Sunday 05/20/18
The second day of the Channel Islands was to Anacapa Island. Anacapa is much smaller, with only about two miles of trails which more or less covers the entire island end to end. I guess technically we were on East Anacapa island – it’s all labeled as one island, but there’s an east, middle and west. Maybe they are all connected at low tide – I’m not sure.
Our boat ride over started a bit later and was a smaller boat. We were on the upper deck, but not standing on the bow of the boat, so it was a bit warmer. We did see some dolphins, but not nearly as many as the morning before. The surprise sighting of the day was a mola mola, the biggest, and arguably dumbest, bony fish in the world. This one wasn’t that huge, but happened to be near the surface. Also, much further in the distance, we got to seem some whale spouts – we weren’t close enough to see the whales, but I think, mostly just playing the odds based on the log board in the harbor office, they were likely Minke whales.
As with Santa Cruz, there’s a mandatory orientation when you arrive on the island (I think this is just a National Park Islands kind of thing, they do it on the Manitous as well) where we got a quick rundown of the island and one very critical piece of information on how to ward off any gulls that might get aggressive from the air. The trick is apparently to stick your fist up in the air if you see one, but not to walk around with your fist in the air because that just instigates more attacking. This information seemed to be accurate and was used frequently on the walk around the island.
