Santa Cruz Island-Twin Harbors anchorage, Channel Islands Cruising Guide

Twin Harbors

Loc: NW Santa Cruz Island	Lat: N34-02.6	Long: W119-42.9	Last visit: Sept. 2009
Tide/Sun/Moon/WX	Dist: 12	Prisoner's Harbor	WX
Chart	18728	Santa Cruz Channel	Google Earth
Skipper: Capt. Bobby Weisman	Boat:Sancerre	Capt. Dan	Port: Channel Islands
Landing Permit	Required	Nature Conservancy	permit app/info

Chart & Pic Chart 18728 shows an anchorage clear of obstructions with a 7 fathom sounding at the mouth. Dropping anchor 300-400 feet from the beach puts your bow anchor in 30-40 feet of water. There is some floating kelp near the back of the anchorage. But the appearance is deceiving, for we pulled up enormous balls of seaweed on our bow anchor when we were attempting to get underway. It took us nearly half an hour to clear it off.

Transit Leaving Channel Islands with limited visibility at 1200 hours, we headed West to Platform Grace under power. At approximately 1300 hours, the fog lifted and the wind quickly went from calm to 12 knots. At Platform Grace with the fresh wind in our face, we fell off to a close reach, which put us on course toward Scorpion anchorage. We crossed the coastwise shipping lane at right angles, making about six knots. We kept pointed as high as we could and hit the Santa Cruz coast at Cavern Point. That's pretty much the routine routine in summer: motor to Grace, close reach to Cavern Point and then make up your mind whether you want to fight up wind in Windy Lane or head for Little Scorpion or Smugglers. We headed to weather in a fresh breeze, motoring the last mile or so when we had the Arch at Twin Harbors in sight.

The Harbors The East anchorage is large enough for two boats, but even if we were solo, we'd still have anchored bow and stern. If you're far enough back in the anchorage to be shielded by the western cliff, there's not much room to swing. We nestled our boat close to the western rock formation, roughly 100 feet out.

Were I to anchor here again
(1) I'd drop my bow anchor nearer the arch. Our initial position left us with barely enough room to layout a stern anchor without using a dinghy. We accepted the short scope astern, but fretted about it until the wind died. At 1600, we noted the depth was 24 feet at 0300 hours it was 14 feet. Our hooks held and we did not experience substantial drift from our original spot. We did experience a fair amount of movement when the winds picked up in the middle of the night. As you can see from the picture, this is a typical Santa Cruz anchorage i.e. it's a river mouth and can be subject to canyon winds. In other words, the stern anchor could end up with the brunt of the load.
(2) I'd anchor nearer the middle. I've finally come to admit that in these narrow anchorages, hugging the windward wall is not optimum. Every time I do that, strong westerlies enter the east side of the anchorage, swirl down the lee wall and push the boat west, sometimes precariously close to the windward wall.

The Twin We took a look at the West anchorage in the next morning. It was pretty rough and exposed to swell and there was no place to hide from the prevailing wind. It would be OK for breakfast, but by lunchtime it would be fairly uncomfortable. Certainly not a place I'd plan to spend a night.

Heading Home The next morning we sailed to Anacapa Island then headed across the shipping lanes from abeam Frenchy's Anchorage. Returning to Channel Islands from Anacapa, the seas were flat and the wind was calm. Visibility was reduced at times to no more than and eighth of a mile. Having an excellent radar with MARPA capability made the trip less harrowing. At one point we detected two ships traveling South down the shipping lane on the same course at the same speed approximately 1 mile apart. We guessed that this was a tug pulling a barge, we adjusted our course to pass behind the second target, which was in fact a barge, but we didn't know that for sure until we were within a 1000 feet or so. The fog was persistent and we were within 1/4 mile before we could see the Channel Islands breakwater.

Landing Permits Required If you intend to go ashore, you'll need a landing permit ($70 for all year) from the Nature Conservancy. Go to permit for a pdf form, mailing and e-mailing instructions.

Updates If you have new or amplifying information concerning this anchorage or the surrounding area, please contact Capt. Dan. His e-mail link and phone are top left.

Photos