Merry Christmas from the Channel Islands

I've been working on another video, this one almost entirely filmed on Santa Cruz Island.  I hope you like it!  We've enjoyed the islands a lot and will be sorry to leave them, but in the new year we'll go on south.

Continued Lingering in SoCal

 We've graduated to the lower class of homelessness, that is, taking showers outside.  Specifically in the outside shower at UCSB.  They have a nice campus and lots of nice things, like outside showers near the dorms, so the students who go surfing or to the beach can wash the salt off.  Lindsay took a shower there for Thanksgiving, when no-one was around, and also she had clothes on (or a swimsuit).  I guess there are still steps we could take downwards. 
After Turkey Day, which we didn't get any turkey of the sea, we headed back out to Santa Cruz Island in order to avoid the wrath of a storm that lashed the area.  It blew winds from the south and we needed to find a coastline that faced some other direction.  We went looking on the north side of SC island and found some sweet caves.  There is the "Painted Cave" that we learned is 1200 ft long, going into the bowels of the island.  There isn't a good spot to anchor near that so we went a bit east and found a nice little cove with some small caves and a tasty sheepshead and some waterfalls.  It was a fun little trip.
Since coming back, we've been surfing some more.  The most notable news is that Lindsay is beginning to like it.  Before she was humoring me with her presence in the waves, paddling after some, catching a few, and for some reason, unable to stand up and get balanced.  Yesterday she stood up and came slicing along the line of the wave, and an irresistible grin began to spread across her face.  The hook was set.  Now she can be found catching tons of waves and standing up and carving across the faces of many.  One small step for woman, but a giant leap for the trip.  I was worried earlier that I would want to surf all the time and she would hate it.

 There was another sailboat there and they found a shell on the beach that was most interesting.  I think it is a Nautalis (however you spell it).

Santa Cruz Island visit number 1

 We headed out to Santa Cruz island in order to see foxes, and we did.  The island Foxes live all over the island, but mostly they hang out in Scorpion Cove, and that is where we found them.  On the way over we were pummeled by high winds and big seas, and saw a Minke Whale breaching, but didn't get any pictures on account of the weather.
After Scorpion, we went around to the south side of the island, to Smuggler's Cove.  I'd been here before but not really explored the shoreline very well, and Lindsay showed me a neat canyon that extended into the hills a ways.  We set off in search of adventure and wound our way into the canyon lands.  We had both just finished reading "Desert Solitare" by Edward Abbey, a book about Arches National Park and the area around it.  I was really reminded of the southwest by the cliffs and the deep gulches.  There were lots of birds in the canyon and we even found some pools of water.  Puddles, really.
As we got back to the boat a choppy sea was building from the east, so we hauled up the anchor and took off in search of shelter.  There are tons of great places to visit on the south side of Santa Cruz Island, and as we sailed along looking at each in turn I thought it would be a great place to spend more time.  We'll be going back tomorrow.
We snorkeled at about 5 different places and saw a bunch of really cool things, with reasonably good visibility.  There is this antler kelp stuff that looks like bull kelp from the Northwest, but after the bulb it splits into two anters and looks kind of reindeerish.  We also saw the biggest lobster I've ever seen, caught in a trap.  Then, we scooted around the west end and back to Goleta.  We got a few looks at more common dolphins and some Risso's dolphins as well, but no more big whales.  Maybe next time.

 We also saw some monsters.....
its amazing how many dead things there are on the beaches.  I wonder if it is from the black tar tide or just that there aren't enough scavengers to pick it all over quickly.  There is a lot of life out there, though.  Despite the amount of death.

 Here's my little skiff, the walker bay 8.

The first week back in the water!

 We've become sailors again.  We set back in the water on Friday, a week ago, and then promptly left on Saturday to go out to Santa Cruz Island.  I've been through these islands before, but in a rush, so this was going to be a nice slow trip.  But the weather wasn't quite on board with that plan, so as we crossed the big channel, the winds began to pick up and shift against us.  Soon we were beating into heavy seas and fairly strong winds, reminding Lindsay why she doesn't like sailing.  We anchored on the West point of Santa Cruz island and set about checking out the local flora and fauna.  Dead things on the beach was the first priority.
After Dead things is things where you can't really say how or in what classification they live.  A lichen would do nicely.  Is it really alive?  I like this one because it has such tree-like tendencies.

 Then plants.  I love the cacti, of course, and this one prickled nicely.

 Then the local animals.  This was about 4 ft tall, and the owner must have let him off his leash for a moment too long and he hopped away!  I like these little sand hoppers.

 Now, on to the birds.  We saw a Red-Footed Booby!  I've seen these before, about 900 miles southeast of here, but I didn't know they went this far north!  I think this one was resting before going back south. 

 This is a mystery bird, I guess I need to look it up in the book, but there are tons of these shearwater/petrel things all over the place, eating krill, no doubt. 

 We went to Santa Rosa Island next, then to San Miguel, and found ourselves near some giants.  The Elephant Seals!  I love how human they are, with sneezing and expressions and their scratchy noses.  Lindsay told me that they are her spirit animal, because of the farting noises and general snoozy behavior they have. 

 Again, the little tree that I cannot ID, out on San Miguel.  I love the thing but I don't know what it is.  Little and beaten by the winds.

 We went back to Santa Rosa and went birdwatching.  And found some Snowy Plovers!

 And Perigrine Falcons!

 The Falcons are excellent at their work, and some of their kills showed up in the tide line, monsters from the deep underworld, with teeth and jaws and tentacles?   These are actually Sea Lions, probably killed by sharks.  An interesting story about sharks....  Lindsay and I went diving and I brought my spear gun, on the south side of Santa Rosa Island.  I shot a nice California Sheepshead, and then got out of the water.  Lindsay opted to stay in for a bit longer and after about 10 minutes it took to clean the fish and dispose of the remains, she turns around to find a shark 5 ft away from her and looking her in the eye.  I hear a squealing and the fin of the shark for a second, then it dives, goes under her and off in search of the fish.  She comes back to the boat and gets out post-haste, and we haven't gone back in the water since.  Hopefully the fear will pass.  

 I've never seen a Sand Dollar like this before, have you?

 Again with the snowy plovers.  I love their little-ness. 

 And Altair cozy up and anchored away.   We'll spend a few days here in Goleta, next to the UCSB campus and surf a bunch before going back out to the islands again.

Repairations

Altair is no longer holy.  A gentle Mexican-American man named Alan reached into her grave and pulled.  Altair is reborn as a boat again.  I, of course, haven't taken any pictures of the fixing or the final result, so sorry about that, but I hope to do some photography when she gets back into the water, which I think will be Friday (tomorrow).  So a week on the firm ground.  We've gone surfing a bit, and I got another board (So I have 5 now) and it is a rocket.  Its a 9'6", kind of narrow, with a pointy pin back end and sweet carbon fins.  It catches everything and turns quite well, but is designed for fast and larger (than I have seen lately) waves, so I can't wait to get to that sort of condition.
When we splash we'll head out to the islands for a week or more and be somewhat incognito, and hopefully have adventures to share after. 

Also I made this video a few weeeks ago.  It is not at all about me, but my brother's work with wild rice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI90FYuVFF8&feature=youtu.be

Things that go Bump in the Night

 There are things that go Bump in the night. 

With something like this, there is always a series of things going wrong, of course.  We left Morro Bay intending to go just around the corner to Port San Louis, but I convinced Lindsay that we should make for Conception now that the weather was still good.  So, despite the wind blowing gently from the South (urging us to turn around) and the current pushing us in the other direction, I, like Ahab fighting the elements, pushed on through to nightfall to the South.  I wanted to get around Point Conception before "the first winter storm of the season" came crashing down upon the west coast of California, and find a safe harbor of refuge from it all.  Consequently, I opted to skip the anchorage just around Point Conception, which we passed at around 3 AM, and head on for San Miguel Island.  Lindsay and I were taking turns napping and watching out for traffic, and I was mostly paying attention to the traffic going in and out of the shipping lanes (which we were crossing to get to the island), but I overlooked a little yellow dot on the chart.  It was a bouy, and a big steel one at that.  I didn't see it, and I swear that it doesn't have a working light on it.  Lindsay will back me up on that.  Altair hit it going about 4 knots, which isn't much, but the swell and swing of the steel bouy might have added to the punch.  Punch it did, a 4-6 inch hole right in the bow, about 6 inches below the waterline.  The bilge filled up quickly and I went out on the front to try to fill the hole up, but it wasn't going to be easy, so I went inside and madly threw tons of things out of the bow to get to the bare hull.  A surprisingly short time later I faced a large pool of water and the difficult prospect of damage control.  Happily, I had an innertube from a motorcycle given to me by my kind sister, and I cut a portion of this open and tried to wedge it into the hole using a small round plug.  It worked, but not totally, and I tried to wedge more things around it all to staunch the flow.  I got the flow down so I could drive the boat and keep ahead of it with the engine, so we started to make way for Santa Barbara, where we could haul out and fix it.  Then I called the Coast Guard.  I knew if I called them, it would be out of my hands from then on, so I wanted to see if I really NEEDED their help, but i also thought the prudent thing would be to let them know the situation and if things got worse they would be ready.  They promptly sent out a patrol cutter, and in less than two hours they had arrived on the scene.  Sadly, we didn't get back to Santa Barbara (where they had left from) until 10 hours later, on account for the slow speed of my own vessel.
A team came aboard and I showed them the hole, and they got to work on it.  They brought aboard a giant gas powered pump, and in about 4 seconds cleared the bow to get a look at the damage, then worked on it for about an hour before we got underway again.  Everyone started making jokes when we began to move along at 4 knots, and I heeded the peer pressure and put the throttle as far forward as I have ever done, bringing us up to 5 knots.  In the back of my mind I didn't want to do it, but I figured the engine would be all right.  The conditions were perfect for a rescue, with light winds under 5 knots and some mild swell, and we puttered along slowly with the big cutter gliding along next to us like a big mother goose.  After a few hours the winds built up a little from the east, so we were brought down to 4 knots despite the full throttle, and when the wind shifted a little from the south I put up a reefed mainsail in order to get some wind.  Spray spashed on the bow, getting one of the two Coast Guard gentlemen rather wet and getting the big pump a little wet as well.  I could feel the cockpit getting warm from the engine heat and water began to pour into the bilge from the back of the boat.  Two Leaks!  I opened the Lazarette and discovered the engine heat (and perhaps that the exhaust was almost always under water, so making a higher back pressure in the exhaust pipe, causing still higher heat) had caused the water line to the exhaust pipe to rupture and it was spitting water and some exhaust into the very crowded compartment.  I pulled a bunch of crap out of the Lazarette and into the cockpit (which was crazy full of all sorts of things) and cut the water line, re-clamped it and turned the engine back on.  We were set again!  The water stopped flowing into the bilge from that angle and I was pleased.  We were approaching the closest lee-shore just before the harbor entrance with 10-12 knot winds blowing in our face when the engine slowed and died, like it had run out of fuel.  I was most disapointed, but pulled out the spare fuel tank and filled it up again, primed the system and turned it back on again.  Maybe the full throttle had burned five times the fuel I had anticipated.  I turned the throttle down a bit this time, rolled out the forward sail (the genoa) and motor-sailed for another 15 minutes until the engine died again.  No more fuel, so I guess it is a fuel leak, probably because of the high heating problem.  Meanwile, on the bow, they had been pumping the big pump once every half an hour, and they went to turn it on, but no joy.  The spray wasn't doing anybody any good.  After a bit of fuss, they got it running, so that was a welcome relief.  Another thing that went wrong at this point was that their two-way radio gave up the ghost, from being dunked in salt water.  So they didn't have communications with their mothership.  The mothership wanted that communication, so we began to use my VHF radio, which is right in the middle of the whole show, in the cockpit.  So it was a mess, tilting and bashing into small chop, hissing and chirping in radio lingo, with heaps and mounds of all sorts of things (I had put everything I could find that was heavy in the back in order to raise up the bow, so I had all the water jugs back there, and we had got the survival suits out, along with all the things we might want if we were to abandon ship in a hurry-we launched the skiff shortly after impact in order to have that option avaliable, so it was under tow)  In short, it was disorganized and packed in the cockpit.  The engine was out, the comms were difficult, the boat was still taking on water and my confidence in the de-watering pump was a bit shaken, and it had been a long day for everyone (I got about 20 minutes of sleep the night before).  Now we got to the mouth of the harbor.  Everyone was out playing, as it was a friday afternoon.  We had to get in as quickly as possible in order to get hauled out, and the haul-out place was kind enough to stay open later than normal for us, but there were pleasure boats and small sailing dinghies with kids and cruise ship ferries (the Golden Princess was anchored off the harbor) and Pelicans diving in and Sea Lions honking and hooting at the spectacle.  I sailed right into the harbor and was intent on going for the haul-out dock when the harbor patrol came alongside and hooked up to tow me in the rest of the way.  It was much welcome, and they spun me expertly into the travelift straps (in reverse of course) and the travelift hoiste us up out of the water.  I am currently sitting aboard Altair writing this while softly swaying in the straps a few feet above the pavement.  They will get us all set up on Monday.  For the weekend, I will try to clean out the boat, but it is currently Halloween.  This is the closest I have been to sinking Altair, and I am really thankful of the USCG Cutter Blackfish's crew who helped me out through the ordeal, most specifically, Rob and Luke, who came aboard, fixed up the hole in the bow, and then stuck it out, through thick and thin with this frail plastic sailboat when all things began to go wrong.

Big Sur

 We made it to Morro Bay, and are anxiously watffching the weather for Point Conception, where we shall round (hopefully) soon and then be in the Channel Islands.  The last few days have been quite difficult, with lots of swell and big seas from San Francisco all through Santa Cruz and to Point Sur.  Our plan from Santa Cruz was to go through the night and get to San Simeon by the next day, but as evenening darkened, the waves built up and the winds were significant enough to make them break.  Big piles of white foam bashed against the sides like soft (but strong) hammers, and Lindsay wasn't feeling well.  I sent her down below (perhaps roughly) and told her to try to sleep, but she could not, and the bashing and turning ocean that threw our little craft about caused much consternation in her.  After a few hours she poked her head up and with a very significant look, told me that she was ready to go swim for the shore.  We were a few miles of cold water away from the shore but I knew she was serious, so we made for the nearest point of refuge, Carmel-by-the-Sea.  I'd never been there, and wasn't too keen on going in during the dead of night, but there we went.  We made it past some rocks and I am very glad to have such great working instruments as I have, including the new Depth Sounder (thanks Danny!) and we dropped the anchor at about 10.  Then we slept until 3:30 am to get underway again to go for San Simeon by dusk.  Making all speed as we could we drove the entire next day because the wind refused to blow hard enough to help us out, and we got in just after sunset.  We saw some Common Dolphins, Sea Otters and a few Sea Lions, but it was mostly a clear day watching the coast slowly slide past.

Same with today, not a lot of wind and here we are.  Tomorrow I hope will be the same and through friday, bringing us around the corner. 

I got a few pictures of things now that it is drying out a little bit, and here is the SPOT, so you can check in on our Progress.  Still working on the permanent link, but for now you have to look in the past to find it...

 Here's a shot of Lindsay when she was fooled into thinking that she likes sailing.  She hasn't abandoned ship yet, but there are some dark memories growing.  I hope Southern California cleans her of those. 

The trusty Senator, though he hasn't reeled in a prize lately. 

 do you know this bug?  I found it on my boat!

Santa Cruz

We've started on again, to the southwaters.  Yesterday was a nasty day for both Lindsay and I and we threw up numerous times each, and now are taking a day to rest here in Santa Cruz.  I've forgotten to put up some pictures from the last few weeks up, but here they are!

 While we were in San Francisco, we went over to visit the old tall ships that populate the waterfront, and there is one, Belaclutha, that we got an exclusive tour of, because Lindsay knows people who know people.  It is a steel and iron boat, with wood decks and pretty, but in a big way. 

 Then we walked to the Cathedral and there was this metal print that I liked...

 And along the waterfront to look for birds.  I took some shots of this Herring Gull, up close and personal for ID purposes.

 He's got a funny looking knee joint too!

 And a Long Billed Curlew (I am pretty sure)

 An Invasive...

 Lindsay got comfortable sailing the boat...

 Out the Golden Gate bridge!

 We went to Half Moon Bay and got a look at Mavericks, but it wasn't breaking really, so we looked at the low tide shore.

 And then after a day of dismal sailing, got to Santa Cruz.

 We'll leave tomorrow and work our way down to San Simeon and to Morro Bay, I'll keep pressing the SPOT button which links to this page: 
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ZI5dehz1OLghFSeVZjx0tbfTtjuS8TFu

I'm going to try to make that page be a constant link somewhere, but thus far I cannot figure it out.  If you know how, let me know please!