Santa Cruz Island 3:  10-12 March 2015—We set out to continue our exploration of Santa Cruz Island on 10 March with a favorable weather forecast and we wanted to go now because it had recently rained and the islands were all green.  There
were reports that lots of wildflowers were also in bloom.  We wanted to get an early start on Tuesday morning, the 10th of March in order to take advantage of the favorable winds that would carry us to the islands so Monday night we slept on the boat.  By 0730 on the 10th we had checked out all the systems and were headed out of the harbor in medium fog (see pic at right).
We had about 6 knots of wind once we got out beyond the breakwater so we hoisted both sails on a port tack and kept one engine running at 2200 rpm.  With that setting we were able to maintain  5.2 knots towards the eastern tip of Santa Cruz Island.   By 1000 we could see Anacapa Isle through the fog and Séamus, our dog, was keeping a constant watch for dolphins off the bow of the boat (see pic at right).  By about 1130 we were passing between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands and the wind completely died.  We furled the sales and throttled up to 2500 rpm on the port engine and sailed in to Coches Prietos at 5.8 to 6.1 knots.   We arrived at Coches Prietos at 1248 and anchored at high tide in 11 feet of water.  I went kayaking in my new Epic V6 kayak while Jay and Séamus went 
paddle boarding.  Here's a picture of me in the new kayak and of Escape anchored in Coches Prietos.  I first paddled ashore to practice my landings through the surf and then paddled all around Coches Prietos where the lobster pots were to see if I could see any lobsters in there, but I couldn't.  It was nice to be able to paddle around where there were lots of rocks without being worried about being hung up on them or bashing the dinghy motor on them.  Then I paddled over to the other side of the bay and out around the corner to Albert's Anchorage.  Albert's Anchorage is very similar to Coches Prietos, but it has a much smaller beach and 
doesn't offer quite as much protection from the wind and waves.  After we all got back on the boat, Jay made pulled pork, bean, and rice burritos for supper.  It was delicious.  
The next morning we got up around 0700 and made coffee and breakfast.  It was overcast so we stayed on the boat and read books until about 1000.  After that, I went out in the dinghy to work on the new method for anchoring the dinghy off shore.  The problem I've been having is that, with the motor on the dinghy, it's too heavy for one person to drag very far up the beach and if I leave it on the beach and the tide comes in, the waves really bash the dinghy or even swamp it.  The new method allows me to throw the dinghy anchor overboard when I'm still 30 to 40 feet from shore beyond where the waves are breaking and with a chord tied to the dinghy and the anchor line that allows me to pull the dinghy back out to the anchor after I get ashore so it is away from where the waves are breaking.  Then I can pull it in again when I'm ready to go back out to the boat.  I worked on that system for two or three hours and have it pretty well figured out except I need two devices to reel in the chords.  
I'm working on that part now and will test the whole system the next time I go out.  After lunch, I went ashore in my kayak with my camera gear, pants, hiking boots, etc. in the front waterproof compartment of the kayak so I could change clothes and put on my boots once I was on dry land.  While I was putting on my boots, I saw this baby sea lion laying on the beach.  As I approached him to take a closer picture, he started moving towards the water so I stopped.  He acted like he was sick or injured and really didn't want to go into the water so I backed off and he just laid back down on the sand.  The next 
morning when Jay went ashore, he saw that the 
baby sea lion had died and later we read that there were quite a few that were showing up on various beaches.  I guess something has been happening to their mothers and they're now deserted.  The Nature Conservancy has retrieved about 50 of them and is nursing them back to health.  After taking the picture of the baby sea lion,  I went on a hike up the trail leading away from Coches Prietos towards Prisoner's Harbor (see pic at right) and along the way saw these beautiful wildflowers.  As I looked back down the trail I could just see the tops of Escape's masts (pic at right).  I thought the trail would switchback up the side of the arid ridge and over the other 
side, but instead it curved around and followed the valley up towards Prisoner's Harbor on the other side of the Island.  It was lush and green and there were trees along the trail and springs because there is some water in the creek (see left).   I didn't see any, but I 
could hear frogs croaking in the brush off the side of the road.  I saw this plant beside the trail that had thick velvety 
leaves that were 
very soft to the touch and this big patch of lupines as I neared the top of the ridge.  I couldn't find either this fuzzy-leafed plant or the purple and white flower above in my wildflower app so I'm not sure what they are called.  The trail continued to climb as I reached the top of the ridge but I could see down the other side (see below) and the trail leading off to Prisoner's Harbor.  I turned around here and headed back to Escape because I had told Jay I would only be gone a couple of hours.


There was lots of fox scat along the road, but I did not see any foxes.  
On the way back, I saw this pod kind of a plant with stickers all over it.  There was also one laying on the ground that was cracked open exposing big bean-shaped seeds inside.  After coming back to the beach, I practiced landing with my kayak and paddled around Coches Prietos for a while.  Jay made these fantastic steaks and artichokes 
for supper.  
About 1700 a motor boat came into the bay with 9 people aboard.  They took camping gear ashore and about six of them stayed ashore over night.  For a while they played frisbee, but then they headed up the trail to the bluffs above the beach that I showed you in my last post.  As they were up on the bluff, we noticed that their motor boat was dragging its anchor and was being pushed out to sea.  We were just getting ready to launch our dinghy when we saw their captain come running down the trail and across the beach to their paddle board.  He used that to go retrieve 
their boat and reanchored it on the other side of Escape—this time with more anchor chain out.  After we were sure their boat was secure, I did the dishes and Jay settled down with Séamus and then we both read books until bedtime.  I don't want you to think that Séamus is spoiled, but I can see how one could get that impression from looking at these pictures.
The next morning we left Coches Prietos and headed west in light westerly winds.  The plan was to go around the western end of the island and pick up fairly strong westerly winds as we rounded the northwest corner of the island and ride that all the way back to the marina.  Well, 
the forecast, as usual wasn't very accurate and the winds picked up almost immediately causing us to motor into 15 knot winds.  Fortunately, when we were almost to the western end of the island a pod of three humpback whales surfaced about 200 yards off to the side of our boat and swam with us for about twenty minutes.  We couldn't get much closer than 200 yards because every time we tried they simply dived down and showed up on the other side of the boat or behind the boat.  I put my 400 mm lens on the camera and took these three pictures.  It was really a pleasure to see these huge animals swimming 

 so effortlessly.  It seems like it should be easy to get great pictures of these slow moving behemoths, but it's not as easy as it looks.  In 15 knots of wind, their spout of hot moist air disappears almost immediately into the wind and then you see their tails as they dive back down.  After fighting the winds for a while, and realizing it would take us another two or three hours before we could make the turn around the northwest corner of the island we decided to turn around and sail with the wind back along the 
south side of the island and then back up between Santa Cruz and Anacapa towards the marina.  The winds were light and variable as we approached Coches Prietos where we had anchored the night before, but as we turned north and headed back towards the marina, we picked up westerly winds from 15 to 20 knots and we sailed at 8 to 9 knots all the way back to the marina.  On the way back we saw this sea lion just laying on top of the water staring at us with his flippers sticking up.  Séamus maintained his watch position on the front deck and every time the dolphins came to swim at the bows, he ran up 

there to greet them.  Below right are a couple pictures of Anacapa as we pass between Santa Cruz and Anacapa.  As you can see, even Anacapa is nice and green right now.  I hope to get back out there in the next week or so and hopefully explore part of the northern shore of Santa Cruz.