Southern California Sailing Charters

And my response:
If you don’t already own Brian Fagan’s cruising guide, I strongly suggest that you get it and read about all of the anchorages. I’ve got a link to a bunch sailing books that you can access from my homepage by clicking - guess what - sailing books. It’s towards the bottom of the links.

You’ve probably discovered my cruising guide, which I put together as a supplement and update to Brian’s work.

Now to your questions:

First of all - Weather. The end of July is usually gorgeous. But temps can be low at night. And there won’t be a lot of bikini time during the day. Gorgeous or not, you must be prepared for big wind and big seas. Those can come up at any time. The good news is you’re unlikely to encounter a Santa Ana.

The prevailing wind is west. If you venture from your anchorage, Windy lane will be a big factor. However, if you know how to tie in a reef quickly, it’s not a problem, though the ride can be a bit choppy. Slight variations in wind and swell direction will dictate going to various anchorages. Our refuge anchorage in big west wind is Yellowbanks. Get acquainted with that spot. I’ve found it useful to be able to get in there in the dark using radar, gps and depthdsounder after evacuating an uncomfortable mooring farther west.

During the week you’re going to have the island mostly to yourself, particularly in the south coast anchorages. I suspect that traffic will be considerably less than last year as most motor yachts are likely to stay tied up with diesel at $5/gal.

Your ground tackle sounds adequate for most anchorages at Santa Cruz. I’d check the West Marine advisor pages to see if that stern anchor is heavy enough. Be aware that Danforths don’t do well in eel grass and that is a problem from time to time in many of the anchorages. When setting two anchors, make sure your windward anchor is set solidly before you deploy your downwind anchor. It can be harrowing if you have two anchors out and neither is holding, worse if you’ve got two out and your downwind anchor is set and the other is not.

You don’t specify how much rode you have astern. We have 350′ and I’ve sometimes wished I had 400 as I do at the bow.

Make a circuit of the anchorage before dropping a hook and note the depths carefully. The beach gradient is amazing in some spots. In the Grotto, for instance, our stern hook was in 18′ and or bow in 50′.

BTW, we have a French Plow on the bow and a Fortress astern.

Anchoring bow and stern can be a bit tricky. If you haven’t done it, go practice before your trip. We watched some experienced yachtsmen flail around for four hours trying to set two hooks in Fry’s. They eventually fouled their prop. We were able to take a line from them and winch them away from the rocks. Fortunately, winds were light all night and we were able to keep them safe until morning when they were able to clear their prop.

If you have more questions, give me a call 805.750.7828.

dan