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Landing Cove at the far east end of Anacapa Island is the only place that you can gain access to the east island. Most days, it’s pretty difficult to get there in a kayak or dinghy because there is usually a pronounced swell, which makes getting into and out of — but particularly into — a small boat very tricky.

You’ll likely find yourself dropping the hook in 50′ of water. And even at that depth, your boat is going to be very close to the bluffs. I think it prudent to keep qualified boat driver aboard at all times when anchored here.

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Yesterday the moon was the closest it gets to the earth– 359691 km and today there is a New Moon.

So what(?) you say

Since you’ll most likely be home and not near or on a boat, a mighty shrug is all you need to convey your interest. But if you are near the water, you’ll see the greatest tidal range. In our marina, the low tides will find a few boats sitting comfortably on the bottom for a couple of hours. Look for masts canted to one side or the other, those are the ones in the mud.

We really don’t worry much about tides here. Our range is skimpy compared to much of the world — somewhere in the six foot range on a full or new moon, but for the next day or so it’ll be closer to nine feet, with the low a foot and half below datum (-1.55).

Low tide -1.55

It’ll be a good idea to favor the center of the channel and keep a closer eye on the fathometer as you transit near shore.

But what’s the problem with high tide? How can that cause a problem?

Hi tide +7.14

It’s a low probability worry, but a little surge could turn these floating docks in to, well, boats. That was one of the big factors in boat destruction in Florida in the last big hurricane.

The Florida disaster wasn’t because of a perigean tide, but it’s easy to see that the risk of having the marina drift off to sea is higher on these days.

Without mentioning all of these facts, NOAA has compressed it all into a coastal flood warning for today. They’re not forecasting much flooding, fortunately. We wouldn’t want to have to scramble to get underway with turkey on the table.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. You probably don’t care that this is my favorite holiday, but it is, principally because there is no holiday song that must be sung today.

BTW — there’s a hybrid solar eclipse, but we won’t see it.

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Microsoft/Bing Piracy Watch

Here’s the good news: if you stay in California coastal waters, you’re not in pirate country.

On the other hand, according to the chart, there have been incidents near Sicily and in the Bay of Biscay (western France).

Sailboats are particularly vulnerable due their slow speed. I can’t think of any sailboat that can outrun a RIB packing 400 horses on the transom.

If you click on the map, you’ll go to the site that offers a service that let’s you track piracy attempts.

I have never had desire to sail the Indian Ocean … or the Straits of Sunda. Now, in addition to being way-the-hell-&-gone on the other side of the earth and in addition to being hot, humid and mildewed to the max, you could get killed simply because you have a boat and are suspected of having money.

Given those parameters, can you think of another coast (one close to here that is also impoverished) that might become home to modern-day pirates?

For those of you still interested in visiting Pirate Country, check out the US Coast Guard’s resources.

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No wonder no one gets it

It’s that time of year, the time when I try to explain to my nav class how tides, tide tables, tidal current and all the other things  make sailing into San Francisco Bay so much fun and such a challenge.

Little did I realize that the tides are not a function (mostly) of the moon’s gravitational effect on the earth’s surface. Nope. It’s divine, at least according to Bill O’Reilly.

Fortunately, Bill doesn’t use the tides as an example of intelligent design, because the variability of tides worldwide might put a big question mark on intelligent design. (Many believe that there are two high and two low tides a day. True … in most places. Some places, there are but one of each).

So, if you’re in my nav class and don’t quite understand how the tide tables work, do not fret. Just invoke Bill O’Reilly, God or Neil deGrasse Tyson. You’ll ace the test.

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Dredge HR Morris

Two Relevant Notices to Local Mariners:

Oxnard/Channel Islands Harbor

“Manson Construction will be performing continuous dredging operations of Channel Islands Harbor from 06 Dec 10 until 21 Jan 11. The hydraulic
dredge HR MORRIS, dredge tenders PUP and CUB, and derrick barges FREYA and RENEGADE will be on site and monitoring VHF-FM Chan. 13 and
67. Mariners are requested to use extreme caution and contact the dredge HR MORRIS for passing instructions. For more details or comments
contact Frank Bechtolt at 562-762-5367, Dredge Captain Fred Franks at 562-762-5396, or dredge HR MORRIS at 562-762-5259.”

Ventura Harbor

Kinnetic Laboratories and AMEC Geomatrix will be conducting sediment core sampling from 14 Dec 10 until 23 Dec 10, 0700 to 1800 daily, in the
Federal Entrance Channel and northern Sand Trap Area of Ventura harbor, CA. The R/V DW HOOD and skiff will be on scene monitoring VHF-FM
Chan. 16. DW HOOD will 3 point anchor for up to an hour to collect samples. All vessels are requested to keep 100 ft outside of anchor spread.
For more details or comments contact Ken Kronschnabl at 831-457-3950.

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Mai Tai ashore at northwest end of Channel Islands Harbor near the world-famous Rudder Room. Photo: Rob Walton

It’s always easy to pass judgment when you’re viewing the wreckage the day after. Nice to look at it in the light of day and pontificate. And I’ve heard a lot of that (and done a fair amount myself), but as we used to say in Naval Aviation: There’s no point in having accidents if you don’t learn something from them.

Discounting, at least for the purposes of this discussion, the obvious preventatives – waiting until daylight so that he could see, or turning away from the beach when the depth gauge showed 15 feet or so, what are the other actions he could have taken?

Let’s just say that he had to come in that entrance and that he had to make the approach fairly close to the beach, how could he have set himself up better? How could he have used his GPS better? How might a hand-bearing compass have helped him out?

A quick aside – the captain did do some stuff right: He did deploy the anchor, but the rode parted; they did call in a Mayday; they were wearing life jackets and they successfully walked ashore.

We met a guy on the beach digging near the keel the day after the incident, who told us that the owner of the boat “sold” it to a passer-by, a guy simply walking the beach. Digging guy was walking guy’s friend. They were going to excavate before trying to tow it off the beach.

If the owner did actually unload the wreck and pass the pollution and clean-up responsibility to someone else, well that was one very excellent move.

There’s a bottle of champagne going to the best answer on how the captain might have prevented this accident by using a fundamental navigation techniques. Something you learned in ASA 105 or similar basic nav class.

Put your answer in the comment section below.

//

BTW – here’s the link to the Ventura County Star story. the story isn’t great, but the comments are fun.

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The Brig Pilgrim is the setting for Richard Henry Dana's tale of California sea adventure in "Two Years Before the Mast."

Two Years Before the Mast

sat unread in the rail in the forepeak of Wiley for a dozen years. I don’t know where that book went. It may have turned to dust over the last decade of sailing, but I got interested in the book again a couple of weeks ago when I found it in the FREE listing in my Kindle.

And so I dived in again. My first attempt at the book got me not much further than page 50, but I’m just about done this time around and have found it fascinating.

It’s certainly an important book to anyone interested in California history and it’s a great place to come up with trivia to amaze and confuse even the MASTER RATER, THE RANGER and the other denizens of Channel Islands Harbor.

I can’t quite get my memory around this one, but I’m trying to memorize these lines. Don’t know when I’ll launch them, but there will be an appropriate time, possibly involving beer, to do that. Here it is – I think you have to yell this in a commanding tone, so I’ll be practicing that – the commanding tone – on the dogs:

Set up the lee rigging, fish the spritsail yard, lash the galley, and bring  tackles upon the martingale. Bowse it;  bowse it to windward, lads.

Other than lads and set up, I haven’t a clue what any of that means. But I do know what it means to face the Southeast storm that he talks about. Repeatedly.

After “doubling” The Horn, you’d think that weather wouldn’t be much of a bother to these seamen, but when they were in the Santa Barbara Channel in the fall they prepared for it every time they anchored. In fact, when anchoring in Santa Barbara, they’d set the hook three miles offshore at this time of year.

What’s more, they’d rig the anchor so that it could be jettisoned when the wind kicked up and backed to the Southeast.

My Santa Ana strategy is not quite so conservative. I am ready, however, to leave a stern anchor behind on a buoy if needs be. Nor do I snug in to a far western wall when in Pelican, Alberts or Willows as I would in summer. Plus we make more frequent weather checks than we do at other times of year, going on deck to check for eastern breeze, east or south swell or dry decks.

In an emergency, we’re ready to jettison both anchors, but unlike Pilgrim, we have a power windlass. But the biggest difference is that Pilgrim was a square rigger, capable of getting not much closer than about 70 degrees of apparent wind. They’d have to backwind headsails to fill the mains and topsails, so they needed plenty of room to the lee to make that maneuver. We, happily, have a mighty Yanmar, which we fire up at the first sign of easterly wind.

We were surprised (twice) by unforecast Santa Anas last year. Until then, we had great confidence in NOAA. If they don’t mention Santa Anas, you’re not necessarily safe. If they do forecast a Santa Ana …. they’re not often wrong. In either case, have a plan, brief your crew and check the weather throughout the night.

Click to learn about the replica Brig Pilgrim

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http://www.sailchannelislands.com

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Mars: Waypoint Wiley

Two rocket scientists joined us aboard Wiley for a brief trip last week. Even though they lead a very glamorous life in a very high tech world, spelled JPL, they enjoyed slowing down to 5 knots or so to enjoy a gorgeous day on the SoCal coast.

They had such a good time, that when they got back to work they named a Martian Waypoint for our terrestrial vessel.

“We create waypoints in the software tools used to plan the (Mars Rover “Opportunity”) drives (much easier to remember than the XYZ coordinates the rover understands) and they have to be named something. So today it was WP_Wiley, instead of the usual, tiresome, sol2333_waypoint1.”

So if you’re ever on Mars, I’ve got some real estate I’d like you to look at. It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but the rover will move right to left, heading for the green, which is the waypoint. Even tinier than the print on this picture, is the little-bitty For Sale sign I’ve put next to it.

BTW – the wx is (finally) turning beautiful on earth. Hope I’ll see you on the water this week.

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Sail Channel Islands

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American Pride probably looks a little pitiful – at least her crew will – after running aground in in Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach.

The Coast Guard reported that another tall ship’s crew finds itself wondering why they can’t move ahead. Ooops we’re aground!!!

According to the Coast Guard, it was a “soft grounding,” and she floated away on the rising tide.

Here’s Rainbow Harbor (Marina). American Pride lives at pier 3b. That looks pretty tight. I wonder who is responsible for monitoring shoaling … or the depth sounder, for that matter.

The Coast Guard is investigating the cause.

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Score this video.

The Ropers – Wayne and Bill – joined the Boatswain and me when we set sail on 15 Feb. As everyone knows, you can’t sail in winter. That is unless you buy some beer, a couple of pounds of steak and then throw off the lines. Remarkably, the boat floats just fine in February and the sails seem to work, too.

Bill Roper caught this Gray Well as he sounded between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island

We headed for Santa Cruz thinking we’d overnight in Pelican anchorage on the north shore. However, we were distracted by whale spouts and sailed south for a closer look. We got within a quarter mile of a pod of three, but were unable to close the distance under sail. It was getting a little late in the day and we wanted to be in anchorage with a couple of hours of daylight left so that we could perfect our bow & stern anchoring technique.

The night was warm and the New Moon made it perfect for stargazing. Then day #2 rewarded us with a spectacular sunrise. It was warm enough by 0700 to kayak in shirtsleeves.

We had anchored in Coches Prietas, which is a very popular anchorage. I rarely go there because it is so popular, some times attracting 20 boats or more. But this night only one joined us and they did not actually get into the anchorage with us, preferring to ride to a single hook a bit outside. Though it’s easier by far to set one hook, we had a much more comfortable ride inside the reef. We watched other boat’s anchor light traverse an arc of ± 20 degrees. That couldn’t have been fun for long.

Winter Morning Coches Prietas Santa Cruz Island

In the morning, we set out in kayaks to explore the beach. This is the site of a Chumash village and we think we spotted the midden where their ancient garbage dump is located. The island is greener than we’d ever seen with water flowing in all the creeks and trees and flowers, including lupine in full bloom.

We got underway about 1100. Wind was still calm and seas absolutely flat: a perfect day for whale spotting. Once we were in the Anacapa Passage, we found several pods. As we were only making 5 knots, the whales had to come to us, which they did. There are a couple of excellent seconds of video and several great stills that Bill caught with his Canon.

We had to motor all the way home. We hate that, but if it was the price for hanging out with the Grays, it was well worth it.

The weather is lousy today and forecast lousy through the weekend. Winter sailing is great in SoCal, you’ve just got to pick your days.

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