I recently spent 3 nights at Coches Prietos on the back side of Santa Cruz. We left Ventura about 7:30am, by about 9am we were under full sail with the motor off. “Windy Lane” gave us excellent wind and we spent almost 2 hours sailing at 6 knots. By the time we were even with Smugglers the wind had died and we began motoring. We caught a bonita along the way… when we arrived at Coches, there was only one other boat, Life is Short with George Poe and Scott Burns aboard. We spent the evening eating homemade chili and discussing the finer points of serpentine belts.
Early the next morning, Life is Short left to return to SB. The weather was fairly hot until the 3rd night. The south swell was quite large but still ok to anchor in. The swells did stir up the visibility but we still got in some snorkeling. Hanging out on the beach was the order of the day and we lounged in easy chairs under an umbrella.
The only mishap was caused by a small fishing boat that arrived late on Monday night. They half heartedly anchored and then all went ashore, (to camp/sleep in the sand, I guess?) leaving the boat unlit and drifting wildly on its single hook. At 12:20am I just happened to get up to check things only to find out its tilted outboard was almost about to smash into my bow. I was able to push it away with the boat hook. After 2 hours of adjusting my stern, it appeared to only get within 20 feet so I was able to go to sleep for a few minutes. I was amazed this boat didn’t end up on the beach or rocks, but apparently these were the kind of boaters who depend more on luck than monitoring the anchor!
All in all a good trip. Please let us know if you are ready to get out this season, we still have weather enough for a couple more outings.
