The Martin's Blog

Helen –We slept in port and then departed for the first island at 4 in the morning.  The water was choppy and when we awoke, I was sea-dizzy until Tom gave me the wristbands that work like acupressure, then I was great.  Lucky for him he had the patch behind his ear; this was the first time on a small boat like this that he didn’t get seasick!  San Miguel is the westernmost of the Channel Islands and receives the brunt of the severe weather from the open ocean. 

Tom – after breakfast, we kayaked in rough seas along the coast from Harris Point to Cuyler Harbor enjoying the seabird, seal, and sea lion rookeries (even saw two elephant seals battling for territory, some of them weigh over 1400 pounds!) and then returned to the boat for lunch. 

In the afternoon we had better weather and were ferried to a beach by skiff and hiked through a coreopsis (tree sunflower) forest to the ranger station.  Juan Cabrillo (Portuguese explorer) was buried on the island in 1543.