Tag Archives: Capt. Dan

San Diego to Oxnard – way fun

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San Diego to Oxnard


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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+

Flying whales, porpoises, dolphins – all part of today’s show in the Santa Barbara Channel

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Dall's Porpoise ©David Gallup/GAP

Dall’s Porpoise – according to our reference manual – is quite common. Nevertheless, I saw them this week for the first time,  and I’ve been sailing the Pacific for more than 20 years. I’ve got some film of the critters, but it’s indistinct, blurry, shaky and – maybe – barely usable. That’s because these guys spend about .01 seconds grabbing a breath and the rest of the time jinking and zigging and zagging. Surprisingly, these porpoises don’t porpoise. I guess that’s reserved for dolphins. We’d already had two great days of wildlife watching when the Dall’s interrupted our Humpback
viewing. Just north of Cueva Valdez, between two and four miles from the beach, we encountered multiple pods of Humpbacks. They were extremely acrobatic, tail slapping, spyhopping and breaching intermittently. We sailed in the vicinity of 6-8 pods, each with 3-5 whales. This aggregation spanned the area from just north of Cueva to the West.

Humpback breaching © David Gallup, GAP

End of Santa Cruz. The final whale made the most spectacular breach any of us had ever seen, getting its entire body airborne before arching  and twisting to land on its side with a colossal splash. There were so many whales spouting, slapping and making a ruckus that it reminded us of the

fountain at the Vegas Bellagio. And one more thing (two more): we could frequently smell the animals (not pleasant) and hear vocalizations. These were not the well know

n “song,” but sounded more like a car attempting to get unstuck from a snowdrift. The Bosun said it also sounded like a tuba player clearing the spit valve on his instrument. Tells you who has more experience with what.

Checkout the slideshow from Orizaba and Platt’s Anchorages.

More Whales

Rogue Wave Sailors board Sancerre

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Rogue Wave

The Rogue Wave Sailors joined us for a daysail off Oxnard. Led by Ferne Ross (to Capt. Dan’s right), they enjoyed mild conditions, got a chance to drive Sancerre, our Jeanneau 45.2 and reviewed Rules of the Road. Though tempted to discuss the racing rules, which are different (far more detailed) from the International Rules, they worked on mastering the the intricacies of Stand-On and Give-way.

“But why, oh why is the vessel on starboard tack the Stand-On?”

Right off the bat, logic breaks down and the inevitable answer is that it’s arbitrary. As one of my shipmates – Jim Julian gets credit – once said: “Never associate logic with the Navy.”

Keep that in mind and the seeming inconsistencies won’t keep you up at night.

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Sail Channel Islands

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Eaglets starting flight tests

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Eaglet tries wings

Our Santa Cruz Island eaglets are growing fast, and, as I wrote to one of my shipmates I saw yesterday that the chicks are learning some manners, dodging out of 26′s way as she settled into the nest in the afternoon.

Those chicks are not pretty kids. They’ve gone from being really grotesque at hatching, to ungainly, to homely and they’re now on their way to becoming  adults when they will be awfully foreboding.

I think the Muppets ruined the grandeur and majesty of eagles for me.

Fasten your seatbelts

Anyhow, the dear little things have discovered their wings, and Rocket #1 here is flapping those little stubs. He didn’t get much altitude – exactly zero – but he did get some crash landing practice has he rocked over on his face.

They’re getting more entertaining. Tune in before they fly away.

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Sail Channel Islands with Capt. Dan

Rusty & Denise wed aboard Wiley off Ventura coast

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Rusty and Denise now share a surname – They’re Rusty and Denise Ely now. They married aboard Wiley with several of their friends there to witness. Capt./Chaplain Dan officiated and Leia manned the helm and shot the video.

We had shirt-sleeve temps and enough wind to sail but not so much that the girls’ hair got messed up. The ceremony was conducted a bit off the Ventura coast, just outside of Channel Islands Harbor.

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