Santa Barbara and Channel Islands

I should mention that we had a great sail in Santa Barbara with a 32' Catalina. The first day was a bit foggy, but we had decent, steady wind all the way across to Santa Cruz Island. We anchored in an area called "Prisoner's Cove". This wasn't really our first choice, but some of the other coves had boats in them and since this was our first attempt at anchoring overnight, we were a little skittish. The anchoring went fine. For the record, the Channel Islands have some pretty good swells, even in the coves, so if you anchor there, expect an up and down, "where the f&&k did I put the dramamine" kind of night.
On the way back the next day, the sky was clear and the wind was strong. We had to reef down the sail for most of the ride across and still rarely went below 5 to 6 knots. We were thankful for the experience of reefing on the Bluenose the previous week, as it gave us a little more confidence and less reluctance about reefing the sails on the Catalina.
All in all, it was a great experience, but I think we both agreed that future sailing in Santa Barbara would probably not include an overnight in the Channel Islands.