Memorial Day in the Channel Islands off Southern California

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Channel Islands

If you’re thinking of heading out to the Channel Islands this Memorial Day, be advised: so is everyone else with access to a boat. And if your homeport is Ventura or Oxnard’s Channel Islands, well all your neighbors are heading for Santa Cruz.

    ALL

of your neighbors, even some of the boats that you swear are sitting on the bottom, they’re all going to Santa Cruz.

Me too.

But I’m leaving early Friday and not figuring that I’ll find solitude in my favorite 1 and 2 boat harbors on Saturday or Sunday.

My backup plan? Head for an anchorage with great capacity, namely Smugglers/Yellowbanks, Prisoners or Morse Point. Though these are normally one-hook anchorages, be prepared to nestle in close to your neighbors on two hooks.

Last Labor Day we saw more than 100 boats in Smugglers/Yellowbanks and more than 20 in Pelican. That worked because the weather was flat calm. If any sort of wind kicks up, be prepared to bailout. Brief your crew, assign tasks, ensure the designated helmsman knows the bailout heading, preposition your life jackets and search light and pray that the night remains calm. And set an active anchor watch. They not only have to monitor your position and your gear, but they’ve got to keep an eye on all boats in proximity. And tell them to keep a very sharp eye on small power boats. Notorious anchor draggers, they.

See you at the islands.

19 thoughts on “Memorial Day in the Channel Islands off Southern California”

  1. Pingback: Memorial Day in the Channel Islands off Southern California

  2. With 49 other weekends available, I would be inclined to pass on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day for island trips. The organization of Santa Barbara Channel Yacht Clubs which comprises about 10 clubs is planning on an organized party weekend at Smugglers/Yellow Banks so you should have plenty of company!

  3. Watching others learn to anchor on a big weekend shall be highly amusing…just as long as they’re leeward of my boat ;-)

  6. Some good tips there from CD. In my limited experience, it seems that the potential for problems is about equal to the square of the number of boats around.

    If we’re headed out this weekend, it might be good idea to assume that everyone else is an idiot, which is probably a fairly accurate assessment anyway.

    Be Safe! (And definitely keep a wary watch on those powerboaters…)

  11. Yeah, I know I can’t spell–make that “altars.” Dam Appleton…

  12. Randy,
    I’m not sure if I want to tell you…you just might assume the worst.

  15. Greetings all,

    I see the Cap’n has deleted a couple of my nasty posts, and I don’t blame ‘im for doing so. Seems ol’ Amanda here has a problem with TUI– Typing Under the Influence. I’ve either got to stop drinkin’ or stop bloggin’ and right now the latter seems more likely.

    So I’ll be keepin’ my bilge-water mouth to myself from now on. But before I take leave of all ye fine Captains, please accept my apology for pollutin’ yer blog and offending you all.

    And lastly pay attention to Capt. Dan. He knows more than most Captains has forgot, and he didn’t get that knowledge by just readin’ books, if you know what I mean.

    Fair winds and calm seas to you all

    Amanda

  16. It’s all good Amanda…ole’ Shirly’s been know to hit the grog a little hard and end up in a foreign port.

  18. Picture this:

    A couple and their son pull into the anchorage we were at in a big power boat. They find the perfect spot and drop anchor (in a great big pile). They then launch jr in the tender and commence to start cocktail hour. Not twenty minutes later, they’re ten feet from a 25’ sloop who’s skipper was no where to be found. They quickly motor forward and drop a second hook – directly on top of the first! In the meantime, jr. is trying to set the record for 360’s in a tender and I do believe he’s got the potential. Mom & dad finish deploying the second hook just in time to enjoy the sunset and what’s left of their cocktails. At this point I call them on the vhf to let them know that yes Virginia, you are still adrift and would you like some help anchoring, no response. Well it didn’t take long and they were back on top of the sloop again. This time Jr. was summoned, his record attempt would have to wait. The tender was stowed as mom motored the big yacht out of harms way. The skipper was now on the bow trying to figure out how he was going to get this tangled mess aboard? The windless was going to be useless, that much he knew. He was going to have to haul it all by hand, lucky for him they were both mostly all rope. Long story short, the whole mess ended up in a pile on the foredeck and they left without so much as a wave goodbye.

    Rob Walton
    S/V R Escape

  19. Good stuff Rob. I’ve noticed that with many motor vessel skippers, “drop the hook” means precisely that: drop it over the side and forget about it. And “scope” is something you use for bad breath…

    RB