Santa Cruz Island, Prisoners' Harbour Aug 22, 2006 -1700hrs (Leigh)

On our last night before we arrived at the Channel Islands we had visitors, probably dolphins, surfing our bow wave for at least 20 minutes. We could see their glowing trails in the phosphorescence as they shot toward the bow to surf the wave. It was nice to have a diversion in the middle of the night. It made me wonder how many other nights we had visitors but couldn't see them or hear them over the normal ocean noise. As we got close to the islands we were greeted by seals. They're energetic and friendly here. They would surf our wake, swim next to us and then jump out of the water or just stick their head out to check us out. Great to see friendly sea life.
Last night was our first "can in pan" dinner. Peter said it was great. He just doesn't know about my early childhood glop training! We've been enjoying the sun and warm water now that we are officially in S. Cal. I swam yesterday and today. The water is great for cooling off but not quite tropical yet. We did see some Manta Rays as we paddled back to our boat this afternoon. The activities planned for tomorrow are a hike to the ranger station and campground (7 mi. round trip - toward the east end of the island) and more swimming if it's sunny. (Now this beats a day at the office compared to those night watches on the trip to get here!) It was interesting to arrive here at noon because there was a flurry of activity as the arriving people and supplies were loaded off the parks department boat and the people who were ready to leave the island were picked up. They use a crane to load all of the gear in huge canvas totes, big enough to hold a couple of motorcycles, and then the people climb down the ladder on the side of the pier and jump on to the boat. It requires skill from the captain as they didn't tie to the dock and, obviously, agility from the passengers. There's also a concessionaire who transports people between islands for camping etc. As soon as those boats were gone the island residents (Navy, National park rangers and Nature Conservancy people) all drove their trucks away and left us and the 3 other boats at anchor. It has been a great visit, we don't expect to have this much privacy as we head toward LA and San Diego! We might head over to Anacapa Island in a day or two. We heard "Frenchy's Cove" is supposed to be good for snorkeling and diving.
We've had trouble with radio propagation in the last couple of days but Peter updated his propagation program for our latest location and hopefully it will get easier. We actually have very limited phone service here but radio still seems to be our best bet.