Santa Barbara Island, Anacapa Island

We left San Diego with a few formalities under our belt. The passengers were welcomed on as Expedition Crew, and we were all divided up between three watches. Each watch stood time during the day, and during the night and it was the same everyday so that we could establish a regular sleep pattern. I was assigned to the Third Watch, with Bob Nelson as the watch officer, and Chari Wessel as the junior watch officer. Our watch was required to stand watch from Noon till 4 pm, and Midnight to 4 am. This meant that I only ended up seeing one sunset on the trip, and no sunrises. Sleep seemed more important at the time.


We left San Diego around noon, and sailed all afternoon and night to get to Santa Barbara Island, the smallest of the 8. Santa Barbara Island is the only one of the 8 that I have been too before, and that I have set foot on. Its rocky, covered in gull rookeries, among other birds, and the access to the island consists of a delapidated metal ladder and a precarious landing. A very steep hike up the hill leads to an empty ranger station, and everywhere there were sea lions who were not happy about our presence.

I stood for our Watch photo (Note: On each island, we had to have all our photos taken with island signs and such, to distinguish where we were, and prove that we'd set foot there. That way the ship's company could legally be added to the State registry for the All Eight Club). I declined to hike the island, since I'd already done that before, and there wasn't much to see.

Once we'd all returned to the ship, we took off again (this being the next day, since we'd anchored overnight off SBI). It was late afternoon when we left for our next leg to Anacapa. When I came out on deck at Midnight for my now second midwatch so far, the seas were not treating us well. The stretch of water between SBI and Anacapa is all open, with nothing between the Pacific rollers and Santa Monica. We had to deal with not only 8 foot (from the deck above the head) rollers making the ship roll side to side, but also with aggrevated chop that added all sorts of motion to the ocean. That was the worst time for me regarding sea-sickness. I wasn't the only one. Almost everyone on our watch suffered. I never lost it, but I came close, because Chari had given me meclizine, which put me to sleep. That sleepiness made it hard for me to control my stomach. Around 3 that night I gave up, and was told to go sleep in the Governer's Cabin, which is amidships. There was no way I was going to make it down into the focs'le. I woke up at dawn, and made my way to my own bunk and slept till breakfast. When I woke up again, we were getting close to Anacapa Island.



Next Episode: Anacapa Island, Santa Cruz - Prisoners' Harbor and the Painted Caves