Anacapa Practice Paddle
15 July 2001. Ten Intrepid paddlers met in the Sunday morning darkness at Hobie Beach in Channel Islands Harbor for a fast round-trip to Anacapa, as a tune-up for the Labor Day Outer Channel Islands Grand Tour. After returning from Portugal the night before (21 hour trip- yawn!), I arose at 03:45, Carol playing reveille on my head, to motor up to Channel Islands Harbor on time and find five people already well into launch preparations! Duane had stayed over at my place and insisted on sleeping in his truck--he was up and out in only 15 minutes! Snooty neighbors later complained about homeless people in my yard. One lady drove up from Escondido on a whim, to paddle with us--Awesome!

I doubt that a finer group of paddlers and boats has ever been assembled on this humble strip of shore line. You would not believe the backgrounds and skills of most of these people. We launched a bit later than planned, while waiting for stragglers to take to the water. We departed at 05:55 and glided past the breakwater into moderate swells, a steady, fragrant breeze and a mist. Remnants of the recent red tides remained. Platform Gina was a brilliant beacon in the receding night. We could see portions of Anacapa, but not the light, which seemed to be out of order (again). I have been on Coast Guard/Auxiliary repair details to the Anacapa lighthouse before.

This was a very strong group, just chafing at the bit. We had to slow them down to a 4 kt. pace, except for occasional slowdowns to close up the pack. At some points, the leaders were traveling 7 abreast, laughing and talking all the way. They were in high spirits, drinking up the atmosphere, talking of trips, past and future, while playing practical jokes on each other. Occasionally, someone would just shoot out ahead, then gradually drift back with the pack.

The plan was to go out in under 3 hrs. to test paddling strength, rest, play, practice rescues and return by 15:00 in about 3.5 hrs. We navigated by GPS, to minimize distance over ground. We made just two 5 minute stops along the way. Most of the pack reached the Island between 08:51 and 09:00. We played under Arch Rock (see photo below) for a while and drifted slowly south, as we rested, grazed and watched the plentiful sea lions on the rocks, shore and in the water. Mike, George and others paddled the south coast, exploring the coves and rocks. A couple of others headed for a brief landing at Cathedral Cove. I was unsuccessful in getting AT&T cell phone service out there this trip, although it has worked before (the fog?). We conducted only partially successful tests on the SBKA "club VHF channel" 69.

Click on picture to see larger image

We decided to wait until we returned to the mainland to practice rescues, so we wouldn't need to paddle home wet. By consensus, we headed back at 09:45 at about a 3.3 kt pace. We had several unscheduled pauses on the return trip, due to a participant's shoulder injury acting up and ship traffic. I am amazed that he finished the trip in such a good time, considering the pain-whatta guy.

The northwest wind gradually picked up on the trip home, building up to a 4' swell, occasionally breaking over the boats, but no big deal. The highlight of the return trip was a beautiful and quite athletic flying fish, lofting over the swells and skipping the crests, to go about 150 feet across our bows, before disappearing. This was the largest one I've seen on the west coast. Duane says that has encountered these before on his solo paddleabouts. We saw some nice flights of Pelicans. Their numbers seem to be growing every year. Dolphin traffic was noticeably absent.

We cruised past the Channel Islands breakwater at about 13:25 and tried to assemble the group on the beach by "the pond" (site of many excellent surf/practice sessions in the past), for a debriefing and rescue practice. We had an excellent discussion of the upcoming Outer Channel Islands trip, and made some improvements to the plan. A couple of other folks simply returned to the Hobie Beach landing site. We couldn't muster a practice quorum of the survivors after the meeting, so some will practice with Duane this Saturday at Dana Point,instead. The remainder will need to prove their skills at the 11-12 August Carpinteria camping trip. Clearly, I made a tactical error in delaying the scheduled practice until everyone returned to the mainland, tired and wanting to go home on a Sunday afternoon!

After loading up the boats, seven of us made it over to Daddio's for a relaxing lunch and chat, before heading back to our non-nautical lives again, me to celebrate 25 great years with Carol!

After witnessing this fabulous group of men and women paddlers, I'm even starting to believe their impressive resumes. I am grateful for the opportunity to go to sea and learn from such folks.

    George Miller

Submitted on July 18, 2001