We spent Monday night, all day Tuesday, and Tuesday night at Cuyler Harbor anchorage on San Miguel Island. When we arrived, we were the only boat, and it reminded me of arriving at Deception Island along the Antarctic Peninsula, it was so remote, beautiful and quiet, other than the birds and loud snorts of the elepha
nt seals on the beach. The privacy was quickly lost, as a beautiful white power boat arrived even before we had our second anchor down. The power boat had three men on it, they pulled up close to us, dropped a single anchor, proceeded to fish, barbecue, and watch the Dodger's game on a wide screen TV. Thank goodness for binoculars, Doug was able to catch a bit of the game! Big gender difference, Catherine and I were mad that they had anchored so close, and then were watching TV in such a beautiful place. Doug said it was a great place to throw down some suds and catch a good game on television.Eventually, three little fishing boats showed up and dropped cages containing sea urchins. They spent the night, but left their catch while they went out diving for more, picking it all up again the next day. Two dive boats showed up too, well lit up at night and gone by early morning.
The wind blew both evenings at Cuyler. The first night was a big anchoring lesson: the backstay was almost fully released, which left some slack in the fores
tay and the roller furling unit on it. Since the rolled up jib has quite a bit of windage, the wind would increase to the point where the furling unit would begin to vibrate. The entire boat shook, and it wasn't until the next day that I figured out that a tightened backstay would fix it. Lots of lessons to be learned on a sailboat! Both evenings had several hours of heavy wind, and the boat sailed on it's anchor line, swinging back and forth fairly rapidly. It was easier to be inside, where the visuals were not quite so distressing. The riding sail, which stops the swinging, was buried
in the lazarette, and we decided to just let it be, as the anchors were holding well. The couple of times that we peeked outside, it seemed as if Pearl was swinging wildly through a fast moving river, Opposite us in the cove was a rocky island, with a beautiful full moon rising. I'll admit to being a little scared while lying 
the v-berth, waiting for the wind to die down, and listening to all kinds of bizarre new noises in the boat. Catherine and I both went to bed fully dressed, as we wanted to be ready immediately if the anchor alarm were to sound.
tay and the roller furling unit on it. Since the rolled up jib has quite a bit of windage, the wind would increase to the point where the furling unit would begin to vibrate. The entire boat shook, and it wasn't until the next day that I figured out that a tightened backstay would fix it. Lots of lessons to be learned on a sailboat! Both evenings had several hours of heavy wind, and the boat sailed on it's anchor line, swinging back and forth fairly rapidly. It was easier to be inside, where the visuals were not quite so distressing. The riding sail, which stops the swinging, was buried
in the lazarette, and we decided to just let it be, as the anchors were holding well. The couple of times that we peeked outside, it seemed as if Pearl was swinging wildly through a fast moving river, Opposite us in the cove was a rocky island, with a beautiful full moon rising. I'll admit to being a little scared while lying 
the v-berth, waiting for the wind to die down, and listening to all kinds of bizarre new noises in the boat. Catherine and I both went to bed fully dressed, as we wanted to be ready immediately if the anchor alarm were to sound.We went to shore in the dinghy on Tuesday, and hiked up a mile to the ranger station and small dirt airstrip. The ranger, Ian, took us out to see the calliche forest, calcified remains of historic trees. We also got to watch a group of researchers leave on a double engine STOL plane. Tom, you would have liked it!
Our total hike was about 7 or 8 mile
s, with a climb of about 800 feet, and we got back back to the beach to find a low tide and the dinghy at least 50 feet from breaking waves. This was another boat lesson, we should have had wheels on the dinghy. The next lesson was how to push a dinghy through breakers, jump in, paddle like mad to get away from the surf line, and start the engine. Needless to say, three wet, tired sailors arrived back at the boat.Today we're moving along the northern edge of Santa Cruz Island, we'll hike there tomorrow. We've had a great learning day, we all worked on our knot knowledge, then Catherine and I made a mat to go under the anchor, it's an old unused jib sheet. We're proud of it! We also poled out the jib, then took that down and flew the assymetrical spinnaker. It's great to have lots of time to fill, and to be so relaxed.
Lots of photos to upload, but the signal isn't good enough here, I'll put them up later. We're in another fantastic anchorage, this time sharing it with one other sail boat.
