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<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="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">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></BODY></HTML>