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Santa Cruz Island
On Monday, September 8, 1997, the three masted schooner American
Pride set sail from the Channel Islands Harbor near Ventura, California,
on her maiden trip to Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands. Five days and four
nights; eight crew and seven passengers. Evenings and nights we were moored
in Smugglers Bay at the east end of Santa Cruz Island. We slept on deck
under millions of stars, punctuated by an occasional shooting star. Days
were spent sailing, hiking, scuba diving and ocean kayaking. As passengers,
we had the option of taking a turn at the helm, raising, lowering and trimming
the sails, or just relaxing in a comfortable deck chair.
 
Santa Cruz is one of eight California Channel Islands. Five of
the eight -- San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara
-- make up the Channel Islands National
Park. The other three are Santa Catalina, San Nicholas and San Clemente.
An hour before we returned to Channel Islands Harbor, we crossed through
a pod of about 200 dolphins. They jumped and dove and swam along next to
the boat.
The water was clear enough to see them swimming underwater right next
to the bow.
The American Pride is a wooden hulled, 129 foot, three masted
schooner. It is berthed in Long Beach and operated by American Heritage
Marine Institute.
The original plans were for a six day trip from Long Beach returning
via Catalina -- activities at the Pacific Missile Test Range forced a change
of plans. The trip was put together by Horizons West, 714/476-9012 fax:
714/851-9202, which offers a number of Channel Island and Catalina options
in conjunction with the American Pride. Ocean kayaks were provide by Paddle
Sports of Santa Barbara.
A follow up message from a former resident
of the island.
If your browser supports "mail to" you can send
mail to Hal and Pat
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Travel
Updated September 9, 1999
URL http://www.lpf.com/schooner.html |
