Schooner Martha Adventures: Snorkeling the Channel Islands

Thursday, Oct. 16^th – We sailed off the hook this morning to make our way to Johnsons Lee, also on Santa Rosa. We had a pretty strong north westerly come up but we anchored up safely and held tight. With the swell we couldn’t go ashore but we got to kayak around and look at all the sea lions. Which were on every beach and would have made landing quite difficult (they are very territorial). We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had an early dinner and slept well with a little less rollyness.

Friday, Oct. 17^th – We had an early breakfast before setting sail for Albert’s Anchorage on Santa Cruz. We got to sail almost all the way except for a quick 20 min to get back into the wind. We then cruised along with a beam wind at 8 and 9 knots! Martha’s happy speed as I like to call it. The sun was shinning and the wind was blowing, we are hoping Transpac is like that too J. We got to Albert’s to find out another boat had beat us there and the anchorage is small enough we went next door to Coches Prietos, which means “black pigs” in Spanish. We spent the afternoon relaxing, swimming and kayaking around. We went snorkeling to try and find the anchor(almost succeeding) and played around with the GoPro’s we have on board. It was the perfect last day of the trip.

Saturday, Oct. 18^th – We motored out this morning due to lack of wind to head back to Oxnard. But we saw another whale! Not a blue whale but he/she was still pretty cool. We were all tied up by 1 and we got the end of a boaters swap meet in hopes to find a little anchor for our small boat to be able to anchor close to shore and then swim in to hike and play! No luck there, but it was still pretty cool to walk around and see what people had. We spent the afternoon doing laundry, grocery shopping and working on my blog. Pictures, pictures and more pictures to sort through!

Sunday, Oct. 19^th – More blog work! And one more load of laundry before heading to Santa Barbara! We motor-sailed most of the way there and anchored up just before dark, though it took a couple tries to get the anchor to grab bottom! Such is the life of a sailor! It was quite the rolly night, as the anchorage at Santa Barbara is not very protected.

Monday, Oct. 20^th -- I am not one to complain, but that first night was rolly and pitchy, and in the most chaotic way possible. I didn’t get much sleep as I was trying to predict the next roll direction to no avail. Weeeee…thunk! as you hit the wall. We had breakfast and succeeded to have nothing fall off the table and then occupied ourselves putting seizing’s on the lifelines to prevent chafe. The main sheet (the line that controls the angle of the sail) rubs the most aft of the lifelines and we put seine twine around the whole thing to prevent it from chafing the lifelines (see picture). After we finished that project up we headed into shore to check out Santa Barbara and find ice cream! Annie and I ended up walked 4 miles round trip to find it, but it was fantastic, and utterly perfect (no pun intended)! The walk took us along the water front and then past the zoo and a wetland/bird preserve, beautiful. The ice cream placed was called “Rori’s Artisanal Creamery”. I had honey lavender and fresh peppermint patty ice cream. And the peppermint patty was delicious (honey lavender too) but you could tell it was made with fresh mint and cream, not chemicals. So, so, so yummy.

Tuesday, Oct. 21^st – Craig and Vicky came to visit us and we got the spend the day with them exploring the city! We headed up to the mission district, with its gorgeous old buildings and architecture. It is the oldest functioning mission in California! After exploring there, we headed into town to find some lunch and found Tupelo Junction Café! We found another Rori’s after lunch (because everyone else needed to experience the amazingness of it) and this time it was “Worms in Dirt”. Dutch chocolate ice cream with brownie bits and gummy worms! We explored an art store and found colored envelopes! Walking along the water, we found a great park and a carousel! Built in 1916 with all the original horses and the music, still run by the same family. We had to ride and it was just like childhood, you can imagine the smile that was permanently plastered on my face. With a stop at the playground (they had big full size cement whales to play on!) we had to say goodbye to Craig and Vicky until next spring. We miss you already! Annie and I stayed onshore a little longer to delay going back to the rolls and walked the break wall to watch the surfers and boogie boarders at the point break as the end of the wall. That night we did end up setting a second anchor after the struggle of getting back onto the boat with the size of the swell that had rolled in the day before. We are all going to sleep much better.

Wednesday, Oct. 22^nd – we spent the day on the boat getting little projects done. We got the leather sewed onto the tack of the Jib (to prevent chafe) and made two new reef pendant lines. Our main sail has two reef points so we can reduce the amount of sail we have up. There is a line attached to the leech and a line thread through the pendant point on the luff. The lines for the luff points were starting to chafe, so I made new ones! Cutting and splicing, cutting and splicing. It was a fairly quiet day.

Thursday, Oct. 23^rd – I spent the morning re-splicing and tensioning the lifelines with Annie. For Transpac, we have to meet a certain requirement for the tension of our lifelines. I cant remember it exactly but it is something close to you can only stretch the lifeline two inches for every 10 lbs or something like that. After lunch we ashore for more playing and to find a post office and eat ice cream! I spent another afternoon/evening sitting on the break wall watching the surfers and Annie and Mary playing in the surf. It was quite beautiful as the sun went down (except for the large cruise ship that joined us today).

Friday, Oct. 24^th – We decided to head into the dock early because they had space and that way we could hook up to power on the dock and vacuum! Martha got a very good fresh water scrub, much needed. However, before this could happen, we had to haul back both of our anchors. Our main anchor came up just fine but the stern anchor gave us a lot more trouble. We had somehow managed to hook a line around the fluke of the anchor. And an eye-splice non the less! This line was a little bigger than my wrist in diameter, rather hefty line. We guessed that it was an old mooring line. Cutting was not going to work as we could only get the anchor/line within twenty feet of the surface. Annie and Mary saved the day and we were able to flip the anchor over and Annie pushed the line off the side of the fluke. I am in the process of putting together a GoPro video of the whole thing, stay tuned! After the mornings excitement, we did a good clean and got a couple of chores done before having a relaxing. I spent the afternoon catching up on work before taking a dip in the cool water after a hot day!

Saturday, Oct. 25^th – We planned on grocery shopping in the morning and then vacuum in the evening but we ended up getting a lot more groceries than planned. We made two big trips with all our bags loaded up. We also found a small portable printer which is perfect for weather faxes and the like. We also found the Tri-County Produce store, with a bulk section and lots and lots of fresh fruits and veggies! We walked thorugh a big event called “Open Streets” with lots of vendors and the like advertising their products. It is focused on a mind, body, soul type of thing to help with youth get active in their community and outdoors. It was neat to walk through and be able to get a little bit of sense of the Santa Barbara community. We did stop for Italian Ice on the way back! After the day full of groceries we were too pooped out for anything else and decided to swim and shower instead. Annie’s mom arrived tonight and I walked up the train station to get her, latest we have stayed up in a long time!

Sunday, Oct. 26^th – We spent the morning vacuuming and getting the boat ready to head out to the islands. We left around noon and had an AWESOME sail to Santa Cruz. The pressure was up and we cruised down the waves. It was howling as we rounded the far corner of the island to tuck ourselves up into Smugglers Cove. It was quite exciting striking sail! It was howling up until early evening before the wind died down. We slept well after a big day of sailing.

Monday, Oct. 27^th – We left Smugglers early this morning to maximize play time at Albert’s Anchorage, which is just a tiny little place behind a big rock wall and perfect snorkeling. I played with the GoPro scaring the fish (not on purpose) while they snorkeled (we only have a couple) but jumped in to swim and scrub down Martha’s sides after the gross muck of Santa Barbara. After lunch we got the boat ready to get underway for the night sail to Catalina Island. We spend the rest of the afternoon napping and reading.

Tuesday, Oct. 28^th – We had a gorgeous starry night for the overnight sail to Catalina. We sailed for a while but the wind slowly dissipated and we slowly motored the rest of the way, but it was much nicer with the seaway we had! We had two watches of three people each and did three hour watches, which is the perfect amount of time. We take shifts at the helm and doing the hourly log. We made it to Catalina Harbor around 9:30 and had to pick up a mooring because the anchoring area was not great. After a snack/lunch we took a quick nap before setting off to hike up the ridge. What we hiked could not be called a hike, it was a couple mile rock scramble straight up. My poor knees hated me by the time we got to the top, but it was worth it. It felt like we were on top of the world. The view was stunning, a bay dotted with fishing boats and the rock face out over the ocean. Seeing these things is a dream, I have no words to describe its beauty properly. We made our way down (a road thankfully), though no easier on my knees. For those of you that don’t know, I have problems with hills and my knees. I don’t have enough of a meniscus and my bone rubs together and it makes me knees do these weird popping things. Anyway, we found ice cream in the little general store in the town by Catalina Harbor (called Isthmus). A yummy treat after a hot hike! On the way back to the boat we found a swing set and not one, but three rope swings! We decided to come back to shore to spend a more adequate amount of time swinging.

Wednesday, Oct. 29^th – After an early breakfast, we went shore to play a little bit more on the swings and walk around a little bit more of the town. The rope swings were amazing, one nestled in a grove of eucalyptus trees. We motored a couple miles down the coast to Little Harbor to anchor up. We tucked ourselves in behind a reef and next to the beach, completely idyllic beach and snorkeling. I paddled around on the paddle board and stuck my head in the water occasionally while the others snorkeled around. We climbed up the bluff and then body surfed in the waves at Shark Harbor for another hour. On the way back to the boat, Annie and I did a search for underlying water hazards but found nothing but sand and kelp! After a dinner of pesto pasta and peanut sauce coleslaw, we all promptly fell asleep!

Thursday, Oct. 30^th – we half motored/half sailed around the end of the Island to check out Avalon Harbor for Friday and then anchored up at Buttonshell Beach for the afternoon and evening. After a long day in the sun at Little Harbor, I took it easy in the afternoon reading and enjoying the clouds that graced us with their presence. Annie and I decided to swim which resulted in being covered in Gooseberry Jellyfish stings, no fun. The water is unseasonably warm here and that brings in the jellies, which are small enough that you can not see them in the water. But you sure can feel them, they have quite the sting for such a small animal! We covered ourselves in meat tenderizer (which was quite a sight) and then rinsed and covered ourselves in apply cider vinegar to reduce itchiness. It helped quite a bit but it was a little bit of an itchy night.

Friday, Oct. 31^st – Happy Halloween!! We had an early breakfast before Annie, Kim and set out on the paddle board and kayaks to check out the rocky area on the other side of the bay with the caves, fish and coral, and they were beautiful! The state fish of California, the Garibaldi, is everywhere around there. It is a vibrant orange/gold color and loves to hide itself in the seaweed. We paddled around the point to find a secluded, magical rock beach to build cairns and listen to the sound of the water in rocks. It was hard to leave that beach, but we had to get to Avalon for Halloween! We motored the couple miles down and picked up a mooring (in a very tight harbor) and spent the day ashore exploring and I found a pair of fins, snorkel and mask! Can’t wait to use them! Later in the afternoon, we caught the parade of all the trick or treaters, too cute! Mary was dressed up at Zoro, from the Mask of Zoro and she had quite the entourage for tick or treating as we walked up and down the streets filled with quant little houses. And then it rained!! Woohoo!!

Saturday, Nov. 1^st – After a beautiful night of rain, the air smelled so fresh. I didn’t realize how much I missed that smell and feel of the air. And I’m sure that California was mighty happy as well for the sorely needed rain. We sailed from Avalon over to Newport Beach and almost passed through another couple of squalls, but the pressure was up and we sailed all the way! We fueled up and found out from the locals which were the places to check out and then anchored off the end of Lido Island for the night (Newport harbor is huge! Two or three islands inside the harbor itself).

Sunday, Nov. 2^nd -- A quiet morning around the boat before we headed into one of the public docks so that an old owner of Martha family could come and visit and see the boat. In the afternoon, Annie’s family came aboard (cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma) for a day sail and it was beautiful! The sun was shinning and the pressure was up and we cruised along happily enjoying the wind on our faces. After the sail, Rosie and I went off with them to have dinner and spend the night off the boat (which as much as I love spending time on Martha, I also really enjoyed a night off).

Monday, Nov. 3^rd – We cruised around Newport and Laguna Beach with Annie and her cousin in the morning before heading back to the boat to get some projects done and we got two more sections of the lifelines seized! We are slowly, but surely working on getting things done and ready for next summer. After dinner and a game of scrabble/banana grams, I conked out!

Tuesday, Nov. 4^th – We hauled back anchor early and went dockside so that the guy from Challenge Sail Cloth (they gave us a greatly reduced price on cloth to build all new sails for this year) so that he could see Martha and her beautiful new sails! After that we headed back out to Catalina and anchored up at Whites Landing for the night, just before dark. With daylight savings time it gets dark so early L

Wednesday, Nov 5^th – After breakfast, we had a work around the boat morning and I worked on seizing another section of the lifelines and replacing the head gasket line for the forestaysail. We use a line to tie the head of the sail down so that it can’t fly away and we can tension up the halyards so that they don’t bang on the mast/rigging. After lunch we headed into shore to do some snorkeling! My new gear worked perfectly. It is amazing how much faster you can move with fins! The sea life was fantastic. The Garibaldi, were beautiful, even with their wrinkled foreheads. The juvenile are the same vibrant orange/gold color but with electric blue spots on their tail and back. I saw small orange turning to blue that sparkled in the sun filtering down through the water. I saw a tiny pyrosome, no bigger than my fingernail and round in shape. I saw a tiny pink ball surrounded by a clear orb floating along the surface. It was truly spectacular. Just letting yourself relax fully and be pulled in and out with the surge. I had a Garibaldi swim right under my face and it was as if he was asking me what I was doing in his part of the world. There is no way to truly capture the beauty of snorkeling and underwater sea life. All I can hope is that anyone reading this will be given the opportunity to snorkel someday and you can see for yourself. Sailing to Santa Cruz tonight.

Thursday, Nov. 6^th – With an almost full moon we motor—sailed to Santa Cruz last night. It was a beautiful night with the moon lighting up the whole deck, we didn’t even need our headlamps. When I came up on watch at 6am, the moon was just setting behind the corner of Santa Cruz. It was huge and a beautiful pale rose color as it slowly disappeared and the sun rose behind us and colored the sky a magnificent shade of purple, pinks, and oranges. We anchored up in Albert’s by 7 and had breakfast before taking a nap. I worked on blog things, writing letter and postcards and organizing my things (which I should really do more often). If you haven’t gotten a letter or postcard it is probably because I don’t have your address. If you would like some, email/text/message me your mailing address J. Later in the afternoon, annie and I paddled boarded around to Coches Prietos to do some snorkeling and beach walking. We saw some fishies, the water was unfortunately not as clear. We did some great schools of fish. Swimming through them is a blast. They get very confused but quickly reassemble. Walking the beach, I found two pieces of Abalone shell and then one huge full shell (a little bit bigger then my hand!). I also found some great shells to make necklaces out of, Christmas presents! We had a early dinner and then played a couple rounds of Liverpool Rummy, a new favorite thanks to Annie’s family!

Friday, Nov. 7^th – We had breakfast underway and left early for Scorpion to maximize boat work and play time. I did a deep scrub of the cockpit seats and then put leather on the boat falls to prevent chafe (see pictures). I spent the rest of the day relaxing and writing letters. We had a short shore excursion but the beach is rather combed over and it was getting dark. We had a slightly restless night as the wind came up strong and from an odd angle. We ended up pulling up our stern anchor in the middle of the night.

Saturday, Nov 8^th – We hauled back early and set sail for Oxnard. We decided to practice our skills and set the spinnaker! We cruised almost all the way to Oxnard with just the staysails and spinnaker but eventually the wind died all together and we motored. Coming into the harbor and the entrance was quite exciting with the think pea soup fog. We couldn’t see the break-wall until we were right next to it and the harbor entrance is a big backwards s shape to enter. But we successfully made it in and docked up at the Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club. We gave Martha a good fresh water scrub and rinse before attacking some of the varnish in the cockpit. Good friends in Oxnard invited Annie, Rosie and I over for a barbeque while Robert, Holly and Mary were at a wedding thing.

Sunset welcoming us into Santa Barbara

Walking the beach in Santa Barbara

The sunsets were gorgeous every single night in Santa Barbara, amazing color and cloud formations.

We found Chula! Vickie and Mary at the mission district.

The mission

Bathing fountain at the mission

I have been eating my asparagus! Just kidding, but it does look like one.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! The architecture is amazing (even if the pink isn't)

The Carousel!

The following are just some shots of the park and playground we found in Santa Barbara

If I were ever to own a schooner, it would be this one. Beautiful lines.

Another beautiful sunset in Santa Barbara!

Annie's castle :)

Sunny, the cat, owns the dock in Santa Barbara and comes to inspect every new boat (and take a nap :)

This enormous tree is behind the train station in Santa Barbara

Sunrise welcoming us to Catalina Island!

Best rope swing in a grove of Eucalyptus trees

Sea lions like to hang out like this when not lounging on shore to fishing. They put their fins up in the air and just float along in a group, pretty cute!