Tuesday morning we slept in late, ate breakfast, and headed West to Fry's Anchorage just a few miles up the island. As with Prisoners, there was only one other boat anchored at Fry's when we arrived. We set the bow anchor (a 35# Delta with 100' of 5/8 HT chain) in 25' of water then launched the dinghy to set the stern anchor (a 13# Fortress/Guardian with 12' of 5/8 HT chain) closer to the beach in 15-20'. Both anchors set nicely and kept Spray in place with her bow facing out to the channel. Several other boats arrived in the afternoon but the anchorage never got too crowded. We launched the kayak and explored the caves on both sides. We also took the dinghy ashore to explore the remains of an old structure and hiked up the canyon a bit. Back aborad Spray we spotted a pair of bald eagles perched on the cliffs beside the anchorage. It was a delight to see the Eagles fly around the anchorage and get chased by the seagulls. We had another great dinner (grilled salmon, roasted asparagus and couscous), and slept well again due to the calm seas and wind.
We enjoyed Fry's so much we decided to stay another day. This was a perfectly lazy morning - we slept late, had breakfast, and then had a nap! After our lunch settled, we decided to go SCUBA diving along the West wall of the anchorage. There was plenty of kelp, rock structures, and sea caves with all of the typical So. Cal coastal marine life. We saw some good sized bat rays, kelp bass, tree fish, senoritas, surf perch, sea cucumbers, sea stars, star fish, sea urchins, sole, gobys, lingcod, etc. It was a rather shallow dive mostly in depths of 20-35' with no current and minimal surge. The sea temperature was 61 degrees F and visibility about 15'. Unfortunately, we didn't bring an underwater camera so we don't have any pictures of the dive.
After our surface interval we began our second dive along the same Western anchorage wall. Shortly after we descended, a rater chubby and friendly looking Harbor Seal approached Charlie. They were looking eye to eye one foot apart. The seal touched Charlie a few times and Charlie rubbed the seal's belly. The seal got kind of excited and began swimming around playfully. He then approached and startled LeeAnne a few feet away. The seal came back to Charlie for another belly rub. He then got a bit too friendly and started nudging us with his nose and flippers. We decided to surface since we were in the kelp beds and didn't want to get tangled in all the commotion. Plus, LeeAnne wasn't sure if he was being territorial and agressive, or just overly friendly (and possibly even amorous). We did a surface swim over to the Eastern anchorage wall and then descended. We saw another large bat ray and more of the same marine life. The seal found us again after 10 minutes into our dive. We ended the dive a bit early when the seal got a little too friendly and started nudging and nipping at our gear. It was very exciting to have such close contact with a friendly, but wild animal.
While we didn't have our underwater camera with us, here is a video that shows a similar encounter that happened to a different diver last year, just off the coast of Santa Cruz Island. Note that OUR harbor seal was about twice the size of this one!
The week before our trip Charlie had a new custom shower sump installed. We took our first showers aboard Spray that evening. It was great being able to take warm showers after our dives! Unfortunately, the shower sump pump stopped working after the second shower due to a clogged check valve.
That night was yet another yummy dinner - Caribbean jerk chicken with corn-on-the-cob and salad.
The next morning we raised our anchors after breakfast and headed West to explore the famous Painted Cave. We saw what we thought was a kayak tour boat on the West end and headed towards it assuming that they were at the Painted Cave. Unfortunately, it was a dive boat and they were several miles West of our destination. We turned around and followed our cruising guide to what we thought was the Painted Cave. Charlie explored this 25 years ago and didn't have GPS coordinates... so we relied on the guide's description to locate it. We launched the kayak and LeeAnne explored what we thought was the Painted Cave. It seemed smaller than what Charlie remembered and LeeAnne was only able to enter a little over 100' into the cave, so it clearly wasn't Painted Cave. After we brought the kayak back aboard and headed East, we found the real Painted Cave on the other side of the point. Unfortunately the wind and swells were picking up so we didn't re-launch the kayak, much to LeeAnne's disappointment. We now have the correct GPS coordinates and will visit it on our next trip.
Even though it wasn't the real Painted Cave, it was still exciting to kayak into a sea cave. There was a rocky beach at the end of it that was covered with sea lions - when LeeAnne shone her light on them, they all took off into the water, almost swamping the kayak!
The fake Painted Cave
The real Painted Cave
As we powered East, we checked out the various anchorages. Pelican looked like a nice anchorage; however, it was very crowded, so we continued East. We decided to spend Thursday night at Little Scorpion anchorage. We anchored on two hooks with our bow facing the outer most rock in 25'. We used the dinghy to set the second anchor in 20-30 feet. Both anchors set well and held Spray in place all afternoon and through the night. Little Scorpion was a wonderful anchorage with numerous rock structures and caves to explore via kayak. LeeAnne spent over an hour out on the kayak while Charlie napped. We had another wonderful dinner (grilled fillet mignon, sauted potatoes, and grilled veggies) and watched a movie on LeeAnne's PC. Again, it was a calm night so we both slept well.
Friday morning we took it easy and headed around the East end towards Smugglers Cove after breakfast. Although there was still a slight South swell coming into Smugglers, there wasn't much wind and the anchorage looked reasonably calm. We set our bow anchor close to the southern wall in 18'.
After a lazy lunch, we took the dinghy to shore for a hike. We landed the dinghy on the far northern side of the beach since the waves looked smaller there and it had more sand than the rather rocky south side by our boat. The landing was a bit more exciting that we thought and we got a little wet. Fortunately, our dry bag kept our shoes and cameras dry. We had a nice hike up the road to the top of the hill. After an hour or so, we decided to return to Spray.
By the time we got back to the beach, the swells had increased in size. We carefully studied the swell pattern to determine when to attempt our launch through the breaking waves. Although we thought we timed it right, we got swamped on our first attempt. The dinghy filled with water and Charlie got knocked out of it and almost sucked out to sea in a rip current. We pulled the dinghy back on the beach to recover and plan our next move. After studying the swell pattern along the entire beach, we determined that what we thought was the best point for landing our dinghy was probably the worst point for launching it. The breakers seemed to be smaller on the southern end of the beach, and were breaking closer to shore, which might make it easier to paddle past them before being swamped by the next big set. Consequently, we decided to carry the dinghy with motor about a quarter of a mile along the rocky beach to the southern end closer to where Spray was anchored. This was back breaking work and took us over an hour scrambling along the rocks like crabs. We both got a lot of scrapes bruises, and sore muscles doing this. It was also quite scary, as the swells continued to rise and come in closer sets, leaving us wondering if we were going to make it back to our boat at all! We definitely had some frightening visions of being stuck on this deserted beach overnight, soaking wet with no water or food and no way to get back to our boat. Fortunately, our plan worked and we were able to successfully launch the dinghy and paddle past the big breakers. It sure felt wonderful once we got back aboard Spray!
We took quick showers (after some jury-rigging of the shower pump), then LeeAnne cooked up a spicy batch of vegetarian chili and cornbread, and we celebrated our warmth and safety with a good bottle of red wine. We definitely learned a lesson: skip the beach landing if there are waves breaking on the beach.
The swells seemed to get larger and more intense after dinner. Charlie couldn't sleep until the swells settled down after 1:30 AM, so it was a rather restless night. (LeeAnne slept well though!)
We woke up early the next morning, ate a quick breakfast, and headed back home to Channel Islands Harbor. We saw lots of dolphins and sea lions on the way home. LeeAnne spotted a humpback whale sticking his head out of the water. We also saw a good sized Mola Mola basking in the sun at the surface out by oil platform Gina. We got back to our slip shortly after noon and spent the evening unloading Spray and relaxing with our friends on D dock, and sharing our adventures. Turns out we're not the only sailors who've been almost stranded on the beach at Smugglers.
The good friends, food, live music, and drinks were a wonderful way to end our first great island adventure aboard Spray!
Mola Mola sunning himself at the surface
PS - Since our refirierator was still not working, we were concerned that we might run out of ice in the ice box. We used six blocks of ice plus a case of frozen water bottles. It turns out that the ice held up great with the blocks at almost their full size. In fact, some of the water bottles were still frozen. We probably could have easily gone another 5 days before the ice melted.
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