Emerald Star

Santa Cruz Island is part of the Channel Islands National Park. The island is about 25 miles southwest of Santa Barbara.

First we went to Prisoner's Cove on the north side of the island. In the harbor there were some other boats on their way to Mexico. So we met a few new people that we will probably be seeing again later on. Also, Bill and Lisa stopped by for a while. We knew them in Alameda. They were anchored in the next cove and recognized our boat during a dingy ride.  They are also headed for Mexico. It was nice to see some familiar faces!

Ray and Diane went for a short hike one day and Ray went for a long hike another day. Diane was feeling sorry for Luna and Tiki so she stayed on the boat with them. Here are the pictures from Ray's hike:

We heard on the weather report that a northwesterly wind was coming up so we went around to the south side of the island to Smuggler's cove where it was more protected. The wind did come up. Consistently it was 25 knots and gusting to over 35 regularly for over 24 hours. It was a bit exciting. But since we were close to shore and the wind was coming from that direction we didn't have much to worry about. We just spent about 36 hours without getting off the boat at all. The waves were small enough (since the wind came from shore) where we were able to read books and work on some projects. The next day Ray and Diane went for a long hike towards the Yellow Bluffs anchorage. It was beautiful. The day after that we headed for Catalina Island.

The NE end of Santa Cruz Island.

Anacapa Island in the distance. This is from above Smugglers cove.

From above Smuggler's Cove. That's Prickly Pear Cactus in the foreground. Tiki has strong opinions about cactus-see the details on the Catalina Island page.

Please, please take us to shore!!

Dogs are no longer allowed on shore in the national park. So Luna and Tiki had to survive over a week without going to shore. But we did go on dingy rides almost daily so they did have a change of scenery and some adventure. And Luna got used to "going" on the boat. They seemed to have a good time and got some exercise by chasing each other around the cockpit and deck. Although they were very happy when we got to Catalina and were able to go on shore again.