GOLD COAST ISLANDS

[Music] ladies and gentlemen this jack douglas if we look at a map of the united states it would appear that the first landfall after leaving california is this hawaii but a more detailed map reveals that here just 20 and 30 miles from los angeles is a group of fascinating islands known as the channel or gold coast islands san santa cruz santa rosa santa barbara anacapa and catalina now obviously the best way to see and explore these islands is by boat and tonight you and i will do just that as passengers aboard this beautiful privately owned 36-foot y'all the sea dawn this is your armchair vacation and mine as we explore the gold coast islands this will be our starting point the magnificent yacht harbor at santa barbara california about 90 miles north of los angeles before we shove off let's meet our sailing companions on this two-week cruise dr charles o tony sturdivant of los angeles owner and skipper of the cedawn ben huey a manufacturer and a sailor who knows the gold coast islands as well as anyone ben's wife liz she's going to be the queen of the galley david smith an engineering from colorado university dave was sailing before he could walk tom mccue of our staff the producer and photographer of the cruise and joe tiffenbach also of our staff tom's assistant producer we met at ben's house in montecito a suburb of santa barbara and ben describes the house as and i quote a small cottage for my reclining years and quote well it has 27 rooms most of which he probably hasn't even seen now that's been at the wheel and tony getting in the back seat while liz waves a last goodbye to one of her youngsters notice those washington palms lash to the roof of the station wagon ben is an ardent horticulturist and he insisted on taking along two of his precious palms he was very mysterious about it and gave us no explanation meanwhile david who will be our navigator has plotted the course for our first landfall san miguel island 30 miles offshore from santa barbara tony and the others have arrived and the cruise is underway at last the skies are blue the wind is good so you just sit in a cockpit and chew the fat and wonder what ben will do with those washingtonian palms liz huey is as much at home in a galley as she is in the kitchen of her own home but preparing ciao at sea does present a few problems right liz well it's a little different than cooking at home especially when you're healed over and you're going between seven and eight knots the way we are right now everything ends up on this side it's impossible to use the stove so today we're just going to have coleslaw and i think i'll put some tomatoes in it something like that and tuna salad sandwiches uh this i was going to have hamburgers but all the grease ended up on this side because we're healed over so so they'll end up with a cold lunch and the hot coffee have fresh fruit and no matter how it turns out it always tastes better at sea topside ben and dave have sighted land we're going to slip out of the harbor under motor power complying with harbor regulations which limit entry and exit speeds to 5 knots per hour here we're passing the break water and later on we went by one of the many offshore oil drilling rigs that you've heard and read so much about once past point conception tony cut the motor and upgo the sails as we make for the open sea to san miguel island [Music] all hands turned two and now the c dawn will do what she was designed to do sail not motor head lies the uninhabited island of san miguel ben has let bathe plot course and he's done a good job smack to the nth degree preparing to anchor the sails are curled and the anchor is dropped a few hundred feet from shore we look at san miguel with a sense of eager anticipation all the same it's nice knowing that the sea dawn is just a short swim from shore tony is the last ashore in the plastic dinghy having first made certain that all is secure aboard the sea dawn he brings with him the second of the two potted palms as for the first well ben is busily planting it on a mossy covered hillside and why well it seems that san miguel has few if any trees and ben is carrying on a one-man reforestation program and no amount of kidding will dissuade him from his project these plastic thingies by the way are virtually unsinkable even in choppy surf the weather had now turned quite cool and they went back to the sea dawn for slickers to keep us warm [Music] this navy helicopter was returning to pick up an inspector from the national park service but otherwise there is absolutely no activity on this windswept island if ghosts really exist san miguel island has more than its chair the ghosts of shipwrecked sailors and of modern day adventurers who have sought to settle this barren rock which is roughly nine miles long and four miles at its widest point san miguel was discovered in 1542 by the portuguese explorer cabrillo the first european explorer known to reach the coast of california after several months of sailing the california coastline cabrillo died of blood poisoning in january of 1543 and it's believed that his men buried him at san miguel now as i've mentioned there have been some attempts to settle the island the best known and most successful of these attempts however ended in tragedy after 14 years the true story involves a new yorker who sought to escape from big city life he came to san miguel with his wife in 1928 and later two daughters were born and raised on the island then in 1942 the man committed suicide the man who had called himself king of san miguel the valiant experiment had ended and so they say of san miguel no one owns this island except the howling winds and the angriest [Music] in the midst of this desolation nature with a touch of sadistic irony adds a dash of beauty you'll see fox on san miguel an unusually small species hardly bigger than a tomcat and native only to these islands how did they get here well some scientists believe that in prehistoric times the islands were a part of the california mainland in color the tiny fox's gray and orange and tame is a kitten [Music] there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of california sea lions at adams cove on the far side of the island no longer hunted thanks to strictly enforced laws they think that san miguel is just dandy the sea elephants have their own colony at adams cove a few hundred yards up upshore from the sea lions and generally speaking the elephants don't mix with alliance some of these sea elephants are quite huge in says resembling walrus but all of us agreed that even more interesting than the sea elephants and the sea lions is san miguel's so-called petrified forest now these old tree stumps are not really petrified but rather encrusted with sand and in time every stump will be completely covered and will then look like this this was once a tree stump that huge rock formation in the harbor is prince island and some believe that this and not san miguel is cabrillo's resting place well no one knows for sure we spent two days in san miguel staying overnight aboard the sea dawn we were glad we had come here but at least several of us were mighty to leave this lonely place it's nice to be at sea again [Music] we're now approaching santa rosa island some three miles southeast of san miguel and almost four times as big much of santa rosa is privately owned and used for the raising of cattle now the owners do not allow visitors so we did not anchor but sailing around the windward side of the island we saw this grim reminder of the danger that is ever present when navigating these channel waters this was once the chickasaw and when she ran aground on the rocks several years ago she was carrying a cargo of christmas toys [Music] the moment we hit choppy seas ben huey went below and came right back topside wearing the shirt of the skunk point yacht club listen sailing in these waters reminds me of the formation of the skunk point yacht club we are just passing the point and years ago there were five five of us on a boat going by the same place i was happy to be along with them and there we formed a yacht club which has become rather famous and has members all over the world some of them being old people as far away as uh norway where prince olaf was a member the late humphrey bogart was a member and it was farmed for people who were hard sailors in rough water and not tied down to dressing up too much at the more elegant yacht clubs the skunk point yacht club is for real and its insignia is listed in lloyd's register the only official publication of its kind now except in the movies a choppy sea never seems to look in a picture as bad as it really is the sea dawn took it in stride [Music] we pass another sailor but no shouting or waving we're hanging on for dear life and so are they [Music] an hour later land ho what a beautiful sight and dozens of seagulls probably a commercial fisherman carrying bait we drop anchor [Music] the sun is sinking fast minutes later sun down at sea a sea that is st calm and almost soothing to the ear gold on black and so to bed we had anchored at pelican bay and here we kept a pre-arranged rendezvous with one of tony's friends dr blake watson aboard his 46-foot cruiser sunday's child ahead lies profile point well named i think and this formation is known as arch rock however we land lovers kept calling it hull in the rock we had radioed dr watson to bring us some magnesium flares from los angeles so that tom mccue our producer photographer could take pictures inside the famous painted cave tom had gone on ahead with the flares which produce a brilliant light the cave is full of sea lions and while we couldn't see them we could hear them and how the sound was more than we could stand and after saying thank you and goodbye to dr watson we spent most of the night listening to tony and ben telling the tallest sea tales this side of texas [Applause] the best known of the gold coast islands is catalina and its picturesque harbor known as this will be one of the highlights island is actually three small islands so closely linked together but from a distance they appear as one anacapa is the smallest of the major gulf coast islands and its only inhabitants are five coast guardsmen who maintain the anacapa lighthouse there is no road or pathway from the water to the top just a series of steps cut into the living rock and so supplies for the men are landed on the small pier and then this giant hoist lifts the cradle of supplies to a second and more easily accessible landing higher up after three weeks of duty on the island each coast guardsman is given a week off to help alleviate the monotony of life on anacapa this tractor with a trailer is the only vehicle on the island and here joe is jolted along on a trip to the lighthouse the anacapa light this man-made sentinel of safety is perched on the rocks 277 feet above the mean low tide mark the light is one of the brightest on the west coast one million nine hundred thousand candle power a beacon light that has surely saved tens of thousands of lives the fog horns operate on compressed air a three-second blast every 30 seconds incidentally special permission must be obtained from the coast guard in order to visit anacapa under sail again our next destination is santa barbara island not to be confused with the city of santa barbara which was the starting point of our journey now we were fortunate to have a light but favorable wind across the stern of the sea dawn so tony decided to hoist the spinnaker sail and look at our boy joe pitching in like an old salt now one sail is like any other to me but tony explained that the spinnaker takes advantage of favorable winds and can increase sailing speed by as much as one and a half nuts suddenly the most freakish sight of the entire cruise a ship standing right on its head so to speak its bow above water its stern submerged our amazement increased when we learned that this is standard operating procedure for this unusual craft now she's known as flip abbreviation for floating instrument platform by flooding its stern the 355 foot long flip becomes vertical and hardly moves at all even in heavy seas in this upright position the flip becomes a stable platform at sea enabling scientists from the scripps institute of oceanography to make studies heretofore considered most difficult then to right the vessel air compressors simply force the water out of the stern we all know that the compass tells a sailor his course and by shooting the sun with a sextant he can determine his position at sea but here's a novel and inexpensive way sailors use to determine the speed of their craft joe tosses a corn chip a few feet ahead of the bow when the chip is even with the bow joe signals dave to start his timing when the chip reaches the point of the stern dave clicks off the timer elaborate calculations thereafter revealed that we were doing 6.1 knots per hour joe liked this kind of work a lot his motto was one for the c and one for me santa barbara island frankly turned out to be the only disappointment of the entire voyage a rock mash a mile and a half long about a mile wide and 600 feet high most of the rock is covered with giant sized ice plants and reindeer moss reminiscent of the arctic tundra tom mccue our producer had by now grown a pirate's beard and tom searched the island for hours hoping to find something of interest to photograph well he found it in the rocks below and his eyesight must be extraordinary we couldn't see anything but waves beating against the rocks but here's what his camera captured sea lions that seem to be performing a water ballet well what they're actually doing is scraping off barnacles after the gloomy fog that shrouds most of these islands it was always a treat to be out in the sunshine of the open sea this is the last lap of our voyage our destination is the most colorful and best known of the islands catalina and its picturesque harbor here at avalon we reached avalon on a saturday afternoon and the harbor was ablaze with color and excitement unlike the other islands catalina is within easy reach of the vacationer there is excellent steamship service daily from the los angeles area to the island which is visible from the mainland on a cleared day a flying boat service also makes frequent daily trips to and from the los angeles area a distance of about 25 miles one way and on any weekend rain or shine winter or summer avalon resembles a convention of the boating fraternity dinghies outboards power cruisers sailboats luxury yachts you'll see them all at avalon and it was nice to see people again lots of people some are residents most are vacationers like ourselves also unlike the other islands there is much to see and do at catalina for a starter you can take an inexpensive tour of the harbor aboard the glass bottom boat the phoenix catalina has a bird park which while not very big does have a magnificent variety of feather bearing creatures very quickly since our time is limited here are some prime examples humboldt penguins from south america various species of swans pink flamingos from mexico the african crown crane domestic peacocks one i've never seen before the gallinule golden pheasants the australian emu of the jigsaw puzzles mr ostrich the toucan the rare crown pigeon and the king vulture of south america all at the bird park in catalina many celebrities have lived and do live on catalina island this sprawling mansion now a hotel was once the home of america's best-known author of western fiction the immortal zane gray shown in this old photo with the world record broad-billed tuna that he caught in tahiti while avalon itself is thickly populated the rest of this island 22 miles long and as much as eight miles wide is not so the vacationer should not be surprised to see buffalo roaming the island ridges a herd that now numbers 250 head well it's time to go home the flying boat with its dozen or so passengers see dawn with all of us aboard and some 2000 tourists jam-packing the steamship back to los angeles and at that they're the lucky ones they get an aloha serenade by a mariachi band [Music] [Laughter] [Music] i [Music] [Music] [Music] by nightfall the c don had completed our cruise of we wish to thank the united states coast guard for allowing us to visit and photograph anacapa island and may i extend personal thanks to dr charles tony sturdivant for enabling us to charter his beautiful sea don also a word of appreciation to the commodore of the old skunk point yacht club ben palm trees huey his gracious wife liz what a cook and finally to young dave smith a terrific navigator next week more faces and places somewhere in america until then thank you so much and good night ladies and gentlemen boys and girls