Santa Cruz Island, >From Smuggler's to Prisoner's There were 30 participants for Jeff McNair's Santa Cruz Island campout, which was Friday, August 17 through Monday, August 20. Thanks to the Islander, the new catamaran boat at Island Packers, the ride from Ventura Harbor to Santa Cruz Island couldn't have been any easier. At an amazing speed of over 20 knots, the ride took just over an hour, including a couple of stops to watch dolphins. The catamaran hull made the ride smooth too. The rack system on the stern of the boat made storing, loading and unloading the kayaks easy, safe and fast. Also making the trip easier was the pier in Scorpion Cove at the island. In the past, we had to shuttle people and gear between the boat and shore in a dingy, which was tedious and time consuming. The pier, put in by the National Park Service, made the unloading of people and gear fast and easy. Chip Hoffman and Debbie Machain crossed over to the island on Chip's new 18 foot hard bottom inflatable with a 50 horse power motor. They were able to bring their two kayaks, scuba gear, and all of their camping gear on it. The kayaks were stored on an overhead rack. After setting up camp and having lunch on Friday, almost everyone formed small groups and went kayaking into the dozens of sea caves in the nearby area. Jeff and I, as well as some others, headed east first. My favorite cave in this area was Little Scorpion Bay Cave # 1, which was 210 feet long, narrow, dark and has a beach at the end. The powerful dive lights were handy in there. Jeff, Clifton Kayano, Tom Camp, Mike Rokowski and I then headed west against choppy sea and strong winds. We went into a lot of caves along the way, including West Cavern Point Cave, which was a large, spacious chamber that was 262 feet long. With the poor conditions, we headed west only as far as the sea stack, were there was another cave, which of course was called Sea Stack Cave. I had heard of a lot of people getting thrashed in there, and with the rough conditions, I decided to stay out. Tom and Mike stayed with me, while Jeff and Clifton ventured through. They made it through but not without some scrapes on their arms. Back in camp just before dinner, I gathered a group of about a dozen people, and we went on the short hike up to Cavern Point to see the view from there. That night Jeff and Clifton went for a paddle in the dark. With the cold and breezy conditions, no one else was interested in going with them, but a bunch of us saw them off from the beach. I slept well that night, maybe too well, because in the morning I was told that several feral pigs visited camp in the middle of the night. Camp stoves and coolers were overturned by the pigs. One of the pigs was seen dragging a backpack. Campers had to drive the pigs away. On Saturday morning, Jeff, Clifton, Tom, Mike and I went on a hike to Potato Harbor. From the cliffs above the harbor, we had a clear view of Chinese and Prisoner's Harbors, where we were planning on paddling to the next day. After the hike, the five of us paddled around the east end of the island to Smuggler's Cove, which was a distance of 3 1/2 NM. We had calm conditions and sunshine the whole way. I landed through the 2-3 foot surf first to take photos of any carnage, but everyone landed fine. I did get to see some carnage shortly afterwards, when a couple on an inflatable dingy from a sail boat came in for a landing. Paddling the slow dingy, the couple wasn't able to time the waves, and one hit them just right, knocking them over. They were laughing as they pulled the dingy up on the beach. The five of us explored the olive groves and ranch house at Smuggler's Cove and had lunch there. Once again there wasn't any carnage when we launched through the surf to head back to our campsite at Scorpion Ranch. I did receive some reports of carnage for the day. Anneli Kyner was playing in a rock garden, became caught on the edge of a rock and tipped as the wave crest passed. She ejected and was able to swim out of the mess. Her kayak washed out soon afterwards. Even though she was able to quickly get back in the kayak on her own, it didn't do her any good, because it sat too low in the water for her to pump it. The cause of the problem was that her Necky Looksha Sport LV didn't have a front bulkhead and she didn't have enough floatation in the bow. In the past, she had a floatation bag in the bow, but it blew out on the freeway. Until she could get another bag, she just stuffed a couple of life jackets up there, and they turned out to not be enough. Joe Kramp and Roger Halter were there to help Anneli. They performed a rafted T rescue, and it took all of Joe and Roger's strength, even with Anneli pushing and pulling in the water, to lift the flooded kayak up onto the two rafted ones and drain the water out of it. Chip swam too. He was in Seal Canyon Cave, which is 620 feet long, and in the surging water of the cave, his undeployed rudder became hung up on a rock wall, causing him to capsize and eject. He was only in a few feet of water and was able to quickly get back inside the kayak on his own. Saturday evening was the Hawaiian theme potluck dinner. Not all of the food was Hawaiian, but it was all good, and there was plenty of it too. With a lot of the people bringing stoves and ice chests, there was a lot of fancy cooking going on, and you couldn't have asked for a better potluck on the mainland. Not only was there food, but there was entertainment too. Jeff dawned a fake mustache, and with Debbie and Catherine Ritter as props, he read a comical romantic poem which was handed down to him by his father. There was a round of joke telling too, and of course, as each joke was told, the bar was lowered. Then there was the visit by someone with a blond wig and coconut shell bra, who had masculine features and feminine gestures, and tried to flirt with the men before they were scared off. I guess I don't have to say that there was plenty of alcohol at the potluck too. Jeff and Clifton were able to recruit some other kayakers for a night paddle on Saturday. Joining them were Ellen Linder, John Bacon, Jay Williams, Jay Amshey, and Catherine. They had cool but calm conditions and said the bioluminescence in the water was beautiful. On Sunday morning, Jeff, Clifton, Tom, Mike and I launched in our kayaks early to head for Prisoner's Harbor, which is in the area recently acquired by the National Park Service from the Nature Conservancy. When the Nature Conservancy owned the property, you couldn't land there without a permit, so this area was newly opened territory. When we launched, I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to Prisoner's Harbor. The fog was thick, limiting our visibility to around 200 yards, so we had to hug the coastline to find our way. The thought of paddling in such low visibility in an unfamiliar area was a bit spooky. In addition to the fog, we had choppy conditions. We could handle the chop, but it wasn't the kind of water I wanted to paddle in very far. I wondered how long the chop was going to last. Along the way, we stopped to go in Seal Canyon Cave, which is a very long, narrow, and dark cave. Afterwards, Jeff and I were looking the large opening of the Thrashing T Cave next, and were shocked when we saw the Guillotine at Potato Harbor and realized we passed it. That's just how thick the fog was! We decided to catch the Thrashing T Cave on the way back, and we all passed through the Guillotine, which is an arch that is closed in the crest of a wave and opened in the trough. You have to time it to pass through, or else your head will get cut off. Well, not quite! After Potato Harbor, the chop was gone, but we had a large surf coming in along Chinese Harbor. We wondered how bad the surf was going to be a Prisoner's Harbor, where we planned to land. Past Chinese Harbor, there were a lot of coves, and we wondered how much farther left to Prisoner's Harbor. In the trip information sheet, Jeff wrote that the paddle to Prisoner's Harbor was going to be 10 miles one way. I took his word for it and didn't bring a chart. While we were paddling, Jeff said he wasn't sure if he measured the distance right, so we didn't know just how far we had to paddle. As we kept paddling, Chip came by in his inflatable boat. With him were Debbie, Catherine and Ellen. They were heading to Painted Cave, the largest sea cave in the world. It is toward the west end of the island and out of normal kayak range from Scorpion Cove. We chatted for a few minutes, and then they took off. Soon afterwards, the lush green valley and the pier at Prisoner's Harbor emerged from the fog. The paddle took only three hours. Even better, there was no surf, thanks to the beach facing northeast. We had lunch there, walked around, took photos and then headed back. On the way back, Tom, Mike and I went into fast touring mode and completed the paddle back in 2 hours and 20 minutes. The actual one way distance, which I measured later, was 8 nautical miles. Along the way, we made a pass through the Surging T Cave, which was easy to find with the increased visibility. Also, Chip and his passengers came back by in the inflatable. They found Painted Cave and had fun exploring it and some of the coves along the way. Jeff and Clifton took their time paddling back. They explored every cave and rock garden along the way, which was why they spent 4 hours getting back. On the paddle back, they made another pass through the Sea Stack Cave and Clifton ended up swimming. A wave washed him up on a wall, and he capsized as he came back down. Jeff went in the cave to get him. Cliff held the stern toggle of Jeff's kayak with one hand and the bow toggle of his own kayak with the other hand, while Jeff towed him out of the cave. Jim Gabriel did a lot of fishing on the trip. He caught some huge calico bass. On Sunday, with the four fish he caught that day, and a couple more caught by Rick Rubio and Roger, they were able to cook enough fish for everyone. It tasted delicious! On Monday morning, everyone broke camp and did their own thing, either kayaking, hiking or fishing, and then talked while waiting for the boat. The boat ride back was on the Sunfish. It wasn't as nice as the catamaran, but it did the job just fine. Thank you, Jeff, for another great trip! Duane Strosaker *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:23 PDT