Santa Barbara Channel Islands

[MJJ]

Hello all,

We are planning a 3-day trip from SB to the Channel Islands, and would be interested to hear from others familiar with the area. I know the basics, have read Fagan, etc, but so far have not heard from anyone personally about their favorite spots, anchorages, that sort of thing. I am leaning toward spending the layover day on San Miguel unless the weather is cranky, otherwise Santa Cruz sounds like a good alternative.

I guess what I'm looking for is the Rick Steves 'Top 10 Tourist Highlights' list for our first time out. Gunkholing can come later.

Thanks!

[MJJ]

Thanks Marc!

We have been there and done that by now. We ended up going to San Miguel as the remoteness was intriguing. The wind for the trip was extremely atypical, S/SE, variable, so we ended up motoring about 70% of the trip (mostly due to weak wind, not direction). High points were: getting dumped in the surf each landing (x 2), wrapping the anchor rode around the prop while near the (lee) cliffs in Cuyler Harbor, the island hike with the extremely friendly and knowledgable guest researcher du jour, and drifting amongst the pods (!) of whales on the way over. The radar on the charter boat was a real comfort when negotiating the sea lanes.

The one thing we missed due to short schedule was the full day hike to see the west end of the island and the massed pinnipeds. Some other trip.

Now I want to go back to Santa Cruz and check out the caves.

-Mark