Anacapa Island Cruise 8-21-04

We left Orange County, towing the boat through the LA traffic to Oxnard, rigged and launched at the Channel Islands Marina. We found the marina very nice, by the way. From the harbor master's office we arranged for a guest berth. The charge by the foot, so the fee for the 19 footer was about $10 a night. If you don't need a berth, the parking fee at the ramp was $2, much more reasonable than the $8 you'll pay in Long Beach.

We met another couple at the ramp who had towed their P-15 down from the Bay Area for the cruise. Potter sailors, by the way, may drive hundreds of miles to join in on one of these cruises.

We motored around (in the dark) to the guest berth assigned, tied up Slow Dance and had a great dinner at the Lobster Trap restaurant, a short walk away. We spent the night on the boat and this was our first night in this boat. It was actually a fairly comfortable night, the harbor was quiet compared to the average marina on a Friday night. We were awakened around 4 a.m. by a seal barking, but as one of the other Potter Yachters said, "it's part of the harbor experience".

In the morning we had breakfast at the Lobster Trap and then motored Slowdance back around to the launch ramp to meet with the rest of the group.

The group left the harbor at about 0900. There was little or no wind and we motored to Anacapa. The trip under power took about 3 hours at around 5 kts. We saw a lot of dolphins and a few seals on the way as well as two fairly sizable sharks on the way back.

The group arrived at Frenchy's cove around 1300. We investigated the small and rocky beach and decided to sail (or motor) down to the large arch on the east end of the island and then head back.

The wind increased on the way back to about 8-10 kts and we sailed the rest of the way in. It was good, by the way that the wind came up as we were running low on fuel at this point, having brought only 3 gallons.

Pictures from the Anacapa Cruise

P-15s at the Channel Islands launch ramp

A pair of P-19s at the ramp

Slow Dance (L) and two P-15s at the dock

A pair of P15's heading out

P19 That-N-More playing with dolphins

That-N-More sails the Anacapa coast

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