This past weekend, the family and I jumped on my dad's boat, the "Baja Midnight", and cruised out to the Channel Islands for some adventurin'! We spent a lot of time on and around Santa Crus Island. We anchored in Prisoner's Harbor and piloted the dingy over to Prisoner's Pier where we saw tables full of bones, fossils, artifacts, and other cool things. There used to be a functioning Penal Colony here at one point, but now it's just seemingly abandoned cattle chutes, some covered Kayaks, and a mysterious brick building. The shores were bright red with the millions of pelagic crabs that had washed ashore. We saw an Island Fox, which is native to the Island - he/she sort of followed us during our hike up the hill where we got a grand view of the harbor.
Later, we took the dingy inside of the Painted Cave, which is the largest sea cave in the world. Chamber after chamber stretched back into the darkness, and though we didn't have a bright enough flashlight to explore very far, it was a surreal experience. We were spooked by birds flying past us in the dark, seals diving and swimming around us in the black water, and an eerie noise that sounded like the Smoke Monster from Lost - apparently the result of the hundreds of sea lions that supposedly inhabit a certain chamber deep in the cave.
My kids enjoyed a long show from a humpback whale, we almost hit a pilot whale (it appears they are not too bright), we met an approximately 30 ft Basking Shark that circled our boat for a while, and not to mention hundreds of dolphins!
What an incredible adventure for my kids to experience (who am I kidding, it was incredible to me too)!
Captain Sophia at the helm
Prisoner's Harbor
Sophia's "Captain Face"
Painted Cave (World's Largest Sea Cave)
The ceiling of the cave
There are hundreds of sea caves on Santa Cruz Island... this one looked like a yeti to me :O
Basking Shark
Arch Rock off Anacapa Island
