Santa Cruz Island, CA

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Rocky Shorelines to Explore

Eric going through arch in rocks

While on Santa Cruz Island, we anchored in two different coves: Pelican Bay and Lady's Harbor. In both places,

Angela exploring bay by dinghy

there were many fun nooks and crannies to explore by dinghy. The rock walls of the island have been roughed up and carved out by the sea. In many places, there are arches that you can paddle or motor through (left).

In all areas, the water was a spectacular turquoise blue. The visibility was the best we'd seen so far. Even from the dinghy, you could see hundreds of colorful little fish swimming around. It was as if we were transported onto the surface of a really awesome aquarium.

Lady's Harbor anchorage

The second cove we were in, Lady's Harbor (right), was a snug little cove that could only fit about 3 very cozy boats. Due to the narrow width of the cove, you must bow and stern tie. The only other people in the cove at the time we were there, were our new friends on Waking Dream.

New Friends & Dive Sites

Waking Dream

The crowd from

Hooka diving

Waking Dream is a lot of fun to hang around with. We met them back in Morro Bay after talking to each other on a night watch en route from Monterey. There are three aboard the boat, Ben and his wife Lisa and their friend Sean. They hail from San Francisco. They are totally the toy boat! They have dive gear for three, a hookah, a kite surfer, stunt kites, and everything else ever invented that might be any amount of fun! AND, they are really nice people. SO, we arranged to meet up with them here and check out the underwater life.

Eric on a dive

Kelp forest

While we were there, Eric (left) went down on the hookah (diving from air lines with a compressor on the surface versus diving on a tank) with Ben and Sean. The water wasn't very deep, which made the hooka a perfect choice. Ben and Sean have spear fishing equipment on board and caught us all dinner while down there.

There is quite a bit of kelp in the region which provided a perfect hangout for our friends the fish. There were also some small caves right around our anchorage that made for interesting places to explore.

Painted Cave

Entering Painted Cave

The absolute highlite of our trip to Santa Cruz Island was our journey over to Painted Cave. It involved a 3.5 mile trip via dinghy out in the swell. We all arrived soaking wet at our destination from spray, but it was definitely worth it. The only way to get to this

Inside the cave

cave is via dinghy. Charlie's Charts claims that this is the largest marine cave in the world. From the entrance (left), it extends back into the island a quarter of a mile.

While inside, you can't see any light and must have a headlamp for visibility (right). At the entrance, you can see dozens of seal pups swimming about at the surface, checking you out.

As you enter the cave, there is an ominous sound, reminiscent of Dante's Inferno, that

Looking out

echoes out of the cave. The noise is created by hundreds of sea lions that are sitting back inside the cave on rocks above the water. Their bellows echo off the cave walls and produce are very earie sound.

On the way out of the cave, the sunlight is blinding once you can see it again (left). Your eyes become completely adjusted to the dim light making it difficult to get used to the sunlight again.

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