The next morning we watched the large group from UCSD who had come by boat depart. There were also two other paddlers who had been here before and knew of the davit available on the pier. If you have time to rig up harnesses ahead of time this would be useful, especially if packing light is difficult.

Using the Davit

If the hiking is so-so on the island, the paddling around it is excellent!
The coast is full of nooks, crannies, caves, sea lions etc. Right next to the landing area is in fact a neat blowhole (if the tide is right).

The Blow Hole

The caves are probably the neatest thing about paddling around the island. They range from large, calm easily entered caverns to small, very surgy and dangerous cracks. One should not attempt to enter any that they feel stretches their handling ability or their boat's durability. I use no rudder but would think that going with the surge backwards into volcanic rock would not do it any favors. My friend Rocky was in a true WW kayak and was also able to take advantage of some of the good rock gardens (though in his opinion they were not as good as Arbolitos down in Baja)

Some of the caves had more than one entrance and could be paddled through. This provided some great views coming out>

View coming out of a cave

The island is a haven for many birds including the endangered brown pelican. This results in walls that are covered in guano. Cliffs such as the one below typify most of the coastline of Anacapa (at least E. Anacapa). What few beaches there are don't lead anywhere.

Rocky alongside a guano covered wall

Probably one of the most recognized marks of Anacapa and for that matter all of the Channel islands is the arch at the very east end of E. Anacapa. This is a very large arch, maybe 35 ft tall and across.

The arch of E. Anacapa

The paddle back was more or less uneventful except for an encounter with a very large pod of dolphins (~50) on the move and jumping all around us. The swells and wind were with us, in fact some of the swells were practically surfable. We took out at the Channel Islands Harbor. This was a little more comfortable than coming in with the surf on the steep beaches of the state beach where we launched from. I highly recommend this paddle to anyone who is up to it. First Page

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