Santa Rosa Island

Santa Rosa is the next in towards LA from San Miguel Island, and has been a cattle ranch for the last long time (like 40 years or more). Its covered in grass, which looks neat. I put up the spinnaker at San Miguel and cruised along at 3 knots for most of the day to get to the anchorage, so the weather was still very mild, but it picked up when I got in to the bay to anchor. Its a beautiful bay. A long crescent beach of sand, with a beaten down old pier sticking out into it. No elephant seals, but tons of sea lions, which came out at night and were porpoising all around the boat. It was also a full moon when I was there.
I tried to get some glamor shots of the NuCanoe as well.
The wonderful Risso's Dolphins that I have been seeing sometimes beach themselves, I guess, because I saw one on the beach. It was about 10 ft long and very dark, though I think when they are alive they are a light grey.
So I paddled ashore to check out the island, and walked up to the ranch, and finally found this guy, Sam, who is the caretaker for the ranch. He works for the Vale family, who still has the ranch until 2012, though they've given the island to the National Park Service. Anyways, he was pretty cool, and then I ended up getting a ride around on the island in a truck, up to the top, where the old horses are out in a field. The wind picked up that night and the next day I was a bit worried when I picked up anchor, headed for Santa Cruz Island...