Santa Cruz Island, So. Cal. Channel Islands

Just came back from a 3 day trip to Santa Cruz Island and it was awesome! The weather was fantastic.
Friday we went over on the Island Packers boat. (By the way, Island Packers are great. They have this down to a science and make it so easy) Left at 9:00, got there by 10:30, setup camp and was in the water by noon. The water was perfect. Smooth, 3 foot swells, no wind. We covered 10 miles and checked out the most amazing caves. We were escorted the whole way by seals who were curious, playful and jumping all over the place. Pelicans were diving bombing all around us. One dived into the water about 3 feet from my buddy.

Saturday was a little breezy, (ok, windy) and this is where my Tarbon 160 really shined. The other people were in Scrambler XT's and had a very hard time against the wind. I had a hard time too, but at least I could move along at a decent clip. Staying close against the island made it easier as the whitecaps were probably a quarter mile out of the shelter of the island.

Sunday got up at 5:00 am and went fishing. Actually my companions fished and I explored caves and photographed their catches. They were doing really well catching and releasing fish in the 12 to 15 inch length, but they didn't catch the big ones they were hoping for. We probably went a couple of miles to a cove were they were happy fishing, but I went on another 3 or 4 miles exploring. Weather was a light winds, water was choppy. Actually windy is the norm, we were really lucky on Friday.

I got pics coming shortly.

I used my Nikon dslr on land, used a Olympus Tough 8000 waterproof point and shoot on the water. The Olympus works fine in bright light. Lousy in dim light. They are what they are, but I didn't have to worry about getting my good camera wet and I was able to get some pics where I wouldn't have been able to before.