Capt. Dan's Southern California Sailing Charters » Sail Channel Islands

Santa Ana winds — sailing the margin

Capt. Dan — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:55:39 +0000

Santa Ana winds roar through Oxnard Plain

Santa Ana winds regularly whip through this area about this time of year. But you don’t have to quit sailing just because the wind is out of the east.

NOAA doesn’t call all easterlies, not even all strong easterlies, Santa Anas. I’m not sure what NOAA’s Santa Ana criteria are, but looking at the Sailflow chart, you can figure out that the heart of this thing is moving along at 30 knots.

That’s not a lot, especially not when you consider that historically these winds have clocked in near 100 mph (NOAA thinks mostly about effects over land, hence mph rather than knots.)

Yesterday’s Sailflow looked about the same as this morning’s. It was a warm — better than summer — day here in Oxnard and we were eager to sail. So off we went.

As we reported yesterday on Facebook, it was a rip-snortin’ day, but on reflection, there were some lessons to take aboard for the next bout of Santa Anas …. which happen to be lashing the palm trees right now.

Sailflow was exactly correct: the winds were NE and not affecting Channel Islands Harbor. We started out on a broad reach heading south. We were in the yellow band — the margin of the flow. We saw winds in the 20 regime, but what is weird and dangerous in the margin is that the air is very turbulent and wind direction and velocity swing wildly. We saw 20 from the NE and then a 10 second calm, when the windex did a 360 and then 15 knots out of the NW.

That happened over and over: the water would boil with short period gusts and we’d get ready for a forced jibe, then it’d settle down and we’d be rocking along on an 8 knot sprint.

We had a great time: starboard rail in the water and almost instantly a lull was followed by a wind shift that put the port rail in the water.

Great fun, actually. Had we wanted more consistent wind, we could have sailed a bit more to the south and had all the NE flow we could stand, or we could have sailed north into more consistent (though still gusty) W to NW winds. In the gusty region we explored, we elected to keep the main in pretty tight, mostly because we were uncertain that we would be able to predict when the boat might jibe. We also remained scrupulously clear of the boom.

Only two other sailboats were out there with us, but they returned early. One looked like a Hunter with a jammed main furler. The other guys just quit.

Our helmsman was worn out at the end of three hours and we replenished our strength at the Lookout, where they tapped a new keg of IPA for us.

Altogether, a very satisfying day on the water.

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Landing Cove, Anacapa Island added to Sail Channel Islands Cruising Guide

Capt. Dan — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:11:50 +0000

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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Santa Rosa Island a full fledged member of the National Park in January

Capt. Dan — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:41:39 +0000

The public was sorely limited in its access to Santa Rosa Island .... until this January

Cattle, vaqueros, horses, tack, a sprawling ranch house, the foreman’s place — we’ll all be able to get a close look at the artifacts of the ranching, and — later — hunting operation on Santa Rosa Island very soon.

Though we, the taxpayers, bought the property 25 years ago for $30 million, our access has been limited due to continued ranching and hunting operations that were part of the transition deal. On January 1, 2012 we’ll finally get a look.

It’s been pretty quiet out there for some time. The families that have owned and managed the ranch had scaled down operations over the years and have been saying their final good-byes to their more than century old homestead since the 80′s.

The Ventura County Star has an article on those families, their heritage, their final good-byes as well as a very sketchy account of how the National Park Service will manage the land at Santa Rosa.

We are looking forward to exploring the island beyond the thin stretch of beach, the mile or two of roadway we were allowed to traverse and the Torrey Pines that we’ve been confined to. Even with it open entirely, I doubt we’ll get to a large percentage of the island as it is huge.

A note to sailors: I feel unsafe leaving the boat unattended at anchor. We’ve left our boat a couple of times and had to hightail it back each time when the wind kicked up, clocked around and put us on a dangerous lee shore. Add to that the difficulty we (OK, I) had getting my kayak off the beach in the building surf and you can see why I’m nervous about getting out of sight of the boat.

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Out of the Frying Pan into the Bilge

Capt. Dan — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:27:20 +0000

Above: Walton takes a break after polishing off half a dozen projects aboard Sancerre.

Rob Walton, ever-so-recently retired from environmental engineering and recycling firm, has been named Chief Maintenance Officer of Sail Channel Islands, LLC.

In his first half-day on the job, he completed an electric head install, rebuilt the pump on a manual head, fixed a sagging hatch and cabin sole as well as beefing up some of the “cheap-frenchy” pieces that “allegedly supported” the commode and then fixed an ailing shower.
Top: he takes a break at our alternate office sometimes called “The Lookout.”

Rob heads a new division of Sail Channel Islands that offers maintenance training, concierge services, sailing yacht buyer’s consultation as well as maintenance services for boats — power & sail — in Oxnard and Ventura.

For a more complete bio, see ROB.

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New film from & about Channel Islands National Park

Capt. Dan — Sat, 14 May 2011 23:43:24 +0000

This is a new film from the National Park Service portraying the lush/stark/beauty of our islands and extolling the virtues of conservation.

The voice over is Kevin Costner, a local boy. How local? Costner attended elementary school at McKevette School in Santa Paula, California, Cabrillo Jr. High School and Buena High in Ventura, though he graduated from Villa Park High School in Villa Park.

But Kevin isn’t the star of this show; this is all about landscape and cinematography. I’ve watched the film a couple of times. It’s actually best set to mute. Kevin is superb, but the script is … well, not to my taste.

So, pour a glass of wine, click on the image of Arch Rock over to the right and begin thinking about buying a new camera.

It’s about a half hour long and should inspire you to visit the islands some time between now and the winter gales.

See you on the water.

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What do they do in “our” test range?

Capt. Dan — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:20:05 +0000

Tomahawk launch

Here’s a link to some of the testing. The lesson is, when the range is hot, you really need to stay clear unless you want a Tomahawk or some such blowing through your V-berth.

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Ever wonder about that odd looking ship?

Capt. Dan — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:13:58 +0000

Motor Vessel (M/V) Independence

Well, we have. Every time we see it nearing or departing Pt. Hueneme, we have speculated on her mission.
And now, through a new Facebook Friend, we’ve learned that it will provide,

among other things, research, development, testing, and evaluation of the ship’s undersea surveillance systems, load handling systems, acoustic array systems, cable system components, cable and system survivability studies, installation methods, test vessel support, and training range establishment and maintenance.

Now that gets us to wondering what all of that means and what kind of research is going on. A little background: the ship was originally designed for the Air Force (explains the odd profile, doesn’t it) for space shuttle missions on the West Coast.

We all know how that worked out, the West Coast Space Shuttle. It didn’t. But we do have a nifty space port up there at Vandenberg. It’s a long trip, but the ride along the coast between Pt. Conception and Pismo Beach is spectacular. The country is spectacular all on its own, but the launch facilities make you feel like you’re in a time warp to the future. Might as well be a Hollywood set for all of the business they’ve done there.

Anyhow, when my FB friend returns from sea, I’ll try to pick his brain a bit more and get some more details about what they’re up to.

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Buffleheads arrive in Ventura waters

Capt. Dan — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:36:41 +0000

Buffleheads now in a harbor near you

These are the tiniest diving ducks around.

Also, the cutest. There are little flocks of them in the upper waters of Channel Islands Harbor right now. They’re only here for a little while, just waiting warmer weather to continue their migration to their breeding grounds in Alaska.

You’ll see them in protected waters in fairly large groups. They are tiny birds, about the size of a capon and will lift off in a gaggle when disturbed. They fly only a few inches off the water and crash land 40 to 50 yards away.

I love the name, though it seems more applicable to some of my former high school students than to these cute critters.

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Orcas and white-sided dolphins

Capt. Dan — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:54:53 +0000

Yesterday was an excellent day for marine mammals. Unfortunately, the “catch of the day” by Randy Bush did not find its way to film or digital media …. but Randy did spot Orcas in the shipping lane on a line between Channel Islands Harbor and Prisoners anchorage.

We didn’t have a camera handy enough when we encountered white-sided dolphins. We don’t see these energetic and high-flying characters very often. This pic is from the Vancouver Aquarium which has a great tool for identifying marine mammals.

White-sided dolphins, known by the cognoscenti as LAGS, an abbreviation of their scientific genus Lagenorhynchus, are very acrobatic, though the small pod we saw yesterday was in fast, straight travel mode.

This is only the second time in six years of sailing the channel that I’ve identified these critters … and I’ve yet to see Orcas myself, though this is the second sighting this year by a friend.

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Aground! – what’s the lesson for Oxnard and Ventura Sailors?

Capt. Dan — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:07:53 +0000

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

An evening sail turns into a nightmare for Mai Tai

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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