Arch Rock is a prominent feature on the east end of Anacapa Island. Rounding it would put the boat into new sailing grounds.

We’d been wanting to circumnavigate Anacapa Island for close to two years now. Some 11 miles off the coast of Southern California, Anacapa is part of the Channel Islands chain and an attractive destination for boats based here. We’d almost made it around the south end of the island a couple of times, and almost made it around the northern end of the island a couple of times, but ran out of day light each time. This time, we also ran out of day light, but that didn’t stop us.

We started the sail with no expectations other than to just enjoy the day. It was over cast all day, with a typical ‘June gloom’ marine layer hovering overhead, common this time of the year in Southern California . We tacked out of Channel Island Harbor and set a course sailing close to the wind, aiming a bit south of Anacapa. It doesn’t take much wind to get our Capri 21 up to her to hull speed of around six knots. With winds of around 5-to-10 knots we were making about 5 to 6 knots of boat speed. As the day progressed, the wind began to ease its direction a bit more northerly, allowing us to claw our way up the windward side of the island.

There is a major shipping lane just below the bottom tip of the island where the rule of the road ‘sail over power’ has little meaning when you are confronted with a super tanker. I spotted one off our starboard bow and it was on a familiar collision course. It never ceases to amaze me how fast those suckers move, especially when they are on a collision course.

Years ago when chartering a 34-foot San Juan I noticed a ship on the horizon over five miles away heading sort of our way. I surveyed the crew if they thought this vessel was on a collision course. It was so far away then that it didn’t appear to be a threat at all to us. What seemed like 30 minutes later, it was looking hell bent to use our boat as a barnacle brush on its under belly. The wind was a good 15-to-20 knots so we were already doing full hull speed but the illusion that the ship was going to easily leave us astern was rapidly fading. We fired up the iron genny, cranking the big diesel to full throttle and power sailed that boat faster than her theoretical hull speed, passing the ship by less than 75 yards. Starting from a tiny speck on the horizon miles away to less than 75 yards off her bodacious bow, I’d say we squeaked through by the skin of our teeth. I always tack early now, so that’s what we did this time; besides we needed to gain more ground to windward to make the island.

We’d made good time as we approached the bottom tip of the island and sort of talked each other into rounding the island. We had perfect sailing conditions while we made our approach to what we’d considered the Cape Horn in our back yard. I made the encouraging statement that if we cleared the point by 5:30 and if the winds allows us to sail as fast as the last couple times we’ve been out nearly as far, we should make it back to the break water by 8:30. The sun set at 8:08 and we convinced our selves to go for it.

Naturally, it took longer than we talked ourselves into believing it would take to tack out and reach the island’s western point. We didn’t allow the facts to get in the way of enjoying the thrill of making our way into our new sailing grounds. The fact that we didn’t make it all the way around the point until about 6:30 p.m. and that the last time we were almost out this far, the winds were nearly storm force. We weren’t going to let a few facts get in the way of a perfect sail!

It had been over cast all day but as be rounded our ‘Cape Horn,’ we could see the faint glow of the sun beaming down on the spring greens and yellows of Santa Cruz Island, less than four miles off our starboard bow. The wind and swells had increased, as they are both funneled around the island’s point, but this was just in time for us to fall off on a down wind run, all while we were taking in the rugged beauty of Anacapa Island. It is always such a rush to navigate to and then circumnavigate an island, even though this one lies only 11 miles off the coast (as long as you don’t have to tack a lot), it’s a thrill that we can only imagine relates to in some small way to actually making landfall on a far off exotic island on the other side of the world. Today, we are making our way around this island on this side of the world in our small boat; it’s a thrill that we are sure will expand with the vast distances we will travel someday to those exotic islands on the other side of the world.

As we expected, we got lighter winds while in the lee of the island, but with nearly flat water and a bit of current from astern, we still managed a three knots over the ground. We made our way toward Arch Rock on the eastern point, which symbolized the completion of our circumnavigation and the beginning of our long haul back to the dock.

There is a windy lane that usually supplies a lot of wind once out of the lee of the island; I guess that’s common near most islands. This windy lane gave us the affirmation that our decision to complete the circumnavigation was justified--or it proved, for the moment, that we were just lucky with the wind. For about an hour we were sailing at full hull speed. Six miles out we were sailing at six knots--we should be at the breakwater in one hour!

Five miles out our speed had dropped to five knots; still enthused we again proclaimed, great, we’ll be to the breakwater in one hour! When we were four miles out our speed had dropped to four knots; and a little less enthused, we again proclaimed, great, we’ll be to the breakwater in one hour! When we were three miles out our speed had dropped to three knots; we were by now not enthused as we again proclaimed, oh great, we’ll be to the break water in one hour! Then when we were two miles out our speed had dropped to two knots. The trip was becoming like a twilight zone movie, as we annoyingly proclaimed, great (but we didn’t use the word great), we’ll be to the break water in one hour!

The wind and seas filled in, making it look like a sleigh ride all the way home. But the wind gods had other plans.

This will sound a bit predictable, but when we finally got to one mile out, of course our boat speed was down to, you guessed it, one knot. At this pace we will always be one hour away! To really make the time go by slow try watching the GPS display how far away the break water was, 1.00 miles, an eternity later, 0.99, an eternity later, 0.98, an eternity later, 0.97… That’s all it will tell you since it stops displaying your speed when you are going slower than 1.8 knots. At 0.50 miles away, well you could have dropped a feather and it would have floated straight down. We could ‘scull’ the rudder & make about 0.50 knots. Gee...we’ll be to the break water in one hour!

I resigned to get a little transcendental and just enjoy the peace and quiet; except for the growling that my hungry stomach was making. I actually was enjoying every minute I got to spend on the water and so was my crew Bobbie, but there comes a time when it gets a bit tedious. These moments were easy to discern when Bobbie would snap out of her little transcendental ‘at one with the world of water’ moment and start aggressively sculling the rudder. The more aggressively she sculled, the deeper her departure from being ‘at one with the world.’

Finally, as we were approaching the breakwater at about 10 p.m., a gentle breeze of about three knots filled our sails and we ghosted into the harbor. The water on our approach was glassy and the breeze so constant, it really was a magical feeling to be sailing so smoothly, it was almost a spiritual experience. Until the little zephyr of wind decreased to a whisper and I proclaimed, “Hey the dock’s a half a mile away, at this pace we’ll be there in, ONE HOUR!”

Well, it indeed took us an hour to reach the dock; we made it back at 11 p.m. and we packed all our gear into the car and once again I proclaimed “Well, we’re 60 miles away from home, traveling an average of 60 miles an hour, it looks like we’ll be home in ONE HOUR!”