Tag Archives: Sancerre

Way to go …

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dolphins
Easter Sunday dawned bright, clear and calm here on the Ventura coast. Not the conditions we sailors usually call great, but for our mission this holiday morning this was an utterly perfect day.

We met the charter party at 8:00, learned who was prone to seasickness (almost everyone), got our instructions (get out of the harbor, head west from Hollywood Beach, stop, spread ashes, hustle back to port before anyone turns green.)

The morning warmed and the water diamond-sparkled as we headed out at harbor speed limit with the family’s ancient Auntie in a highly polished wooden case.

Auntie had been in these parts since these parts had a name. The family had bought into the Hollywood Beach development in the 1920′s and had been coming here ever since. That was pre-Malibu, when Hollywood mavens came to cottages on our stretch of dune-protected beach. That was also pre-breakwater, pre-harbor.

Pre-wetsuit, Auntie and a small number of the family waded in and swam these waters. Even if you’re wearing wool swimsuits, which they were, there isn’t a lot of warmth. But swim they did and Auntie kept at it until she was 85, and never in a wetsuit.

Some of the family were eyeing her century mark like some sort of finish line, but Auntie turned in her score card at age 97. I doubt she ever needed help getting into the Pacific before; I doubt going to the water was a solemn affair before today.

We ran parallel to the jetty and as we turned NW to run down the breakwater. We spotted a small pod of dolphins just outside the surf line slicing through shallow water intent on gathering breakfast. Everyone, including me, always thrills at the sight of dolphins and almost everyone believes me when I say that seeing them at the beginning of a cruise portends good fortune. Dolphins always make people smile.

The family spotted their house, and we turned out bound directly in front of it. Just then, off to the right at about one o’clock, we spotted a gray whale spout. I guessed out loud that it was a female and that she might have a calf with her.

A second or two after she surfaced a second time, a small whale-shape appeared next to her and shot a water-pistol spray into the air. They were in 40′ of water, moving NW at a leisurely pace. When they appeared again, she’d shifted the calf, keeping herself between us and the baby. All very orderly. All grace a harmony with the swell and diamond-sparkles.

A mile or so off shore – in sight of her old house, in the presence of whales and dolphins – we spread Auntie’s ashes.

Bringing back the good old days on the Channel Islands

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Island Fox
This Island Fox was bred in captivity, but this particular one could not thrive without bottle feeding and will remain at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

In 1928 Harry Sheldon headed for Santa Cruz Island. A naturalist, or so it was claimed, he had set out to study the island’s wildlife. But “with the foxes so plentiful … I returned as soon as I could to get ready to trap them for commercial purposes.”

He continues in his “Santa Cruz Island Mammal and bird Report,” which was republished by the Santa Cruz Foundation in A Step Back in Time“… with not a foe to prey upon them, casualties are rare and they must live out their natural lives unmolested.”

Though the handlers at the zoo tell you these critters are carnivores, Sheldon found them feeding mostly on potato bugs, crickets, berries and cactus parts. “It is obvious that they are not very proficient at catching (the abundant) birds and mice.”

The story of the fox from free-roaming and abundant to becoming an endangered species to returning to a self-sustaining population in the the wild once more is worth a great deal of study.

There is a lot of info on the fox on the Channel Islands National Park site and a quick summary of restoration efforts at the Nature Conservancy site. And, of course, you can visit the fox above at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

But if you haven’t the time for scientific names and detail, here’s Brian William’s crew with the short version:


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Winter sailing in the Santa Barbara Channel Islands

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Anacapa IslandRob Walton’s most excellent picture of Anacapa shows why I’m a big advocate of winter sailing in SoCal

Sailors in Illinois report that they are very frustrated. The temp is up to 40 and their boats are not in the water. Seems Frostbite sailing season ended for them at the end of November. There are no races right now, but there are guys who will chip away at the ice to launch dinghies and other small craft all year. In fact, there are guys who are jealous of east coast saltwater sailors who enjoy ice-free water when temps get into the 20′s.

No thanks. I’m a Californian, and now a Southern Californian and there isn’t a month of the year when the average maximum temp is below 64. In fact, the lowest average.

Average Temp in these parts is 56. No need to chip ice here.

Willows sunrise

The real beauty of winter sailing here is the excellent visibility. When a cold front passes through, the the air is so clear you feel you can touch the Anacapa Light from Oxnard Beach. Skies are clear to partly cloudy about half the time, which is better than June.

Probably the best part is that few other people are out on the water. Drop the hook in Fry’s or Willows and you’re likely to be the only boat in the anchorage.

Cautions
When a strong low comes ashore in the Oxnard-Ventura area or somewhat to the south, expect south swells and southerly winds. Morse Point and Forney’s are the only anchorages on the south side of Santa Cruz that afford any protection. Our standbys for heavy weather during most of the year – Yellowbanks-Smugglers can get quite uncomfortable with a south swell. North shore anchorages such as “Prisoners, Pelican and Frys are very tame under these circumstances.

Obviously, checking wx every few hours on the VHF is prudent as is careful pre-sail weather planning.

If you have more to add to this discussion, please post a comment below. And, if you want to examine the climatological charts, click Climate Tables

An aside – We still have a couple of open spots for ASA 105 Coastal Navigation, which starts 17 January.

See you on the water

What the perigean tide, Batman?

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swell and wind wave produce flooding in ventura
Huge swell and wind waves may produce flooding. Add that to the perigean tide, and we’re likely to see some very high water. Randy Bush gives the details:

As I was getting ready for work this morning, some clown on the news was hopping around on a jetty near L.A., spouting prognostications of dire flooding and coastal destruction. He smugly informed us that a “perigean tide” was to be the cause of this impending cataclysm. As sailors, we’re supposed to know about all things tidal, so my curiosity was piqued. Then I made the mistake of communicating on this subject with Capt. Dan, who promptly sent me some reference material and gave me the assignment to write this. Once a teacher, always a teacher, I guess.

So in defense of my 105 sticker, here goes: Right now we are experiencing a “spring tide,” which coincides with the full moon and the new moon. The centers of the sun, earth, and moon all form a straight line, and the gravitational forces of the sun and moon complement each other. Thus, the spring tides exhibit the greatest tidal oscillation, or the difference in height between the high and low tides. When the sun and moon form a right angle with respect to the earth (first and third quarters of the moon), their gravitational effects tend to cancel each other, and “neap tides” occur, where the height difference between the high and low tides is significantly less.

OK, so what about this “perigean tide?” It’s simply the tide that occurs when the moon is at its perigee, or lowest point in its orbit around the earth. Since the moon is closer to the earth, we would expect its gravitational pull to be stronger, which it is. But it’s really only significant when it coincides with a spring tide. Then we have the greatest tidal range possible from a purely astronomical standpoint, the “perigean spring tide.” This is precisely what is occurring right now.

But our TV reporter has overstated the importance of the perigean component. If you do the math (and I’ll take NOAA’s word for this), the proximity of the moon has much less of an effect than the celestial alignment mentioned previously. A perigean tide does increase the tidal range, but only by a few inches in most cases. Aw shucks, Mr. reporter, no tsunami-like event for the news cameras.

But we do have a threat of coastal flooding this weekend, not so much because of the perigean tide, but the combination of the approaching weather front and the current spring tide.

For more info on tide studies, see Chapt 9 of Bowditch American Practical Navigator

Something is growing on Scorpion Rock at Santa Cruz Island

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scorpion anchorage
Frankly, I’d never heard it called “Scorpion Rock.” It’s usually Bird S**t Rock, but, I suppose in polite company Scorpion Rock is a better term. And, being the holidays, there will be a few polite people hanging around forcing us sailors to clean things up a bit.

Turns out there’s more than guano on the big rock. I haven’t seen this, but an alert reader spotted big drums, probably of the 55 gallon type, up on the rock. And our good friend and sometime shipmate Betsy Crowfoot learned that they were hauled up there to water about 1500 plants that were stuck in the ground last September.
Cassin's Auklet
Who’s running a garden on Scorpion Rock and why? We know why – the plants have been put there to support Cassin’s Auklet, a burrowing seabird that needs plant matter to burrow in. They have planted some 15 varieties of vegetation and have also removed some of the exotic species that have pushed out native plants. They figure the 15 drums of water will last until the rains come.

So that’s the what, the who is more interesting. The who is NOAA’s DARRP- Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program. Born shortly after the Exxon Valdez disaster, they’ve been hard at work doing exactly what their title says.

Click here or more info on the restoration project at Santa Cruz Island.