Trip Log: Return to the California Channel Islands

Step 30: Get Really Nervous About Sailing

The wind is trying to blow me off this hill.
The ranch buildings from above. They've got their own little airstrip for elk-shooting dudes to land on.
Windsocks are placed every mile or so along the coast so the pilots can judge the wind.
17 mph wind will fully extend a standard FAA wind sock. This one is reading less than that, but it's sheltered by the hill I'm standing on.
The sheltered water in Becher's Bay is pretty flat, but outside the bay whitecaps are marching along.
The wind howls most of the day and into the night. Sometimes it calms down a bit before dawn, but it starts right up again in the morning, increasing all day.

I've seen what wind like this does in the channel. It makes big waves. Tomorrow I'm going to sail toward Ventura. That's fifty miles away over the top of Santa Cruz Island in the distance.
It's November and it gets really wet and chilly out there. If I get in trouble I'll have it all to myself. But I can't stay here forever, so...