[Paddlewise] Fwd: Of Mice and Kayakers at Santa Cruz Island

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From: Strosaker_at_aol.com
Full-name: Strosaker
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Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 00:29:17 EDT
Subject: Of Mice and Kayakers at Santa Cruz Island
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Of Mice and Kayakers at Santa Cruz Island
by Duane Strosaker

After having a great time with Jeff McNair on his California Kayak Friends 
trip at Santa Cruz Island last year, I just had to join him again on his trip 
this year.  Except that this year, Jim Gabriel and I decided to provide our 
own transportation by paddling to and from the island rather than taking the 
ferry.

With a good weather forecast, Jim and I launch from the boat launch at 
Channel Islands Harbor at 6:00am on Friday, August 20, 1999.  We had smooth 
water the entire crossing.  However, the best visibility we had was about 2 
miles.  Fortunately, the oil rigs Gina and Gail made excellent aids to 
navigation.  We passed to the right of Gina, which is 3 nautical miles off 
the coast, and to the left of Gail, which is at the halfway point of the 18 
nautical mile crossing.  We shared navigational duties, taking turns steering 
with our compasses.

Along the way, Jim and I saw dozens of large schools of dolphins.  One of 
these schools passed right through us, and we had dolphins jumping within 
just feet of all around us.  Not far from there, we saw a fin flapping above 
the surface next to a floating kelp paddy.  We investigated and found a large 
sunfish.  It slowly swam next to us for a few minutes as we drifted with the 
kelp paddy.

About 4 nautical miles from the island, we heard a ship giving one long blast 
on the horn every two minutes.  It become louder each time.  Initially, it 
came from the right front quarter, and then later it came from the right rear 
quarter, which meant it was passing behind us.  Jim spotted the ship first, 
and it passed about 500 yards behind us.

Closer to the island, we saw the ferry boat that was carrying the rest of the 
group of 13 from our trip.  We expected to see it on our right, but we saw it 
on our left, and its heading was a little different from ours, which made us 
question how far off course we were going.  Then to confuse us even more the 
ferry suddenly turned left and stopped.  We found out later that the ferry 
stopped to watch a blue whale that was longer than the ferry.  Everyone said 
it was huge and absolutely beautiful.  The ferry was only about a mile from 
us, and Jim and I were disappointed that we didn't paddle over to investigate.

With the poor visibility and some doubt about our location, I turned the GPS 
on to get a corrective bearing.  We had to adjust our heading by 25 degrees 
to the east, and we had 3.3 more miles to paddle.  This paddle seemed like a 
long one.  The poor visibility and carrying 40 pounds of water, four days of 
food and all our camping gear didn't help make it seem any shorter either.  I 
definitely wouldn't want to paddle it in rough conditions.  We landed at 
12:30pm, 6 1/2 hours after launching.  The ferry boat was already there but 
was still being unloaded.

Our group of 13 kayakers finished setting up camp by about mid-afternoon. 
Afterwards, everyone sort of did their own thing, which varied between 
napping, fishing, hiking and paddling.  One of negative things about the trip 
was that campfires were no longer allowed in the campsites.  The other 
negative thing was the way out of control mice population.  At night those 
little critters came out everywhere.  You couldn't walk to the restroom 
without almost stepping on one.  All night long we could hear them scampering 
around our tents.  Jeff made it a daily ritual to count the mice he found in 
his backpack each morning.  On one morning I watched him shake 6 mice out of 
it.  Posters everywhere warning that the mice have Hantavirus made the whole 
problem just that much more interesting.

On Saturday morning, the group headed to Potato Harbor.  Jeff lead some of 
the group through the rock gardens and caves, while some of the others fished.
Jeff just amazed me!  About a dozen times on this trip, I followed him 
through rock gardens and caves that I didn't think a kayak could squeeze 
through.  Following him really improved my rock garden and cave paddling 
skills, but a few times I simply didn't have the guts to stay on his stern.

One of my favorite caves this day was Seal Canyon Cave, which is one mile 
west of Cavern Point.  What was so appealing about this cave was that it was 
an amazing 620 feet long, making it one of the longer ones on the island.  It 
was also narrow and dark.  In this cave, Mike Powell capsized and lost his 
light in the water.  He could see it illuminating the water at the bottom and 
tried diving for it, but he was unable to reach it in the deep and surging 
water.

Another one of my favorite caves this day was the Surging "T" Cave, which 
goes through a point about a quarter mile northeast of Potato Harbor.  It is 
354 feet long and fairly wide.  What was so appealing about it was the rough 
water inside.  On the west opening, large sets of waves broke into it, 
causing waves to refract inside.  It was sort of like a washing machine in 
there.  On the way to Potato Harbor and back, some of us passed through it, 
and we had to time going in and out the west opening between sets.  Jay 
Williams did something a little different by leaving through a side opening 
on one of the times he passed through.

There was some real sport with an arch on the north point of Potato Harbor.  
With the tide and swell, the arch was high enough to pass through in a wave 
trough, but the crest was slamming it shut.  Jeff appropriately referred to 
it as the "Guillotine."
Jeff went through it and even made it look easy.  Mike Powell, Jay Williams 
and I studied it a while.  Then Mike went for it.  A current pushed him to 
one side, and he ended up missing the arch and slamming his bow against one 
side of it.  It was enough to persuade him to not try again.  It also 
persuaded me not to try.  Jay decided against giving it a shot too.

The whole group meet up in Potato Harbor, where we landed on a beach and ate 
lunch.  After lunch, a few of us entertained ourselves by kayak surfing on 
the beach break in the harbor.  Rick Rubio won the honor of riding the 
biggest wave, but he ended up paying for it by eating it.  We also watched in 
what seemed like slow motion as he rode another wave straight into a rock the 
size of a car.  The carnage in the surf really made for a lot of good laughs.

On the way back from Potato Harbor, Jeff passed through the "Guillotine" 
again.  Jay managed to muster enough courage this time and made a pass 
through it.  Once again, Mike and I studied it and ended up paddling around 
the point.

That evening everyone was glad to have kayak anglers in the group.  Jim 
Gabriel, Ernie Argleben, and Rick Rubio caught enough fish for everyone to 
eat.  Ernie cooked it on a fire we were allowed to have on the beach at 
Scorpion Bay.  He even provided marshmallows to roast afterwards.  Having the 
fire on the beach was nice, because the winds were strong and cold that night.

On Sunday most of the group paddled to Smugglers Cove.  There were more rock 
gardens and caves on the way, and of course, Jeff managed to find every one 
of them.  We had some surf to content with at Smugglers Cove, but everyone 
made a dry landing.  Mel Merlin and Jay Williams hiked to the cove and met us 
there.  After lunch and a walk around the old ranch there, we launched 
through the surf with just one paddler in the group capsizing but making it 
just fine on the second attempt.  The weather was really calm and the sun 
even came out for the paddle back.  Four women in the group, Holly Davis, 
Susan Saraf, Claudia Graham and Marcia Grace, stopped at a beach along the 
way for some snorkeling.

On this day my favorite cave was Little Scorpion Bay Cave # 5.  It is on the 
larger of the two small islands in Scorpion Bay.  It is 180 feet long and was 
very calm inside on this day. Much of the water was illuminated by sunlight 
from underwater openings.  This illumination made the water glow beautifully 
in a bluish green florescence.

Susan Saraf had a great victory on this day.  Throughout the trip she was 
trying hard to catch a fish from her kayak.  Despite a couple of 
disappointing days, she remained persistent, and on the last afternoon of the 
trip, she landed a calico bass.  She cleaned it and was proud to make her 
contribution to the fish that everyone ate that night.

Silvia Stevenson decided to relax on the water that afternoon by tying her 
sit-on-top kayak to some kelp and laying back.  She ended up falling asleep.  
When she woke up, she found about a hundred tiny sea creatures inside her 
kayak and on her body.  Not knowing what these tiny sea creatures were, she 
felt the need to get them off her body and kayak quickly.  To help wash them 
off the kayak, especially around the seat, she straddled the stern.  After 
she told this story back at camp, Ernie Argleben said that while he was 
fishing, he saw her straddling the stern from a distance and thought she was 
relieving herself, so he quickly looked away.

That last night we had some mice infestation humor as we were trying to 
sleep. Some of us had mice scratching on our tents and had to hit the tent 
walls to scare the mice off.  Most of us couldn't help but laugh every time 
we heard the sound of someone hitting his or her tent wall.  The mice were 
driving us nuts, and it really helped to have some humor about it.

The weather forecast for Monday was good, so Jim and I decided to paddle the 
crossing back.  We launched in calm weather at 7:00am and had 5 miles of 
visibility most of the way.  We let one ship pass in front of us.  Later, we 
spotted another ship that was heading straight for us.  We planned to keep 
paddling and let it pass behind us, but it changed course, and we ended up 
having to let it pass in front of us.  It was a treat to watch dolphins 
jumping from the ship's bow wave.  On the second half of the crossing, we had 
some choppy conditions, but the wind and waves were giving us a nice push 
from behind.  We landed at 1:30pm, making for 6 1/2 hour crossings both ways.

On behalf of the entire group, I would like to thank Jeff for another great 
trip!

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