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New Boat 4 Sled

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Capitola Wharf broken in half 110 years ago, 1913

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Inside of Wharf Restaurant after 1983 storm. Destruction of the end of the Capitola Wharf contributed to the idea of building a "bow' on the Wharf to calm storm waves.

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Soquel Creek flood in 1983, coupled with high surf, destroyed the Esplanade Restaurants. That was 40 years ago.

CapitolaWharf3.JPG
The "bow" on the Capitola Wharf didn't help, and ended up badly damaged in the recent storm.

Memories are short. Capitola Village floods every 10-15 years, causing varying degrees of damage. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Albert Einstein.
 
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Has the new home for the superb trophy been revealed?

Ants

Hi Ants, Thanks for asking. As nothing is for sure until it actually happens, the double-hulled koa canoe Transpac trophy's new home will best be announced when it is delivered and rigged. Good news is it will be only 180 miles from your QTH.
 
Amazing old photos, Sled. Facing due West makes that area so vulnerable !

Santa Cruz Harbor Entrance and nearby Capitola-In-The-Sea, being on the north, or windward shore of Monterey Bay, face due south, towards Monterey. We can, and do get swells from S.Hemisphere storms. Pre-frontal SE winds blow water into the Bay and raise the sea level considerably, something tide charts don't account for.

Santa Cruz Harbor Entrance currently shoaled all the way across. No paddling in the ocean for a while.

MontereyBay Chart.jpg
 
Due South- I stand corrected- thanks Sled. All I know is that - between Tsunamis and big swells- you guys take a beating down there !
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLQIKMbY0ws

Thanks to the Magicians for this video of a large wave breaking over Morro Rock. Doggies.

Morro Bay is famous for the Jan.28, 1978 photo of the 84 foot MV MOJO departing Morro Bay despite the harbormaster's warning. Actor George C Scott had chartered MOJO to appear at the Crosby Golf Tournament for his tee time. Scott may have been an iconic actor, but was no seaman.

MOJO.jpg

Speaking of large waves and equally large ships, what US Navy warship ran aground on a submerged island 100 miles off the coast of California? The island today produces some of the largest waves in the World. 100 footers are not uncommon.
 
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Speaking of large waves and equally large ships, what US Navy warship ran aground on a submerged island 100 miles off the coast of California? The island today produces some of the largest waves in the World. 100 footers are not uncommon.

As a SCUBA diver I recognized Sled’s reference to “a submerged island.” The shallow seamounts (submerged islands) along the California Coast have long held a special interest for SCUBA divers. Typically, these seamounts are only considered dive-able in the late Fall when conditions usually calm down. In Northern California, twenty miles off Point Reyes we have the undersea island Cordell Bank (~120 feet below the surface). DAZZLER’s mate Sue E. was one of the divers that explored Cordell Bank and helped it become a National Marine Sanctuary.

In Southern California, the Channel Islands chain includes at least two notable seamounts that are a draw for SCUBA divers: Farnsworth Bank (~65 feet below the surface) and Cortes Bank (ONLY ~3-6 feet below the surface!!!). Cortes Bank along with Bishop Rock, due to the shallow depth and topography, are most notable for producing really big waves. As for the history of shipwrecks at Cortes Bank, well I didn’t know the specifics without Wikipedia where there is more rather interesting history. It’s worth reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortes_Bank
 
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[FONT=&]As a SCUBA diver I recognized Sled’s reference to “a submerged island.” the Channel Islands chain includes at least two notable seamounts that are a draw for SCUBA divers: Farnsworth Bank (~65 feet below the surface) and Cortes Bank (ONLY ~3-6 feet below the surface!!!). Cortes Bank along with Bishop Rock, due to the shallow depth and topography, are most notable for producing really big waves. As for the history of shipwrecks at Cortes Bank, well I didn’t know the specifics without Wikipedia where there is more rather interesting history. It’s worth reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortes_Bank
[/FONT]

Thanks Tom for identifying Cortes Bank and Bishop Rock as the submerged island 100 miles offshore San Diego that the war hero, aircraft carrier USS ENTERPRISE hit and was badly damaged. But the great shoal really should be named for the first ship to notice its wondrous effects: the USS CONSTITUTION, aka "Old Ironsides".

On January 5, 1846, as war loomed with Mexico, the CONSTITUTION was cruising off Southern California when crew members spotted a large patch of white spume and the roar of breakers. This is the first record of the waves that would enter history as the largest ever surfed. Under certain conditions of wave, wind and current, the seas piled up on Cortes Bank and Bishop rock into eighty-foot-high mountains of perfect curl, whose roar could be heard for miles.

One of the few U.S. Navy ships to rival the CONSTITUTION for fame, the USS ENTERPRISE encountered Cortes Bank and Bishop Rock on November 2, 1985. The carrier and her air wing were conducting an Operational Readiness Exercise (ORE) out of San Diego, and the skipper, Capt. Robert L. Leuschner Jr., wasn’t pleased with how things were going.

He had a lot on his mind. The ORE involved simulated multiple airstrikes on defended targets, and the ship needed to keep headed into the wind to get the planes launched and landed swiftly. The navigator alerted him to the proximity of Cortes Bank and plotted a course correction. At that Captain Leuschner was distracted by what turned out to be a false report of a gunman below decks. During the precious moments when communications and awareness were tied up, no one noticed the carrier’s approach to Cortes Bank.

The impact of a quarter-mile-long nuclear-powered object with a thirteen-mile-long solid rock is prodigious. The drowned island tore a sixty-foot-long gash in the side of the Enterprise’s torpedo-resistant hull. Three of the four giant propellers were totaled and the port keel gone.

The giant warship floated off the shoal and righted itself with counter flooding; later, Marines stood guard against sharks while divers assessed the damage. If naval distraction and miscommunication got the captain into trouble, naval preparedness got the ship out of danger in good order.

Cortes Bank.jpg

How'd you like to take off on this wave on your aircraft carrier?
 
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A great read on the natural and human history of Cortes Bank is: "Ghost Wave," by Chris Dixon. Covers the Enterprise episode in detail, along with some other astonishing stuff. Not least of which was the effort to build an island nation on the rock by a rag-tag crew of adventurers in the 1970's.
 
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