Sailing to Little Harbor on Catalina Island onboard SV Triteia

Good morning. First night on a boat. How was it? First night you slept while we motored, but yeah. First night sleeping under anchor. Very rolly. Got up in the middle of the night, moved the rocker stopper out to the end of the boom. It was less rolly after that, but pretty good night's sleep. We didn't drag anchor or anything. A dive boat showed up this morning. That's my buddy from the marina. He's tied up a slip, two slips away from me. Most people have cleared out. We're going to have some breakfast and try to do some drone footage. And then head out to Catalina. We're going to circumnavigate this little island. So we're going to cruise around it to the back side. See what we saw from the sea that we saw yesterday from up top. And then head for a little harbor on Catalina Island. Man, this place is very desolate and cloudy. Very cloudy. Last night in the middle of the night when I got up it was very foggy. But other than that, pretty cool. I'm trying to... I'm not trying. I plan on anchoring at all of the channel islands in the whole chain. So it's good to check another one off the list. So that's it. Time to make coffee. Morning! I think you need some oars. How was the passage? It was alright. Less wind than I would have liked. Yeah, there was no wind yesterday. Can I come forward? Yeah, for sure. Oh, I got a gate over here. Dude, it's so funny. When you pulled in last night, I was like, holy ----. See, I saw the Alba and Vega and I was like... Alba over 30, is that what it is? Yeah. I recognized the boat, but it looked like it was a different color in the dark. I was like, no way. And then I woke up and it's blue. I was like, doesn't it start with tri... something or another? Oh, that's awesome. So Sam's on a... it's a 26 foot ranger? A 23 foot ranger. 23 foot ranger! What's the name of the boat? It's Yardbird. Yardbird. And we're tied up right by each other in Newmarch. And it's amazing that we ran into each other out here. Just crazy. And you're heading to Santa Cruz tonight? Probably this afternoon. I'm not sure how long it'll take. I want to show up there sometime during daylight. Yeah, do you know how many miles it is? Not off the top of my head, yeah. It's a jog and there's nothing between here and there. Yeah. Safe travels to Santa Cruz. ------- wild man. Hey, you guys go a lot faster that way. Yeah, much faster this way. See ya. Santa Barbara Island is a small island 35 nautical miles from the California coast. It is the smallest in the Channel Islands chain. Only a mile and a half wide and a mile long. It is entirely treeless and covered in gently sloping grassland that meets the sea as cliffs. A number of endemic plants and a rare night lizard call the island home. There is also a large sea lion rookery on the western side just past Arch Point and is a great nesting habitat for seabirds including the world's largest breeding colonies of the rare Scripps murrelets. We looked these birds up, they're small and they look like they're wearing penguin outfits. The highest peak on Santa Barbara Island is Signal Hill that stands 634 feet above the sea and gives sweeping 360 degree views. Sutil Island, which is more of a very big rock, sits just off the island's southernmost edge. Native American peoples, probably the Chumash and the Tongva, occupied Santa Barbara Island periodically for millennia. Archaeological sites dating to as much as 4,000 years ago have been documented on the island which may have served as a stopover or refuge point for voyagers between the mainland and other Channel Islands. Today there is a ranger station and only those rangers and the occasional campers and cruisers visit Santa Barbara Island. Even fewer people visit now since the landing was washed out in a storm. Even though it's a little lonely, we're looking forward to coming back someday especially to dive the immense kelp beds surrounding this tiny chunk of California. Skinny dipping. Is it cold? How cold is it? Getting ready to haul up and head out. Camille's taking a dip. It's a little breezy. It's going to be cold when she gets out. The dive boat's leaving and we're going to head off for Catalina. We're going to cruise around and see what the backside's got. Time to haul up. Pulling up the rocker stopper which keeps us from rolling too much. I ordered a mushroom anchor which is a little lightweight anchor but it didn't come in in time. So Camille came to the rescue. Eight pound barbell as our anchor. We left the anchorage, got the hook up. A little breezy over here. We're going to cruise around, see what there is to see and then sail for Catalina. It got dark again, unfortunately. No, it feels nice. I was sweating getting that anchor up. It was a lot easier with Camille. She was able to motor towards it. That would have been a gnarly way to get it up by myself like I did in Santa Cruz. Quite a bit of wind coming on the nose so it wasn't as easy. I had really calm conditions there, lucked out I think. Camille did a great job. First time at the helm, helping me get the anchor up. Good team. Shiite rock. There's caves right there too, you see them? Tell me when to turn up here when... You see that LA kelp ahead of us? Oh yeah, I see them up there. Oh, you see them on that beach right there? Right? It's like a nursery I guess. Isn't it pretty? 24 feet of water. 23, 22, 20, 19, 20, 19. Set our compass course, we're heading for Catalina. Goodbye Santa Barbara Island. You're a weird one. Breaking right there. We're going to come back to dive though, right? We're going to come back and dive. This island would be really good for diving. We'll take a dive boat though so we'll have more options of getting tied in. Let them worry about running aground. Hear them? There's so many of them. Oh yeah, what an estuary. We're in a pretty big pod. Sunset colors, but the sun's not that low, right? They're doing stunts over there. Oh, you see them splashing their tail? Oh, that's a baby. Must be a school of fish right there. Wow. Look at those crazy flashing lights on the island straight ahead. More dolphins, huh? So it's almost 8.30. We're coming into Little Harbor in the dark. It's a bummer, it's nighttime, but it is what it is. I've never anchored in the dark so it's going to be a learning curve. Luckily we have Navionics, which makes life easier so we can see where we are on the iPad. And there seems to be a little anchor light. I would imagine it's an anchor light of a sailboat. So we're heading into there, going to try to sound our way around, see where we want to drop the hook. We have the good luck that there's no wind and no swell, so it should be easy on that front. Yeah, first nighttime anchoring adventure. Let's hope it goes well. If you liked our video, please give it a thumbs up. And subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Until next time. Hello everyone. This is James on board SV Tritea with Camille. Hello. We're under anchor at Santa Barbara Island of the Channel Islands of California. The sun has finally broken through the marine layer. There have been seals playing about and seagulls hollering in the sky. And you're listening to a Sternview podcast. Did you say you lost your oars? Yeah, me and a co-worker, we went to Avalon Saturday. I did some scuba diving. We used to have two of these dinghies and one set of oars. And then he came back too drunk and didn't tie up the dinghy so it floated away with the oars. That sucks. So that's my oars. But I don't know. I feel like maybe just using some fins off the back with my feet maybe would be better. Yeah, might be. So the two-person version of this we had, that one actually paddled okay with the oars. But this one, there's not enough room. I think they're too close together or they're just in the wrong position. The oars didn't work too well with this. Yeah, I don't even know how you'd get it in there. I was thinking maybe just some webbed glows. Maybe that would work better. This dive boat pulled up this morning. Yeah, I just saw him come in. How long was your passage yesterday? 24 hours. Because I went from Avalon and I went around the backside because I wanted to see that skull on that side of the island. I left at night and I ended up just kind of getting decalmed over there and just kind of floated around. The swell wasn't too bad. And I guess your outboard's not really... Yeah, it does a little, but right? I motored a little bit actually through the night. Oh, I ran my battery dead. I saw your battery was getting sad last night. Oh, my lights are? Yeah, it was dimming real bad. Actually, I forgot to turn my light off. I think it's probably dead again. Hopefully, we'll get some more sunlight again. I think I need more solar. I got a 50-watt solar panel. And it seemed like it was doing all right, but I haven't done this many consecutive days yet. Yeah, awesome. How much road do you get out? Maybe 200 feet. Yeah, that's what I got. I was at Catalina and all the moorings were full and I had to anchor at 120 feet of water. I think I might have had 300 feet. Holy ----. That was a rough night out there. I picked near the Coast Guard buoy and all the traffic was going by. And Avalon? Avalon, yeah. I figured with school already started, it wouldn't be so crowded. I was shocked how many people were here last night. Last time I was here, there was one other person who showed up and just left. Yeah, that was my first time here. Oh, cool. So you came just straight from... Yeah, we didn't overnight. We left at 8 p.m. and got here at 10. I mean, the hook was dropped by 10 the next morning and got here at about 9. Okay, well, Camille, have you gotten that? Oh, I don't think so. I'm Sam. Oh, no, thanks. I don't drink coffee. So, yeah.