Channel Islands Harbour

The expedition down the west coast has been an adventure with lots of challenges as well as wonderful high points. The night before we left Port Angeles I made what I coined ‘The Last List.’  It contained a list of jobs for John; stow the dinghy, hank on the trysail, the staysail and stow the anchors – and a list of jobs for me; do a radio check, plot proposed route, organize charts to San Francisco. Once underway there would be no more lists, right? Wrong! All you doners know what a joke that is. The list never ends – it just changes constantly. By the time we got to Fort Bragg after six days of mostly boisterous seas and winds of 20-25+ we were ready for a break and had a new list. The list can become a bit daunting at times, ranging from silly things like a leaky faucet to more serious issues such as a deck plate fitting compressing on the bolt securing our newly installed furling system. The sort of list that makes you question your preparedness and competence. But then there is the wonderful camaraderie of the fleet, the exchanging of stories and the sharing of information and technical support and you realize that you are not alone that you are part of a wonderful fraternity that is there to support each other along the way. This is one of the highlights of the trip for us so far.  We are meeting up with BCA members all along our route and we eagerly look for the BCA burgee at every port. A great way of networking for the fleet has been a HAM net hosted by Bill Burr on Tahnoo. Each morning at 0900h he does a roll call of fleet members that have signed up and information is shared about mooring options and places to visit along the way.

On October 06 we arrived at Channel Islands Harbour after a terrific sail down from Santa Barbara. Tahnoo, Iridium and Ustupu were already there and the crew had busily scouted out the prime place to be – Anacapa Isle Marina, complete with guest pool, sauna and clubhouse. An impromptu BURP with potluck supper at the clubhouse was organized by Bill and Brenda (Tahnoo). We had a wonderful feast of food and friendship followed by a soak in the hot tub and late night swim in the pool. It takes time to settle into the cruising schedule especially when it involves making tracks and keeping ahead of winter weather as it creeps further south so finding a harbor where one can truly recharge the batteries is welcome indeed.