LeeAnne had never anchored on the south side of the island so we decided to head for one of my favorite anchorages, Coches Prietos. The anchorage was empty when we arrived at 12:30 so we picked the preferred spot close to the beach behind the reef and near the west wall. Coches is a charming little anchorage, shaped like a little circular indent in the island with a perfect half-moon, soft-sand beach, surrounded by lush vegetation leading into a deep, picturesque valley.
Since I hurt my back a few days earlier and didn't want to deal with lifting the dinghy or outboard, we decided to use the easy method of setting two anchors: we came in close to the beach and dropped our stern anchor in 17' on the sandy bottom, set the anchor after letting out ~100' of rode, let out enough additional rode to approach the reef, dropped the bow anchor in 25' behind the reef, set the bow anchor, then took up the slack on the stern anchor. We settled in perfectly in the lee of the reef and wall and close to the beach. This was surprisingly easy and meant that we didn't have to go to all the trouble of launching the dinghy.
We had clear, warm, and calm conditions the first day with the anchorage to ourselves. This was an amazing feeling, being so removed from civilization and cut off from other humans, even though we were within 25 miles of a major population center. The only other humans we saw that first day was a small lobster boat coming by occasionally to check their lobster traps. We didn't see them pull any out, or we might have asked them if they wanted to sell us a couple! The sunset over the west end point that night was truly spectacular.
Thursday, a couple of other boats came in mid-day. We rowed the dinghy to the beach several times each day to walk along the beach and explore the trails. The hiking was very satisfying - there's a well-defined trail heading straight into the deep, craggy valley. The woods were surprisingly green and lush on this island that often looks brown and dry. We saw a couple of Island foxes and a bunch of quail in the bushes. We brought Bubba to the beach for some exercise and he absolutely loved it. He ran full-speed from end to end stopping to dig up rocks, sticks, or shells every now and then. We picked up after him since canine diseases are very threatening to the Island foxes.
The fog rolled in and out on Friday and Saturday. It mostly hovered just off the beach leaving the shore and trails relatively clear.
Our plan was to leave early Saturday morning and spend New Years Eve with friends back home. Unfortunately, when we got ready to leave our engine wouldn't start! Charlie spent several hours trying to diagnose the issue and change the batteries. He discussed the symptoms with one of our neighbors from a nearby boat named Jay and he came aboard to help. The batteries seemed to be sufficiently charged, the ignition switch and preheat switches were working; however, nothing would happen when the starter switch was pushed.
At 11:00 am we decided to raise our anchors and sail home. Another neighbor named Russell helped tow us out of the anchorage with his dinghy, which was necessary since we were anchored so close to the west-end rocks, and the wind was very light so trying to pull up anchor and sail out could have been dangerous. Once Russell got us well out of the anchorage he dropped off, and we sailed south for about 1 mile and then...the wind died. Completely. Not a puff. We sat there and bobbed for hours. Fortunately, there were several pods of Risso's Dolphins, sea lions, and sea birds feeding and playing around us helping to calm us down while waiting for some wind. The Risso's Dolphins were particularly fun to watch, as they are not very common in near-shore waters so we only see them when we are on a long trip. They are huge - 10 ft plus - and have large, round heads that look like Beluga whales. They usually travel in small pods of only a few, so it was surprising and thrilling to see dozens of these pods all grouped together in one area. Some of them swam right up to our boat, leaping into the air and then darting under our boat. Between the dolphin pods, the huge rafts of sea lions, and innumerable sea birds dotting the surface as far as the eye could see, tt was amazing how alive the ocean was in that particular spot.
After several hours of no wind, and after noticing that we appeared to be drifting closer to shore, with an unfavorable weather forecast of "light and variable winds", we decided to call vessel assist for a tow home. We just didn't want to spend New Years Eve drifting close to the cliffs! It was a hard decision to do that, as no sailor wants to admit defeat, but at this point the utter lack of wind was not something we could conquer. We also knew it was going to be extremely expensive to be towed all the way from Santa Cruz Island.
Vessel Assist said that they were assisting several other boats and wouldn't be able to head towards us for a couple of hours and it would take another 1-1/2-2 hours to reach us. At that point Charlie decided to launch our dinghy with the small outboard motor and try towing Spray away from shore and towards home. The idea was not only to keep us safe but to try to get us closer to the mainland to help reduce the towing fees. He lashed the dinghy to the side of the boat and climbed in, making himself as comfortable as he could for what we knew would be long, slow trip. This actually worked quite well - we towed Spray at ~3 knots around the east end and a mile or so past San Pedro Point where we finally met the Vessel Assist boat just before dark. It's a good thing that we called Vessel Assist because the wind never did pick up, plus we encountered thick fog all the way from the shipping lanes to Channel Islands Harbor. It would not have been fun trying to make our way using just the little dinghy motor, without radar or visibility beyond 10 feet, through shipping lanes plied by enormous freighters that can take 15 miles to stop!
The Vessel Assist captain brought us right into our slip at about 7:30 PM, where we were happily greeted by our dock friends...who just so happened to be having a New Years Eve party up at the clubhouse, complete with a full turkey dinner! This was indescribably welcome, given that we had eaten nothing but a can Pringles for almost 12 hours due to focusing on trying to get home. We're not sure what hurt the most - the embarrassment of getting towed or the $680 out-of-pocket fee! At least we made it home safe and sound and got to spend New Years Eve with some friends.
The next day, Charlie and Dave managed to figure out that the problem was a broken wire to the starter solenoid. All that for a broken wire! They managed to not only fix it, but also build a work-around switch so that if this ever happens again, we can go right to the bypass switch on the engine and get it started that way. Ah, boating...it's always a learning experience!
