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<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008>Wow. What an adventure Ken and Dave!
</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008>Reading it made me feel like I was there and
made me wish I had been there too. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008>Best, </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=031420600-09042008>Lee</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
info-bounces@list.ckf.org [mailto:info-bounces@list.ckf.org] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>FryCat@aol.com<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, April 08, 2008 12:29
PM<BR><B>To:</B> FryCat@aol.com; ckf@paddlewise.net;
webmaster@ckf.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [CKF Info] Trip
Report<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial>
<DIV>Trip Report 4/2/2008 Santa Cruz Island via Anacapa.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Well before the crack of dawn, Dublin Dave arrived to load up my Explorer
on his Ford Explorer. We were on the road to Channel Islands Harbor at
03:30 AM. After a brief hunt for the boat ramp, we had our boats loaded
and ready to go by 7:00 AM. The first fly in the ointment presented
itself. The sign on the parking lot pay box read, "Cars without trailers
will be cited." I called up the Harbor Master on VHF channel 12 and he
suggested we park in the opposite lot to avoid confusion. Voila!
The VHF radio worked.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Just to be on the safe side, we paddled to Gina. The workers,
if there were any, were still in the sack. However the seals on the buoy
were happy to see us. After a brief rest and a SPOT OK transmission we
were on our way to the Anacapa landing cove. About a mile out, three
Orcas (a.k.a. Killer Whales) crossed our bow. There was no mistake on
the identification of this whale species as the dorsal fins were easily
spotted. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Around 10:30 AM we arrived at the landing cove. The ranger had just
received his provisions from the CI park boat and was on the dock. He
wasn't the most talkative ranger we had ever met, but he was able to utter a
few questions. "Where did you come from?" "Have you ever been here
before?" and lastly, "How are you going to get your boats up on the
dock." Looking up at the davit, we noticed it was missing the block and
tackle. The second fly in the ointment just landed. Ranger Bob, as
we later named him, wasn't about to let us use the National Park Service
hoist, but was more than helpful by throwing us a rope. Ranger Bob
disappeared and was never to be seen again.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So to make a miserable story less miserable, I'll spare the details on
how we got the boats up on the dock.</DIV>
<DIV>Basically, we unloaded the boats and muscled my boat up with the
rope. Just as we had all the gear out of Dave's boat, the Island Packer
boat arrived and pulled Dave's boat onto the stern, walked it to the bow, and
guided it onto the dock. After kissing all the female crew members and
shaking hands with the captain we felt a sense of relief. Island Packer
were our saviors. Admittedly, my drysuit was a little overkill on the
crossing and I did a few sculling braces to cool off. But,
when we were unloading boats, I spent a lot of time in the water and was
toasty warm. Ask Dave how cold the water was. A hatch cover got
ripped from it's tether and Dave had to dive for it. P. S. Drysuits
aren't compatible with diving. That was my excuse.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>With the exception of a few sprinkles, our stay on Anacapa was
perfect. The coreopsis were in full bloom and the Western gulls
were getting their nesting sites ready for the big event. Maybe
ranger Bob was in hiding but as far as we could figure, we were the only
inhabitants on the island. We drank some of our wine to
lighten our load for our Anacapa Passage crossing planned for the next
day. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The crack of dawn had long passed as we loaded our boats and lowered
them into the water. Launching was far easier than hoisting those boats
onto the dock. We circumnavigated the island clockwise or around the
back side. Dave was feeling a tad under the weather, possibly
from contaminated drinking water. In the middle of the channel
we were divided on whether to go to Scorpion or Smugglers. After
looking at Dumpy square in the eyes, I think we should have gone on
to Scorpion.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No problems landing at Smugglers. We took a lunch break and
then noticed that Dumpy had raised its ugly head. Hmmmm... How are we
going to get off this beach? The thought of camping at Smugglers
actually crossed our minds. Being able to count to ten, I noticed the
sets seemed to be grouped in seven with about a five minute lull. That
theory worked and Dave launched with no problems. Getting those fully
loaded boat off the beach with no help was not an easy task and I almost
exceeded my five minute window. We made it!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As we rounded San Pedro point we were met by a 15 knot wind and we
slugged our way to Scorpion.</DIV>
<DIV>It was late afternoon when we landed and by the time we set up camp it
was dinner time. Barb came over the next day to resupply our
provisions. We kicked around Scorpion for the day and put Barb on the 4
PM boat. Saturday it was blowing hard so Dave and I practiced rolls and
rescues. Our original plan was to paddle back to Anacapa on Sunday but
with a broken davit we scrapped that plan. The next option was to paddle
back to CI Harbor but my sorry ass likes the shorter distance. We made a
reservation with Island Packers and returned on the Sunday noon boat.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The final fly landed in the ointment. Our gracious CKF Pres, Steve
Holtzman, met us at Ventura and shuttled Dave back to CI Harbor to pick up his
car. Ah! As I was waiting for Dave, our blue and yellow Explorers
were picture perfect contrasting with the green lawn. The picture would
have been complete with my Superior carbon Greenland paddle and Dave's euro
paddle lying across the decks. Island Packers forgot to bring them out
of the hold and they were long gone. We had to wait for three
hour for the boat to return. </DIV>
<DIV>They eased our pain with two free tickets to Anacapa/Santa Cruz good for
two years. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Let's all plan a "fix the davit" paddle. All it needs is a block
and tackle and some line.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ken Fry</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV><FONT style="FONT: 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF; COLOR: black">
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Planning your summer road trip? Check out <A
title=http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016
href="http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016"
target=_blank>AOL Travel Guides</A>.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>