After spending a week in Santa Barbara harbor, we left for Santa Cruz Island for 5 days. We pulled out of the harbor and raised sail. Winds were in the mid teens and we were sailing along at 6 knots. After about an hour and a half, my handheld VHF radio made an unfamiliar blaring tone that did not stop. Usually, this radio only receives very strong or very close signals but I keep it on my life vest because it has GPS as well as a distress feature that is linked to the unique identifier for Cythera. I pulled it up and looked at the screen which was displaying a never before seen extreme weather alert. I pressed the acknowledge button and was immediately switched over to 03 WX channel. Over the radio came a computerized voice with, "Extreme weather alert. All small craft are advised to seek safe harbor immediately. Thunderstorm over Catalina Island traveling NW at 15 knots. Lightening, 3/4 inch hail and winds gusting to 45 knots. Small craft are advised to seek safe harbor immediately."
Shit.
Catalina is roughly 90 miles SE of Santa Barbara so I figured we had 6 hours before the storm would hit our area. Being unfamiliar with the local weather patterns, I called the Harbor Patrol back in SB and asked them if they'd heard the report and what they thought about our plan to sail to Santa Cruz Island. They replied that they'd not heard the alert but advised that they weren't able to give advice about weather. Larissa and I talked about whether or not to continue on to the island or turn back and get back in our slip. We made friends with a local sailor named Steve Hodges back in Alameda. He recently won the singlehanded transpac race to Hawaii for his class as well as overall. We were getting pretty close to the point where we'd lose cell phone service but luckily, he picked up! I explained what we'd heard on the weather channel and Steve gave us his read on the situation. He pointed out that the conservative thing to do would be to go back to harbor. He went on to say that it was not unheard of, but the storms didn't usually make it all the way up here. He said that he would just keep going if it was his decision, but that he'd also been out to the islands and seen water spouts and wondered what the hell he was doing there. Ultimately it would have to be our decision.
Grateful for the local knowledge, Larissa and I talked it over and decided to keep on going. To make the decision even more nerve wracking, the VHF chatter on 16 started really heating up. Boats were hailing each other with weather updates and not knowing the specific areas they were referencing it was a little unsettling. We listened as a urchin or abalone boat named Tall Grass talked with another fishing boat about pulling his divers out of the water due to lightning strikes that were happening nearby. He advised the other fishing boat that there was also hail and that it was heading his way. I watched on my AIS and tried calling to a couple of other boats that were in my area and a nice fellow on a power boat replied. We switched over to a non commercial boat to boat channel on the radio and we discussed the weather alert. Then I heard a familiar voice come over the VHF,
"Cythera, Cythera, Cythera, this is Okiva" It was Spencer, the fellow I met on our first day at the Santa Barbara harbor. He's a teacher at the SB Sailing School and grew up sailing in this area. We switched over to a clear channel and he said that he'd heard me hailing the other boats and asked what I needed. After discussing the weather, he agreed with what Steve had told me earlier and suggested we go to Pelican Bay just up from Prisoner's Bay.
Upon arriving at Pelican Bay, we saw 2 other sailboats which was reassuring since we weren't the only folks out there. I noticed that the older couple on the right hand side by the cliffs were bow and stern anchored while the other boat was bow only. Proper protocol is to match the anchoring method as the other boats in a harbor, but with no consensus, we would be the deciding vote. I decided to go with bow and stern since I'd so competently done the maneuver two years ago during my sailing classes. I often say that I can fix anything on the boat and I can do it correctly by the third time. Bow stern anchoring was to be the same. On the third try, after providing some marina theater for the other two boats that were watching us, I finally got the bow anchor to stick and after backing down, we dropped our stern anchor and then motored up on the bow hook. After checking that we were not dragging, I put on our snubber bridle and we settled in for the night.
The storm never arrived.
The next morning, we got up and Larissa took her kayak to shore and went for a hike. I took the dinghy around the corner to a little cove where I landed on the beach and met up with her. I found a decomposing sea lion and was able to pry one of it's massive teeth out for a souvenir. The top predator on the island is a cat sized fox appropriately named "Island Fox". We saw none of them but much of the evidence of their being well fed. The days were spent trolling around in the dinghy for fish, catching way more bait fish than we needed and then not catching any crab.
The first night I put out the crab trap I caught a small shark that somehow wedged himself through the trap door. He was difficult to get out but I released him. After moving the trap further out into deeper water, the next day we caught a very small halibut, again in the "crab trap". Too small to keep, we let him go. Next try was to catch lobster near the rocky shore. This attempt produced what we would later find out was a male sea urchin with no eggs to eat.
Wednesday night, we were sitting up in the cockpit under the shade and we saw a massive 3 masted tall ship approaching. We watched as she anchored right in front of us. They stayed overnight then left in the morning. The boat was called Tole Mour, you can read about her here:
Tole Mour
The last day before we left, we decided to dinghy down to Prisoner's Bay. I learned about driving a dinghy down wind with swells with a small horsepower engine. It didn't look that challenging from the boat but as we approached, the swells seemed to get bigger. I had to really work the throttle to keep us from getting in front of the swells which might have resulted in getting flipped. The ride took about 20 minutes, but it seemed longer. When we arrived, Larissa asked me if I was scared and I said, "ya, a little bit". I didn't figure telling her that I was shitting my pants would comfort her for the ride back. So we learned that day about when to and when to not take non essential dinghy rides.
Friday we made our way back to Santa Barbara. Initially, the wind was right on our nose, so I opted to just motor. As we crossed the shipping channel, the wind shifted and we would be able to sail. But thing was, I didn't really want to. If I'm honest with myself, after our awful night I've been pretty gun shy with sailing. I guess while sailing in and around SF Bay, I got to feeling very confident with the boat. In retrospect, it was mostly because I didn't know what I didn't know. After having a couple of scary nights, I was becoming more and more aware of what I didn't know and this was rattling my confidence. That and a poorly executed landing in a crosswind convinced me that I needed to get some help.
I was doing a load of laundry mid week and ran into Spencer, the guy I mentioned earlier. We had a frank conversation about my state of mind and I asked him if he'd be able to take us out and help me work through some scenarios that were bothering me and help me get a little more comfortable. A bit about Spencer... He's holds a 50 ton Coast Guard Captain's license, is an ASA Certified instructor, NAUI certified scuba diver. He's been sailing around Santa Barbara since he was 7 years and he's been an instructor for 10 years. He's also 24! We worked on some engine questions I had as well as helping me get better at backing my boat up, which I'd had a lot of difficulty with in the past. After practicing the docking scenarios I wanted to work on, we took Cythera out and worked on heaving to and several reefing options. He was a terrific teacher and made Larissa and I both feel much more comfortable with the boat and working together. You can see his website here:
Captain Spencer
We have a rigger recommended by Steve Hodges coming early next week to tune/inspect our rig before we head south again. Larissa and I received our yacht club credentials and she began researching our options going south and it seems like we're going to be able to yacht club hop all the way down to San Diego. Our next big destination is Catalina for Labor Day weekend. We will be meeting some friends that are meeting us from the Bay Area to do some sailing and scuba diving.
I've just been informed by the Admiral that the aft head is not flushing properly, so I'm off to diagnose and hopefully repair the problem.
I've put up some pictures of my favorite sunrise to date and other pictures from the island trip:
Pics from Santa Cruz Island