Shake Down Cruise Aug 7th-16th (Part 3)

Santa Cruz Island to Long Beach

At over 96 square miles in size and the largest island in California, Santa Cruz contains two rugged mountain ranges; the highest peaks on the islands (rising above 2,000 feet); a large central valley/fault system; deep canyons with year-round springs and streams; and 77 miles of craggy coastline cliffs, giant sea caves, pristine tidepools, and expansive beaches.

The next morning when we awoke (we arrived quite late) the other boats that we had seen, very early that morning when we anchored, had left Smuggler's Cove.   Our anchorage was beautiful and so we took that time to do some clean up from the crossing and for me to take the dinghy to shore to try and inflate it more.   I'm not sure that I ever got more air into the dinghy but I am learning how that works also.   

Soon we were motoring (no wind) along the cliffs of Santa Cruz Island and we were both impressed with the beauty of the island.   This is the same thing my sis and I had done on our last visit in my Ericson 29.   We headed toward Lady's Harbor on the NE side (the side the mainland of CA is on).  I had not looked at the Garmin to determine the distance and had estimated that it was only an hour or two up the island.

What is the date???
  I thought that this video was funny because when we are sailing, it is very difficult to keep track of what day of the week it is, let alone, the date.   It's really a factor of how we are relaxing and having fun.   The day of the week or the date are just not important.

This island has had inhabitants for over 10,000 years.   The Chumash people numbered at around 1200 here at one time.   It is a beautiful island that is now managed partly by the National Parks and also by a conservancy.  After motoring for about two hours I realized that Lady's Harbor was going to be at least another three hours ahead.   We were still pretty tired so we decided to pull in near the coastline of Santa Cruz and look for another cove to spend time in.

This cove ended up being every bit as beautiful as Lady's Harbor and the neat thing was that we had it to ourselves.   On the second day here, we began thinking about when Diana would fly out and how long it would take us to sail back to Long Beach.   We left in the afternoon of Aug 14th for the almost 100 mile trip back to Long Beach.   

Just a note here... On this trip of nine days, we ran out of water (we had a spare 10 gallons) we ran out of diesel for the engine (I will bring spare diesel after this) and we were down to just one meal left for food.   We ate great and yet I still lost eight pounds during the nine days.   Sailing overnight is really not bad and both Diana and I got quite a bit of rest on the night-time sails.  We sailed/motored over 250 miles.  The most important part of my trip was having my sis along.   The learning that happened in me was tremendous.   I hope I never stop learning.   Just as with life, when we would get in an uncomfortable place, we would feel like it was never going to end.   It would end and the beauty that awaited us was always worth a bit of being uncomfortable.   

We arrived back in Long Beach at 1:30AM on Aug 16th, the day that Diana flew home.

This is what memories are made of.