Capt. Dan's Sail Channel Islands

Say hi to damned-near-a-captain Rob

Capt. Dan — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:54:39 +0000

Rob Walton takes merchant mariner's oath at Coast Guard Station Channel Islands

Rob Walton completed the Maritime Institute course of instruction for his captain’s license this week with a perfect score on all sections of the test. On Saturday LT William T. McGhee, commanding officer of Coast Guard Station Channel Islands, administered the oath.

A final grip and grin with Lt. William T. McGhee, CO of the station, and Damned-Near-A-Capt-Rob is one step closer to his "ticket."

Rob’s not quite there — he still has to deal with the final paperwork drill to get his ticket, but he’s damned close. By the time you read this you’ll probably be correct if you call him Capt. Rob.

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Channel Islands Cruising Guide Update

Capt. Dan — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:32:45 +0000

Approaching Bowen Point, Coches Prietas and Alberts Anchorage from the east

Coches Prietas — Click Here for update.

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Sailing accidents — lessons to be learned

Capt. Dan — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:34:58 +0000

I’ve been out sailing for the last couple of days and don’t have any details beyond the general-

We spent a big chunk of time in the fog this weekend and only broke out as we neared Smugglers Anchorage

circulation newspapers’ accounts of the Newport-Ensenada Race, where one of the contestants was apparently hit by a large and fast-moving ship, or, according to more recent speculation, ran into the northern most of the Coronado Islands, which has no light(house). See Sailing Magazine.

Though I wasn’t there and have incomplete knowledge of the events, it sounds to me like keeping an eye on the radar might have avoided the accident. That only comes to mind because I spent a couple of hours in the fog a few days ago dodging radar blips. We were nearly mown down by a tiny intermittent one that appeared bogus. Even though we were pretty sure the dot represented a crab pot or something innocuous, we had a lookout on the bow sounding our fog horn every minute.

The blip appeared and disappeared, appeared and disappeared and changed heading a few times. Now at a quarter mile it was the size of a pinhead, and abruptly headed for us. I zigged left, not entirely sure that it was another boat.

A dive boat emerged from the fog about 1 o’clock inside 100 yards. I don’t think they ever saw us or heard our fog horn. They followed one of the rules and were proceeding dead slow. Would have been nice if they’d been sounding their fog horn. It’s quite possible they were watching their radar and didn’t see us. Their 100 foot steel boat was only a pinhead on our scope; our fiberglass boat augmented by reflectors might not have looked any more significant.

Many of us delay firing up the radar because of the drain on the batteries. On the other hand, some folks make the case that the Rules of the Road dictate that you use it if you’ve got it.

There is no question that you need to light off the radar in low visibility conditions. But night doesn’t necessarily bring poor visibility. If I wasn’t a night radar believer before the loss of the racing yacht last week, I certainly am now, especially here in the Channel, where running lights easily blend in with background city lights.

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Channel Islands Harbor – shoaling, bent nav aid, CG proposes turning off another light

Capt. Dan — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:07:38 +0000

The seasonal shoal is back with a vengeance at Channel Islands Harbor

1. The shoal that develops north and west of the NW jetty in Channel Islands Harbor is expanding more rapidly than usual. It is marked, but

The light at the NW end of Channel Islands Harbor is working --- sort of.

poorly, by two orange banded white state regulatory buoys. These buoys are almost impossible to see at night … and fairly difficult to spot even in daylight. We do not use the NW entrance after dark and avoid it in daytime.

2. The Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners (LNM) no longer notes that the light on the NW end of the breakwater is working at reduced intensity. (It’s not really reduced, it’s just pointing down.)

Gales a couple of weeks ago moved the light’s foundation. Doubt we’ll see this fixed in 2012.

This navaid has never been easy to spot, now it is nearly useless.

3. The Coast Guard has proposed turning off the light at Gull Island. If you think that’s a bad idea — which I adamantly do — call or e-mail to LT Melissa Smith at 510-437-5984 or Melissa.A.Smith@uscg.mil.

If you have ever tried to feel your way into the Morse Pt. Anchorage at night, you know how critical this aid to navigation is. Call or write before 5 May.

Morse Point anchorage, btw, is our harbor of refuge when we get blown out of Alberts, Coches or Willows.

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Wedding in the cathedral with no roof

Capt. Dan — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:24:32 +0000

A bride, a groom, 25 guests, one baby, one bunny, two photographers, Capt./Chaplain Dan and two whales at Malibu Beach Wedding.

Natalia and Geoff exchange vows on the beach just below their Malibu apartment

Driving south on PCH toward Malibu found us in dense fog almost the entire trip. It looked like it would be a grim day for a wedding, but just past Geoffrey’s restaurant, the fog curtain lifted. Guests coming from the south reported the same thing: the wedding site just below Natalia and Geoff’s apartment enjoyed the only spot of sun on the entire coast.

Cars lined PCH for every inch of the next several miles where parking was allowed. Some of the guests found spots along Corral Canyon Dr., others parked at Beau Rivage. It seemed everyone was at the beach: coast dwellers celebrating a moment of sun and folks from the Valley fleeing the heat.

We lined up just above the surf line and as I was about to say, “Friends, family etc.” a gray whale broke the surface less than 100 yards from the bridal couple. A second spout followed and we were all transfixed for a few moments.

Though we had a PA system, our group was small enough to herd in close enough to be able to hear an unamplified voice. Though not quite as intimate as weddings we do aboard Sancerre — the largest party aboard is six — this was a very tight knit affair.

The heart of the ceremony featured the writings of the bride and groom, which talked about their hopes and plans for the future. Melding Geoff’s carefree surfer-style with Natalia’s precise and well-ordered ways, they admitted, would be one of their biggest challenges. All who know the couple well nodded in agreement, then chuckled then laughed out loud.

The bride’s mom had traveled from her Moscow home to attend and the newly weds will head back with her today for a Russian celebration.

Na Zdorovie!!

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Probably not coming to an island near you

Capt. Dan — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:42:53 +0000

A white Killer Whale has been spotted off the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia.

White Killer Whale sighted in Russian Arctic waters

Wherzat? you ask. It’s the next step west of the Aleutians. They didn’t report if it’s in the Bering Sea to the east of the Kamchatka Peninsula or west in Sea of Okhotsk. Russian scientists monitoring the area believe it is 15 years old or more as its dorsal is at least 2m tall. It’s slightly ragged, too, so it might be older. This is the first adult white Orca ever observed. Click White Orca to see the original story.

BTW – an increasing number of Orcas have been spotted in our waters, though I’m not one of the lucky spotters. If you see any, please let me know and send pics if you’re fortunate enough. Keep an eye out for humpbacks; I saw a couple of small pods heading north as I drove the PCH.

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If you can sail the Channel Islands…

Capt. Dan — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:39:47 +0000

I frequently — very frequently — hear people opine that if you can sail the Channel Islands, you can sail anywhere.

I usually shrug as I’ve seen a lot of places that have a much wider variety of really bad conditions than SoCal. The North Sea, the North Atlantic are two I’ve personally enjoyed aboard larger boats (Nimitz). Here’s another great place.

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Flare-up day — hands-on training for boaters

Capt. Dan — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 01:02:28 +0000

You could do this on your own, but it’ll be safer with adult supervision.

You won’t have to get in the water, but you will get a chance to practice using flares. USCG photo

Come to Port Hueneme Beach. Bring your old or nearly expired flares. We’ll get some instruction and some very important safety reminders and then we’ll get a chance to fire off our old inventory.

Bring your handheld flares, your flare guns — there’s a prize for the person who brings the biggest pile of stuff.

It’s a great way to reduce your inventory of hazardous material aboard your boat. The event is free; parking is two bucks.

See you at the beach at 0930 21 April.

Sponsored by Advanced Yacht Services, the US Power Squadron and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Call Capt. Richard Ullrich 626.926.5765 for further info or e-mail for further info.

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More big ships in the lane near Channel Islands

Capt. Dan — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:02:18 +0000

Big ships once again transiting the Coastwise Traffic Lanes

Randy Bush explains your perception that there are more ships these days

Many sailors and frequent passengers in the Santa Barbara Channel have noticed and asked about the increased ship traffic in the shipping lanes in recent months. Here is the scoop:

Beginning in July of 2009, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), required all ships operating within 24 nm of the California shoreline to burn only low-sulfur marine fuel oils. As you know, the shipping lanes in the Santa Babara Channel are well within that 24 nm limit. Since the low-sulfur fuel costs more, most operators elected to operate outside the 24 nm limit, which resulted in noticeably less traffic in the shipping lanes.

In December of 2011, the boundary was extended out to 24 nm from the shorelines of all of the channel islands–substantially further than the original boundary. In addition, an exempt zone was created off of Pt. Conception to encourage ships to enter into the existing shipping lanes. And finally, many ships are now equipped with fuel switches that enable them to switch over to the low-sulfur fuel oil when operating off the California coastline. Hence, now it is probably less expensive to burn the low-sulfur oil and transit closer to shore, than to burn the cheaper fuel and travel the extra distance. So–most shipping is using the original lanes again.

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Channel Islands Harbor Hazards

Capt. Dan — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:48:30 +0000

Keep a sharp eye out for numerous crab pots in and near the channel leading into the Channel Islands Harbor

HAZARD 1 Reported by Capt. Rob of R Escape: “Please keep a sharp lookout at both the NW & SE approaches to the harbor. The asshat that has been carpet bombing the area with crab pots can’t read a tide chart! We counted at least 3 markers that were 2 foot or more under the surface…errr, make that 2 … the pic is what I pulled off our prop.”

HAZARD #2: Shoal is growing quickly on the north side of the NW jetty. Harbor Patrol is apparently waiting for someone to go aground before placing a warning buoy. Or maybe it takes two groundings.

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