stayed on the island, we would either not use a tent, or we would use the tiller extension and, or paddles as props to convert the dome tent into a pup tent.
Rigging, launching, and final packing all took much longer than expected and we finally shoved off at 10:15 a.m., rather than at 8:15 as hoped for. Next time we will be sure to have the bags packed, not needing any last minute packing management. Last minute items will be stowed separate from all of the gear that has been previously packed.
We had a beautiful fresh breeze of about 6 knots, cloud cover was beginning to burn off, and we were off to a terrific start! pic Pretty soon it became rather obvious that the cloud cover was only clearing over the land. Every direction we looked, we saw the same gray nothingness in the distance. We could however see for at least a half of a mile in every direction so we felt confident of noticing any approaching traffic.
The wind settled down a little bit and we continued along with a boat speed of about 2 to 3 knots for an hour or so. We were sailing a medium to close reach and were nearly exactly on course for Chinese Beach on the north side of Santa Cruz Island.Pic
At this point in time I struck my head with my hand and exclaimed, “How stupid I’ve been! All this time we could have been using the chuter! So we deployed the roller-furler, pole-mounted oversized drifter, and furled the jib. We cracked off about 30 degrees to fill the sail and the boat began to really take off. Then once the apparent wind had built up, we brought the heading back up to nearly as high as we were sailing without the chuter and continued to sail at about twice the speed that we were sailing at before the sail change.Pic another pic
We passed a row of off shore oil derricks at one place, they appeared to all be lined up in a perfect row. We witnessed several medium sized flocks of pelicans (3 to 15 birds) fly by. An occasional seal or sea lion would rear it head and the usual seagulls were present.
The ocean was so calm that it looked like a lake with some very long, sallow, 6” swells slowly moving across it. For hours we saw no land in sight. The quietness was a pleasure. One of the loudest sounds we encountered during our crossing to the island was the sound of webbed feet and wing tips striking the calm water’s surface as we would come up on a flock of floating seagulls that would take flight to avoid us.
The sky began to open up above us, giving us a big blue circular opening in the marine layer above us.Pic The distance was still gray, but we had some sunlight illuminating our immediate surroundings. The pieces of kelp and eelgrass suddenly had some pretty color to them to contrast against the dull gray water that we all floated upon. The colorful parts of the boat and storage bags all began to take on brilliant appearances after hours of looking dull. The red hat on Bills head began to shine like a light on the roof of a police car. Pic
Soon the sky cleared enough for us to see Santa Cruz Island.Pic another pic Pretty soon we were close enough to make out Chinese Beach were we would first consider a landing. pic
As we got closer to the island, we could clearly see the beach and there was a severe lack of wind. pic The closer to shore we came, the worse the wind situation grew.
We were concerned about lack of wind since we were getting a taste of light air and the forecast for the following day was for less wind. At this time we made a decision to leave this beach, head for Scorpion,pic and try to get back to the mainland the same day.
So we got back out into the wind and chutered down to the east end of the island and landed at Scorpion Bay. Pic
We saw the ferry boat there. pic
The beach was beautiful. pic But it was pretty rocky. pic another pic
We felt proud. pic Bill felt adventurous. pic I felt tough. pic
We went for a walk pic and had a chat with Mr. Ranger. pic
Scorpion Cove is a pristine bay! pic 'nother
On the way away from Scorpion Cove, we could see Little Scorpion Cove where there were several boats at anchor. pic Looking back at Scorpion Canyon made the beach and campground area in the valley look like a very small notch in a very grand landscape. pic
We headed off shore toward a point where we would then jibe and turn toward the south side of the island to visit Smugglers Cove. After jibing and returning toward the island, we got into such a low wind area that we decided that visiting Smugglers would result in sailing in the dark on the return trip. We took the conservative choice and turned away from the island and headed for Ventura Harbor.
The beginning of the return trip was slow due to a change in wind strength and direction due to the influences of both Santa Cruz and Annacapa Islands. Once we got into clear air, we got enough wind to fly a hull on a broad reach with the both of us on the trapezes.
Pictures were rarely taken during the exciting sailing times but take my word for it that we had a very nice time as we rushed back toward the mainland in beautiful sunny conditions. The wind speed was very conservative for this area but at least we were able to use the trapezes. Our boat speed never reached above 17.5 knots.
We got into Ventura harbor just before sunset and were on the dock and feeling as though we had accomplished a lot in one day. pic
Bill’s friend showed up and they left to get the truck and trailer from Santa Barbara. I stayed behind with my boat and enjoyed a nice sunset and a stale beer that was on the boat. pic
I contemplated how buying a 24-hour parking permit was not going to have stopped me from getting a ticket if we would have stayed overnight on the island. I reflected on what a great day that we had just enjoyed on the water. Pic
