Santa Cruz Island

The third island is the charm! Today, we continued east to the largest island in the northern Channel Islands, Santa Cruz. Although, like San Miguel and Santa Rosa, part of the Channel Islands National Park, Santa Cruz is mostly owned and controlled by the Nature Conservancy and operates under its rules. We hadn't obtained a landing permit in advance, so we are not supposed to land here. This is disappointing, since we haven't set foot on shore in 4 days and need to stretch our legs a bit.
We were also expecting to see the wind diminish as we headed east, but in fact it piped up to 20 knots again, with a large swell still running. Amazingly, the tiny cove at Fry's Harbor was still and calm, so we gladly laid out bow and stern anchors, saving room for our buddies on Albatross. They almost missed the cove, they were having so much fun with the downwind sail. After they were safely anchored beside us, Mark rowed Mick and Teagan to shore. Water here is warm enough for swimming, and the sun is out. Yay! We'll probably lay over here for a day or two.