Magic Cruising

Vessel Name: Magic
18 September 2015
16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island
16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island
16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island
24 July 2015
11 July 2015 | Channel Islands
Recent Blog Posts
18 September 2015

HaHa

My beautiful Mary is holding the Baja HaHa Rally that we received today. Soon we'll sail to San Diego via Catalina (Buccaneer Days), Newport, Dana Point, Oceanside and Mission Bay! Life is good.....

16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island

Pelican

Pelican and Diablo

16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island

Pelican

Pelican and Diablo

16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island

Fry's

Today we wake up in Fry's anchorage in the middle of the north side of Santa Cruz Island. Leaving Santa Barbara around 11 yesterday, rolled out the sails as soon as we cleared the buoy and had a wonderful and instructive sail. We started with about 4 1/2 knots of boat speed in about 10 kts. of wind under cloudy skies. Mid channel the sky cleared overhead but there were still dramatic clouds over the mainland. The wind went to 15+ kts. so we reefed both sails. We found reefing very easy: Mary eased the sheet and outhaul while I winched them in. Done! Now Magic is cruising at 6-7 kts. on a close reach and headed for the barn! When we reached the cove we found one boat anchored outside so we set two anchors inside the smaller inner cove. This is a great anchorage with calm water in these conditions. After cleaning up the boat Mary cooked delicious chicken burritos.

24 July 2015

Potato Bay

Just returned to Channel Islands to play a gig with the Barrelhouse Wailers and to participate in the Disabled Veterans' Sail. The Magic crew spent a few days in Potato bay on Santa Cruz Island.

11 July 2015 | Channel Islands

Bad News!

Our dinghy is missing. We're not sure if it was stolen, but it disappeared Monday night while we were anchored in Little Scorpion cove on Santa Cruz Island. We made reports to all agencies and await insurance ok to buy a new one. It was an Achilles, 9'6" with a 6 hp Yamaha motor.

Pelican

16 August 2015 | Santa Cruz Island
Pelican and Diablo
August eighth and ninth 2015 This morning we left Channel Islands Harbor a little after 9 a.m. for a motor boat ride to Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz Island. We met old friends George and Carol on Circadian there. When we first dropped the anchor the anchorage was very roly but after a while it settled in but then later it got roly again then settle down again then rolled. Freighter wake? Tide roll? Who knows? Later that day Sean on The Good Wife and this son with 2 passengers came to Pelican and anchor very close to us. Rven though it was a nice summer weekend there were only 6 boats anchored in here. I have been here many times when there were 15 to 25 boats. What's going on?

Mary is the ideal cruising partner. She seems to love this lifestyle and she's very good at it: she's a quick learner and enjoys learning the sailing lore. As a bonus she has gotten into cooking and is making some delicious meals.




August 10, 2015 Today we find ourselves in Diablo, a pretty and calm anchorage on rhe northwest part of Santa Cruz Island. It's a little after 7 a.m. and I'm having coffee in the cockpit. Mary is still asleep. There's a little rock beach where we can take Gracie. So far we haven't seen any wasps like we saw in Pelican, but we do have those pesty kelp flies.

A little while later circadian came and anchored in front of us in Diablo Bay. They deployed a bow anchor and a stern anchor and then they put out flopper stoppers which may have been a mistake. A little while later there stern anchor began to drag. In the process of re-anchoring they got their flopper stopper fouled in their bow anchor. After about an hour they finally got everything sorted out and re-anchored the boat.

Mary and I went over to their boat for cocktails margaritas later and spent a pleasant evening. That night the roll from freighters? Tide? came in and we had a fitful sleep. The next morning was very calm and we wanted to come back to Channel Islands Harbor for wet Wednesday races so we left around 10 o'clock in the morning and motored halfway then rolled out the sails. The wind gradually increased and we were able to sail home.
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