At noon on Wednesday we made for Prisoners Harbor, five or six miles southeast of Fry's Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. The weather had calmed down and the sun was out and our sail was accordingly beautiful, a broad reach along the coast past a couple of dozen fishing boats. We anchored in twenty feet of clear blue water near the pier that is the main landing site for the island.

Santa Cruz Island was used extensively for agriculture beginning in the 19th century, and over the years sheep and cattle as well as wine grapes (Zinfandel in particular, the state grape) were cultivated; hence the pier. Now the 3/4 of the land is owned by the Nature Conservancy, with the remainder by the National Park Service. Prisoners Harbor is in the National Park, so we were able to dinghy ashore.

What a beautiful island! After being on the boat for so long we were overwhelmed by the smells of the earth and the eucalyptus and the madrone and the grasses. The quiet in the gullies and on the hillsides after days of listening to the clanking of the rigging and the groaning of the wind was a balm to our senses. We took a long walk up a long grade that gave us views of the Santa Ynez mountains to the north, the boats in the harbor, fishing boats working the coastline, and the deep ridges and steep peaks of the island itself. Fennel--a Mediterranean plant--has run amok on the island and we found ourselves in groves of it. On our way back we encountered two of the small native island foxes, who stopped to have a look, ears twitching.

The Channel Islands, like many islands, have a unique set of flora and fauna due to their isolation. The animals that are found there tend to be larger or more petite than their mainland cousins (the small ones are bigger; the big ones, smaller). The native scrub jay is bluer; the monkey flowers are more orange. One plant, Santa Cruz Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus asplenifolius) went extinct on the mainland six to nine million years ago but flourishes in groves on these northern islands (for a good read on this topic, http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/proc97/proc97/to350/pap331/p331a.htm). Intensive conservation efforts are being made, including eradicating introduced species and keeping people from overrunning the place. It is truly thrilling to be able to have access to such primeval wonders.

After spending the afternoon Wednesday and morning Thursday at Prisoners Harbor we set sail for Long Beach, 90 miles and an overnight sail away.