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This weekend I went on a 2-day trip to the islands of San Miguel and Santa Cruz in California’s Channel Islands, aboard the Peace dive boat.  There were 23 passengers on board, from two dive clubs: the Whalers, and my local club, Ocean Adventures. San Miguel is a windy island 55 miles off the coast from Ventura, and it is the westernmost of the Channel Islands.  The Peace departed Ventura harbor at about midnight, and dropped anchor at San Miguel Island the next morning at 7:16 am. The crossing was bumpy because we had swells coming in from different directions, but it wasn’t the roughest I’ve experienced, and I managed to get some sleep, here and there…

The first site we dove was Wykoff Ledge, on the “backside,” or south side of San Miguel.  We figured there would be a fair amount of surge, so we dropped down to about 92 feet and explored the healthy kelp forest and the invertebrates living in the big boulder formations, such as bright red and orange anemones, sea stars, sun stars and big sheep crabs.  Visibility was about 30-40 feet at depth.  There was surge even at depth here, but no current, and the sea lions zipping back and forth seemed to be enjoying our visit.

The next dive site was Rain Barrel, slightly northwest of Wykoff Ledge.  My buddies and I kept it shallower on this dive, averaging 60-70 feet.  There was still some surge, but no current, and the visibility was about the same.  Of course, since I had a wide-angle lens on my video camera, we proceeded to find a bunch of macro life at this site.  We spotted purple and yellow Spanish shawl nudibranchs, and a large yellow “sea lemon” nudibranch.  We also saw some pretty coonstripe shrimp, and a baby scorpionfish.  One of the divers in our group briefly saw a shark about 20-30 feet away, and from his description it sounded like it might have been a small white shark!  We heard that the park rangers had recently reported seeing a small white shark in this area.  Cool.  Spearfishing is allowed at San Miguel, and one of the hunters on board speared a 4 lb vermillion rockfish on this dive. 

Initially we were hoping to dive some of the pinnacles on the “front” side of San Miguel, but the weather was not cooperative.  However we did get around to the northeast side of the island, to a site called Bat Rock. Bat Rock is in a bay with beautiful windswept sandy beaches and it was sheltered from the swell by Harris Point, but the wind was really picking up.  The dive was still great though, we had a bit less surge, and saw some more shrimp and crabs, and perch in the kelp. 

The water temperature at San Miguel Island ranged from 52-54°F, and about half of us (myself included) were diving in drysuits.

In the late afternoon the Peace moved to the Northeast Anchorage at Santa Rosa Island, where we had dinner and spent the night.  Trish, the new chef on board the Peace, did a great job on this trip with fresh salads, enchiladas, chili, tri-tip, and even tofu curry and veggie chili for the vegetarians. 

At about 6 am on Saturday we set out for Santa Cruz Island, the largest island off the coast of California, 19-25 miles off the mainland.  The water was a few degrees warmer here and the seas much calmer, but the visibility was worse, only about 20 feet.  We dove at 3 sites on the north side of Santa Cruz:  Diablo Point, Fry’s Harbor, and just west of Pelican Bay.  Even though the visibility was limited, there was virtually no current, and the dives were pretty easy.  We saw quite a few of the bright orange garibaldi, which are common here and at Catalina, but not found out at San Miguel.  There were also some lobster, bat stars munching on lobster carapaces, keyhole limpets, brittle stars, female and male sheephead (did you know that the females turn into males when they get older?), a California scorpionfish, and more colorful nudibranchs.  The highlights for me here were a camouflaged decorator crab, a Navanax (which is a type of sea slug) and a little orange fringehead blenny in a hole in the rock.  Some of the hunters brought back sea scallops, and a 20-lb halibut.

The ride back to Ventura harbor was a lot smoother due to the following seas, and we arrived just after 6 pm. This was my first trip to San Miguel, and even though the conditions were not perfect, the Peace did a great job of finding us the best dive sites they could.  They also were skilled at accommodating both hunters and photographers.  Nitrox fills at 33% are available, and I think it’s worth it, especially on a multi-day trip.  I would not recommend this trip to inexperienced divers, but for those with more experience that have logged some cold-water dives, it’s a unique opportunity.  Getting out to windy San Miguel is not trivial and I feel privileged to have been able to dive there. 

If you want to view a 2-minute quick and dirty video of some of the underwater footage that I shot, it’s on the ScubaCore web site at: http://www.scubacore.com/californiaOuterIslandsSept05.htm