First cruise to Santa Cruz Island

This past weekend was our first opportunity to take Juliet to Santa Cruz Island. And what a GREAT weekend it was! This was an organized group cruise with Channel Islands Yacht Club, so we were accompanied by 7 other club boats. This was also the first time we've ever gone to Santa Cruz Island for only one night...something we couldn't really do with previous, slower boats. But Juliet - what a speed demon! While our previous boats could take anywhere from 3 1/2 to 5 hours to make the journey, Juliet powered over there in 2 1/2 hours! That makes it much more doable to head over there just for an overnighter, as we can leave early in the morning on Saturday, get there well before lunch time, and still have most of the day to either relax onboard, kayak around the anchorage, or even go ashore for a hike. And then we can sleep in on Sunday and not feel rushed to get underway in order to get home at a reasonable time.

We provisioned and boarded Friday night, then shoved off at about 9:00 into flat seas and foggy skies.





After the first hour, the thick marine layer began to burn off, the fog lifted and the sun came out.



Bubba did what he loves best when we are under way...napped at Charlie's side.



We picked up a nice breeze, enough to raise the main and get a bit of a lift from that. This brought us up to over 7 knots - wow! The trip seemed to go by SUPER fast. After less than two hours we were passing Anacapa off the port beam.



And before we knew it, there we were, dropping anchor in Yellowbanks! Being a proper galley wench, I whipped up a yummy lunch of tuna & avocado sandwiches, then we dropped the kayak in the water and I went off to explore, and get some shots. Here's the fleet on the hook.



Juliet sure looked beautiful on the hook!







Captain Charlie and his first mate Bubba kept watch.



After a relaxing afternoon, we headed over to one of the larger powerboats in our CIYC fleet for a happy-hour cocktail and appetizer party. What a fun group!



There were so many appetizers that we ended up not needing to make dinner.

Yellowbanks tends to be a bit more rolly than Smugglers, which tends to rock us to sleep, so we retired early. The next morning we were able to sleep in, since we didn't have to rush to raise the anchor. How wonderful! We took off around mid-morning, and were back in our slip by early afternoon.

Juliet performed beautifully, and now we are ready for our week-long trip to Santa Cruz in July.