We left Santa Barbara on September 30, 1953, about 10:00 AM and made an anchorage on Santa Cruz Island about 2:30 PM. I cannot go down the Santa Barbara channel without stopping at one or two of the beautiful coves that are present on the Santa Cruz Island. We stayed, in all, two nights on Santa Cruz Island, the first night in one of the coves along the easterly portion of the island and the second night at a cove that is called the East End Anchorage or more commonly called Scorpion Anchorage.
Dr. McGovaney knew the owner of the east end of the island and we brought a letter, from him, to his three employees, that live in a most interesting situation at east end anchorage.
The eastern end of the island which comprises a coast line of 10-15 miles is owned by Mr. Pierre Gherini of Santa Barbara. He runs a sheep ranch and has three employees at East End Anchorage, a Mr. and Mrs. Nilsby and a Mexican, by the name of Pete. In addition to that they have a dog, who is a type of Great Dane breed by the name of “Sam”. Sam was 6 months old and the most lovable puppy that I have ever seen. He was so lovable that when he put his paws on your shoulders, he almost knocked you over. He was our most constant companion while we were on shore walking around the roads and up the canyon adjacent to the ranch house.
We went dove hunting on the second day that we were there and Sam accompanied us frightening all of the doves away before we could ever get a shot at one. As a matter of fact, we did shoot one dove, but were not able to get close enough to any of the rest of them, due to the enthusiasm of the loveable Sam.
The houses and equipment about the old ranch house is most interesting. The house was built in the 80’s and had walls that were about two feet thick. They are made of cement and rock. The baking oven looks very much like one of the old fashioned bakery ovens that we used to see in bread and pastry bakeries. It is an enormous rock oven that is heated building a fire within the oven itself and then cleaning out the fire and pulling out the bread and other things that are to be baked.
They have a wine house, where they used to make their wine. This is built into the stone and has a ventilation system through a tunnel in the top of the wine house. It is guarded by heavy iron doors.
In an old barn, we found a number of Indian skulls and various other Indian types of stone instruments that they used in their cooking. There were various types of stone bowls, stone ladles and grinder for grinding corn and grain.
The employees at the ranch did not know much about them, or rather the skulls that were there, other than the fact that some scientists that came to the island many years before their arrival. They many have been there five years and the bones have always been sitting around the barn and have never been moved.
Before we left, we attempted to give the lady of the island, anything that she needed, but she said that the only thing that she was shourt of was nutmeg, so that we were only able to make this addition to her welfare. We returned to the boat and got her a can of nutmeg.
While we were lying in East End Anchorage, a very heavy wind came up and rocked us around pretty severely during the night. Our anchorage was good however, and the new chain and anchor that we have certainly is a satisfactory one. The new winch that we put on, likewise, is most satisfactory and is so much better than the old one that it almost makes pulling up the anchor a pleasure.
While we were at Santa Cruz Island, Marilyn caught several breakfasts of pan fish that were delicious. I did not know that one could catch the fish off Santa Cruz Island. I thought that they were all so educated that they took your bait and left the hook. Certainly, I have had a great deal of that experience, but she had some mussels that we obtained and gave us a couple of excellent breakfasts of pan fish.
I feel very lucky to have lived in these times. One of my lesser passions is geography. If I knew how to grab the google maps terrain images and turn them into jpgs, this blog would be full of images of the geography along the way.
I grew up before the world wide web, was around Silicon Valley when Compuserve, then Mosaic, and finally Netscape was launched. One of my cherished possessions is a photo album from my grandfather's first attempt at circumnavigation. It, like the logs, sits quietly waiting for me to crack it open.
That I can transcribe 'Dr. Holcomb's' logs on a laptop, and google Scorpion Anchorage, and zoom into the satellite view to spot the farm house he's talking about, then download a photo or two . . . it makes me grin as I type this. I can remember when none of this was possible. When my grandfather raced in the transpac, he was required to use Loran, which was a rather new technology back then. He couldn't figure it out, so he heaved it overboard off the coast of California. I have the charts he used on his first attempt, with positions from star and noon sights penciled in. Now, gps could upload a track to an electronic chart.
And here I am, years later, the view of the harbor from a boat triggers memories of anchorages on Landfall II in the lee of the Tiburon Peninsula. The beach at Scorpion Anchorage looks like the same sort of rocky beach we walked on as kids, after getting permission to launch the dinghy from the boat and go ashore. Wanting it to be sand, we had to put up with a more difficult trek along a beach made of palm sized small rocks covered in kelp and moss. One of the more interesting places along the shoreline to this future Mechanical Engineer was the Net Depot.
I finaly used the right keywords and confirmed the history of this place. I can remember Grandfather explaining that this was where the submarine nets were stored during World War 
II. As an 8 year old boy standing on the deck of a schooner at anchor off the lee of the Tiburon Peninsula, well, you can see the influance. The link has a picture of the buoys used to hold it up. Is this where the Olympic Circle Course bouys from my memories came from? Sure seems plausible.
My plan to transcribe a paragraph, write a post, etc. has gone overboard like my Grandfather's loran set. As I begin to type, I gulp down a page at a time now.
Tomorrow, I'm heading out on an Olson 25 with Anne. The plan is to get to Ayala Cove, where I plan to take some pictures, then Sausalito for lunch (we might stop by the Bay Model), then to the Rolex Big Boat Series, although I can't imagine doing a better job of taking pictures than Charlie.
We'll look for heavy wind and practice the art of going out of control safely and recovering.
One of these days I'll sail back to the Net Depot and take some pictures.
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