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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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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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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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Little Scorpion anchorage is in the distance. There's a reef between the large rock and the island. Not a good place to park a boat.

Twenty-11 was brand new when the first incident at sea happened this year.

I have a personal interest in this one as the Bosun and I planned a New Year’s run to Santa Cruz, just as the folks in this story did.
We checked the weather a couple of times every day for a week before the trip. I know that’s a waste of time. Predictions more than a day or so out are famously inaccurate. But we checked and wasted our time.

By the 29th we were getting leery of the possibility of Santa Anas. When we got to our go-no-go decision point, the forecast said nothing about Santa Anas. However, a front would pass through the area and the prediction that kept us at home showed the wind shifting from a moderate westerly to a stronger northeast flow.

The timing was important to us, too. The last forecast showed frontal passage around midnight. We figured we could handle the wind shift, but it would mean we’d be up waiting for the shift and then would likely have to get underway in the middle of the night in adverse conditions.

Before canceling our trip, we had planned to anchor a mile or so off Smugglers to give us sea room to deal with a wind shift. But even that seemed dicey.

Weather always capable of the unexpected

We’re old and we don’t like to work after dark. Add to that the unease our wives were showing and we decided on a “fast cruise,” wherein we all hung out on the boat while tied fast to the dock. On New Years Day we were kicking ourselves for not going. It was bright, warm and still. Perfect for being at the islands.

Perfect it was … in Channel Islands Harbor, but the weather at the Channel Islands went as predicted. The wind shift came as NOAA had called and that meant trouble for a small Catalina anchored at Little Scorpion.

By the time our narrative starts, the wind has prompted the crew to get out of the anchorage. We don’t know if they were on two hooks or one, but they were definitely on a lee shore and very uncomfortable with the prospects. So they – wisely – got underway.

To their credit, they had asked local authorities specifically if Santa Anas were forecast and they were told, correctly, that none were on the horizon. Nobody mentioned the front and the wind shift which always accompanies a strong front.

In order to hide from wind and swell, most visitors to Little Scorpion Anchorage drop their hooks very close to Bird S**t Rock. If the wind shifts to the E or NE, captains find themselves on a dangerous lee shore.

The wind was gusting to about 20 knots, which raised a formidable chop in Little Scorpion. Their little boat was getting knocked around but they were able to start their outboard and pull in the anchor and move off the lee shore.

They had the same luck with their outboard that I usually have: it quit at a very bad time.

They pulled out their jib and tried to sail out, which might have worked if they had a bit of sea room. The Catalina sails just fine on headsail alone, but they didn’t have any room and got pushed back between Bird S**t Rock and the island. If you’ve kayaked in there, you know there is a reef that blocks that passage. And that is where they came to rest.

They called Mayday on channel 16, alerting the Coast Guard and Vessel Assist. Both got underway.

Abandon ship – a tough decision

Their position became untenable and the crew abandoned ship, rowing their dinghy safely ashore.

Vessel Assist Ventura’s boat arrived on scene. The captain assessed the situation and decided to stand off. The area was dotted by lobster traps, it was the middle of the night and the captain deemed conditions too hazardous for his crew and vessel, particularly too hazardous to put a swimmer in the water.

At daybreak, though seas and wind had not settled appreciably, the rescuers could maneuver among the traps. A swimmer secured a line to the Catalina and the boat was towed clear of the reef. They also picked up the crew from the beach and put a pump aboard the rescued boat.

On the way home some three miles west of Gina, something catastrophic happened on the Catalina. The pump could no longer keep up with the incoming water flow and the trusty little Catalina disappeared in a couple hundred feet of water.

Here are the lessons I take away from this accident.

These guys got the weather forecast and were satisfied that no Santa Ana meant they’d be safe in the anchorage. Somehow they missed the forecast wind shift. That said, we’ve had the wind shift on us with nothing in the forecast. So it’s something you have to consider any time you anchor. Setting an anchor watch and setting the GPS anchor alarm are always prudent measures.

We always anchor bow and stern in Little Scorpion. We’ve got a formidable bow anchor and chain road and we have a big Fortress astern that has held us in over 30 knots of shifting wind. Worst case for us – had we been there (other than screaming wives and children) would have been jettisoning our bow anchor and motoring or pulling ourselves back to the stern anchor – now the windward anchor, then getting underway. Of course, if our engine had quit, we’d probably have ended up on the same rocks. On the other hand, with a good bit more sea room, we might have been able to sail clear.

Outboards. Damned outboards. According to one of my friends expert in the matter, 4-stroke outboards have automatic shutdown systems that turn the motor off when low oil pressure is sensed. Severe rocking will make the sensors “think” the oil pressure is low.  And you know they must have been rocking in the chop.

Experts. They were misled by experts twice. The first was on the weather forecast.  The second was not so much advice as a suggestion that they might row their dinghy through the surf for pickup.They didn’t do that. It’s natural to act on advice in an emergency, but prudent to evaluate the based on your level of ability, your equipment and the conditions at hand. They did that and got home safely if short one boat.

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From the Seattle Times: A common scene before Californian's breathing became an issue

About a year ago, the California Air Resources Board decided that the International Maritime Organization’s initiatives to clean up foul-burning bunker fuel fumes was going too slowly and mandated that ships burning the stuff could come no closer than 24 miles to our coast.

The picture at the top is what the air in the Santa Barbara Channel looked like before the regulation and the next picture is what it looked like this week.

HK Challenger emits no visible pollution as she passes through Santa Barbara Channel

The HK Challenger was transiting our neighborhood last week. You can see from this close up that there isn’t much to see. Of course, there is a lot of invisible stuff. The good news is that there is a great deal of progress being made to eliminate the dirty fuels – or scrub the exhaust – within 200 miles of the coast by 2012.

I don’t have a picture to prove my point, but until the Air Board stepped up, we’d frequently see container ships spewing a yellow cloud that went from horizon to horizon.

The problem is not satisfactorily solved as many of the giant ships simply burn the dirty fuel but remain south of the Channel Islands. So we’re still breathing some pretty foul stuff, though it is probably more dilute.

According to the EPA this is the current situation:

The IMO has officially designated waters off North American coasts as an area in which stringent international emission standards will apply to ships. These standards will dramatically reduce air pollution from ships and deliver substantial air quality and public health benefits that extend hundreds of miles inland.

In 2020, EPA expects emissions from ships operating in the designated area to be reduced by 320,000 tons for NOx, 90,000 tons for PM2.5, and 920,000 tons for SOx, which is 23 percent, 74 percent, and 86 percent, respectively, below predicted levels in 2020 absent the ECA.

In practice, implementation of the ECA means that ships entering the designated area would need to use compliant fuel for the duration of their voyage that is within that area, including time in port as well as voyages whose routes pass through the area without calling on a port.  The quality of fuel that complies with the ECA standard will change over time. From the effective date in 2012 until 2015, fuel used by all vessels operating in designated areas cannot exceed 1.0 percent sulfur (10,000 ppm). Beginning in 2015, fuel used by vessels operating in these areas cannot exceed 0.1 percent sulfur (1,000 ppm).  Beginning in 2016, NOx aftertreatment requirements become applicable.

The short version of this is that until a few weeks ago, ships could burn fuel that was 1,800 times dirtier than what we allow ashore.

I used to fancy myself a Libertarian. If I were a card-carrying member, they’d boot me out for agreeing that we need to regulate the use of this resource. If we do not regulate the users and abusers of our natural resources, air – clean, breathable air – might some day be a resource that is no longer free.

Clearly, the marketplace has not regulated itself in a timely fashion as some politicians would argue. It is expensive to use cleaner fuel or to scrub the exhaust from engines that burn bunker fuel. Not many companies will bear that expense voluntarily. So good-bye thoughts of absolute freedom, good-bye the belief that government is always the problem, good-bye belief in the invisible hand of the market.

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Checkout our listing in Thumbtack Captained sailing charters to the Channel Islands and while you’re there, please write a review.

Captained sailing charters to the Channel Islands

by Capt. Dan & The Bosun

Come aboard our luxury sailing yacht and cruise to the Channel Islands of southern California. Go for a couple of hours … or several days. Or take lessons with Capt. Dan.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Get in touch.

Contact Now

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San Diego to Oxnard

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

We visited a couple more of the Channel Islands – Catalina and Santa Barbara – both on the way out and on return. Catalina still leaves me cold. It has everything that Santa Cruz does, but it’s covered with people. I’m no misanthrope (someone who hates people, Randy), but they sure clutter the landscape.

Entering San Diego was very interesting. Though no carriers were underway in the harbor, there were plenty of warships on the radio. In fact, we got turned back when we wanted to circumnavigate Santa Barbara. That area wasn’t hot, but it was close to a firing range and it was too hard to explain we wouldn’t intrude. So we didn’t and just headed for Catalina.

The weather was dismal on the way down and we motored a great deal. The return leg got better and better with our final leg under blue skies with winds near 20 knots most of the way. It was beginning to feel like Southern California.

BTW – the Local Notice to Mariners that cites hovercraft operations near Camp Pendleton – well, there’s no real restriction, just an alert. We clocked one on MARPA at 40+

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A Hunter sailboat catches fire, sinks at Frenchy’s 7/8/2010

The Coast Guard and Vessel Assist responded to a report of a burning vessel last week. The preliminary report said that the captain was sailing alone, had anchored in Frenchy’s Cove and had started cooking on his rail-mounted barbecue.

The captain reported that he fell asleep and awoke to find the boat in flames. He abandoned ship in a small skiff and was picked up by a Good Samaritan. He was subsequently transferred to a Coast Guard vessel and returned to the mainland. He suffered no substantial injuries.

The following day, Vessel Assist, Ventura refloated the vessel, policed up the debris and towed it back to Ventura Harbor.

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Comment

That had to be one scary experience for the captain. We’re hoping he was well insured and glad that he wasn’t hurt, at least not badly. We’re also very thankful that Capt. Rob of R Escape has mounted a fire extinguisher on our boat about 5′ from our barbecue.There are also two in our galley area below.

Cooking is the number one cause of fire on diesel powered boats and a stove without an adjacent fire extinguisher is a big oversight. In the case of a rail-mounted barbecue, it’s probably impossible to safely turn off the propane when the stove is engulfed in flames. But there are three ways to turn off your galley gas – the burner control, the solenoid and turning off the tank in the lazerette. Definitely a topic worthy of a crew briefing.

I’ve always been confident that I could survive cooking with a rail-mounted barbecue, afterall, it’s mounted on the rail outboard of the boat. With the top on it, it’s not likely to flame the bimini. Of course, I try not to fall asleep (or pass out) while I’m cooking as I’m partial to rare beef and unblemished gelcoat.

I’m fairly sure that there are more lessons to be learned from this incident.

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Sail Channel Islands

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Unless you’ve got climbing gear, you’re not going to easily get to the top of East Anacapa Island. NPS was actually in front of this problem and had decided to replace the decades-old ladder last spring. Unfortunately, a recent inspection showed that corrosion has rendered the ladder unsafe ahead of schedule.

OK, so what’s the problem? When will the new ladder be ready?

The really big problem is that a recent inspection of the crane that they use to offload materials from boats and was slated to be used in the ladder construction was also deemed unsafe.

NPS was in front of this. No one got hurt and the problem will get solved.

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Sail Channel Islands

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FACTS: The chicks hatched on 4/3 and 4/5, 10 & 26 have used this nest at Pelican Harbor for the last five years, the nest is a bit over 12′ in diameter  …. there’s that and much more information at http://chil.vcoe.org/eagle_faq.htm

And, if you don’t want to watch 24/7, there are some sweet extracts at Janntone. And the low down on “hacking” and other eagle conservation techniques from the folks who do those things – The Institute for Wildlife Studies.

Sail Channel Islands with Capt. Dan

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