Trip Log: Outrigger Canoe Sailing the California Channel Islands

Step 33 Lunch Break

The wind got colder even though it was the middle of the day. My sheet hand was getting stiff. I must have stopped telling jokes and stories because K suggested we head to shore. She saw a last chance at beach before a long line of cliffs. Good idea.

We bore off the beat onto a reach and went screeching toward shore at a million miles an hour.
It looked like we'd have to body-brake the boat when we hit the dead air behind that big rock. This side of the beach was mostly sand. We were tired enough that we threw down our lifejackets and dragged the boat up over those. Boat-dragging sticks could wait.

Out of the wind it was a hot sunny summer day. Quiet even. Ahh. We dried out our gear and ourselves, had some food and water. More seals peaking their heads out at us from the water in curiosity.  A nice beach at the mouth of a picturesque arroyo. This island is mostly rock. The winter rains must just run off it, making the rivers in these arroyos roar.

The rivers are full of a huge variety of stones. It looks like glacial till, the terminal moraines of my Minnesota hometown. But glaciers have never been here. These are stones that weather from the matrix of conglomerate volcanic rock.