Santa Cruz Weekend Blowout
 

Small Craft advisories and gale force winds are not the kinds of things you want to be hearing the day before you are set to go up to Ventura Harbor to hop on an Island Packers boat headed for Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island for a long weekend. We had a bunch of day tripping kids on the ride over and some were green around the gills with the swells the big cat went through. Once at the island our kayaks were daisy chained from the stern to the beach. All the gear was unloaded we made the short 1/2 mile trek to camp and unpacked our gear and set up the tents. Conditions looked decent on the beach and I was in a hurry to get on the water as I was pretty sure we would get blown off the water sooner than later. We did.

After eating everything from smoked salmon and Gouda on crackers to brats and chowder one by one we hit the hay. In the middle of the night something woke me up as it was trying to get in the tent, the next day I found a hole chewed in the corner and my tortillas had been "foxed"

Wind blew all night and we woke up to an already angry sea. We all opted to make the 3.5 mile hike to Smugglers Cove to fish and swim and hang out for the day. We were not really prepared to surf fish for perch, but we made do.

Final morning we had conditions that only got better as the day went on. Thi and I went around Pedro Point and found fishier looking waters, but no fish. I headed in early to break camp at 11, in case somebody had our site reserved. Ron and I went back out on the water and went through a couple cool caves, the second was so tight that you had to push off on the walls as there was not enough room to paddle. Lacking in fish........with perch as the highlight, still super relaxing and fun adventure really close to home. Thanks Ron, Ken, Grego, Thi, and Aaron for hanging out.

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Nice picture Andy thanks for sharing.

Wow Andy. Perfect pics, perfect song. The island is still gorgeous.
Your photography revealed a true vacation from the puppet
strings of life...

bummer about the trip but you made due with what you had.

That Is a good crew Andy, good friend just to hang out no matter how the fishing is.

Looks like a great trip :cheers1:

Looks like a great place. Too bad part of the weekend was altered by the wind and white caps. Great pictures and video.

Best surfperch evar!

Pretty cool island. Too bad about the windy conditions. I never pictured catching barred surf perch at the islands.

Not every guy can tell their wife about being woken up in the middle of the night by a fox chewin' on their stuff. If mine caught wind of that I would have another seal silhouette painted on the bottom of my kayak.