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New Boat 4 Sled

sleddog said:
On a foggy morning in July 1976, the month of our country's bicentennial, Joe Bradbury, who taught auto mechanics at Arroyo Grande High School, received a phone call from Ryder Truck Rental. The company asked him to repair one of their box vans that would not start at the Madonna Shopping Center.

The Walt Disney Co. was renting the truck to haul camera equipment for a movie called "Pete's Dragon” (1977) being filmed on a headland south of Point Buchon near Montaña De Oro State Park.

When Joe climbed into the cab of the troublesome vehicle later that day, it started right up. The next morning, he received another phone call from Ryder Truck Rental, telling him the box truck once again would not run. This time, it was located on the Fields Ranch at a newly constructed Disney Lighthouse on an outcropping of land that eventually would be named Disney Point near Pacific Gas and Electric Co's Point Buchon Trail.
This time, Joe took his wife, Jeanne, who was over nine months pregnant with their son Loren, along with their 2-year-old son Glen.

When the Bradbury family arrived at Disney Point later that morning, the truck started immediately. Upon investigation, Joe discovered a carbon track on the distributor cap on the truck's engine. The mist and fog that is so common during July mornings provided enough moisture to allow the carbon track to conduct electricity, which shorted out the truck’s ignition system. Later in the day, when the relative humidity dropped, it started.
He kept that distributor cap for decades afterward as a training tool for his auto shop classes.

Joe told me he remembers the helicopter flying in orbits around the Disney lighthouse with a camera person in its door. Perhaps that is when Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney and child actor Sean Marshall were filming "Razzle Dazzle Day," one of the movie's songs that featured the lighthouse.

He reminisced about his family eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which they brought from home, while the film crew ate pink Madonna Inn box lunches. Joe went on to teach at Arroyo Grande High School for 30 years before his retirement and served on the board of directors of the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers.

Another local resident who remembers the filming of the Pete's Dragon movie was Suzy Will. You see, it was filmed in her backyard. She and her husband lived in the Gate House with her young family as a caretaker at the entrance to the Fields Ranch near Coon Creek about a mile from Disney Point. Suzy told me her home became "communications central" for the film crew because they had a landline phone; back in 1976, cell phones were not in use.

The newly constructed lighthouse was authentic from the first-order Fresnel lens to the plants imported from Maine to resemble the fictitious eastern seacoast town of Passamaquoddy. During the filming of the movie, Ralph Wright, who was a Disney animator and also the dreary voice of Eeyore from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” became friends with Suzy's family and painted a Disney-inspired mural that still exists in the Gate House.

Like Joe, she also remembers the pink Madonna Inn box lunches. The film crew would often drop off the spare box lunches at their home. She told me, "It took two weeks to build to the lighthouse, two weeks to film [the scenes] and two weeks to take it down." Today, it is difficult to find or see any artifacts left from the Disney Lighthouse.

Disney had to get special permission from the U.S. Coast Guard to operate it since its operation would have confused passing ships with the other nearby light stations, and here is why: Each lighthouse along the Central Coast had its own light characteristics, providing a secure navigational tool. If you were to travel southward from Big Sur to Point Conception, you would probably first notice the Piedras Blancas Light, which flashed white every 15 seconds.

As you continue southward, you would see the Point San Luis Lighthouse, which flashed every 20 seconds. Today at the Point San Luis Light Station, a bright LED beacon has replaced the fourth-order Fresnel lens that flashes one second on/four seconds off, every night, and is visible up to 17 miles away. Heading further southward on your journey, you would observe the Point Conception light, which flashed every 30 seconds.

In 1986, PG&E purchased the ranch from the Fields family as part of the lands surrounding Diablo Canyon Power Plant and created an innovative land steward program. The program, which includes the Point Buchon and Pecho Coast trails, received the Wildlife Habitat Council's Corporate Lands for Learning accreditation. The certification recognizes individual companies and organizations for commendable wildlife habitat management and environmental education programs.

"The Point Buchon headland is one of the more prominent points along our Central Coast,” retired PG&E biologist Sally Krenn told me. “When one stands along this spectacular headland, one can sense an aura of spirituality, as the Chumash considered this one of their sacred sites."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Lindsey who wrote the above story, is Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant marine meteorologist and a media relations representative.
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That is quite a story, Sled and a part of the coast that I have sailed past many times, but never visited by land. I love being reminded of those lighthouse signals- critical in the days before GPS . Many thanks for this !
 
Farewell to Lucy, David's much beloved doggie at the Santa Cruz loft. Lucy was always wagging and happy to greet you. Lucy was a very good dog It is always hard to say goodbye to a pet, and we will miss her.
 
A couple of photos from Laura Alderdice taken during the first two races of the Martinelli-Barnes series Saturday out of Inverness YC on Tomales Bay. Red hull is Bren and crew Cynthia on LADY BUG and light grey is Sleddog and Bryan on SMART SHOES. Good sailing in WNW wind, 12-18 knots, 10 boats.

Hiking 2.jpg hiking 4.jpg hiking5.jpg

Both teams won a race and finished 2nd in the other. PINK had two 3rds.
 
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sleddog said:
A couple of photos from Laura Alderdice taken during the first two races of the Martinelli-Barnes series Saturday out of Inverness YC on Tomales Bay. Red hull is Bren and crew Cynthia on LADY BUG and light grey is Sleddog and Bryan on SMART SHOES. Good sailing in WNW wind, 12-18 knots, 10 boats.

View attachment 8418 View attachment 8419 View attachment 8420

Both teams won a race and finished 2nd in the other. PINK had two 3rds.
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It was very fun racing on a shifty day. Thanks Sled !!!!
 
Here is your navigational challenge for this week. Where is the beautiful grotto at the beach terminus of a canyon with wind-and water-sculpted sandstone cliffs, a year-round stream, and riparian vegetation, Hints: on the north shore of a Channel Island in S.Cal. No nearby anchorages, but is reachable hiking 10 miles RT overland. Latitude is 34-01 N.

Wolf Creek.jpg
 
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sleddog said:
Here is your navigational challenge for this week. Where is the beautiful grotto at the beach terminus of a canyon with wind-and water-sculpted sandstone cliffs, a year-round stream, and riparian vegetation, Hints: on the north shore of a Channel Island in S.Cal. No nearby anchorages, but is reachable hiking 10 miles RT overland. Latitude is 34-01 N.

View attachment 8421
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Lobo Canyon
Santa Rosa Island

(The incorrect first guess is below
Nidever Canyon
San Miguel Island

My ipad with all the charts had a dead battery so I had to wait for better information)

Cheers,
Ants
 
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sleddog said:
Correct on Lobo Canyon, Santa Rosa Island. Windswept San Miguel Island has no year around streams nor riparian habitat. https://www.theoutbound.com/los-angeles/hiking/hike-lobo-canyon-in-the-channel-islands-np
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Since Ants correctly answered our geography question as being Lobo Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, we will use off-the-beaten path to Santa Rosa Island in another quiz, this time for 2 TJ's lemon bars for first to answer. Who or what first swam from the California mainland to Santa Rosa Island?

1) A cornucopia of banana slugs.
2) An earth of island foxes.
3) Lynne Cox on a training swim.
4) Juana María, who began the crossing on the Rainbow Bridge, but jumped off to swim with the dolphins below
5) A parade of woolly mammoths sniffing island scents with their snorkel like trunks
6) A mischief of now extinct giant mice.
7) A munchkin dudleya
8) The now protected wima.
9) A clowder of saber-tooth cats.

PS, Has any reader visited Santa Rosa Island? It's the least visited National Park. I've anchored there, but never made it ashore. Too windy.

Santa Rosa Island.jpeg
 
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#1 A cornucopia of banana slugs!

It may not seem probable, however the banana slugs swim and the team name was chosen by the UC Santa Cruz swim team. My only concern is that banana slugs do not do well with granular salt. Salty water must be different.

Ants
 
No idea who swam there, but we too did not go ashore after two nights on the hook. After we weighed anchor, we did a drive by past the pier and thought if we anchored closer next time, we could make it to a small floating dock alongside the pier without having to attempt a beach landing. The park (ranch) looked intriguing.
 
Sorry, Philpott. #5, woolly mammoths is correct. These woolly mammoths were full size critters and were the first to swim from the Mainland to Santa Rosa Island between 80,000 to 13,000 years ago. But you changed the answer to "pygmy" mammoths, which is not correct. 5 foot tall pygmy mammoths developed over thousands of years on Santa Rosa from their much larger, 14 foot tall, 10 ton, Columbian woolly mammoth forebears. Pygmy mammoths were not the first to swim to Santa Rosa (and San Miguel and Santa Cruz.) In fact, they never swam there, but as mentioned above developed as an endemic species on the islands. Your "easy peasy" answer is not correct and no Lemon Bars will be awarded.

Note to all contestants: read the trivia wording carefully, and don't edit the answer. Enuf said.

Yes, banana slugs did make their way to Santa Rosa Island, and live there to this day. And although they can swim with a twisting motion, it is unlikely they swam there as salt water would dehydrate them. More likely they arrived on forest detritus drifting from the mainland. Or developed from a sea snail that had already arrived.

PS#2 Juana Maria was a real person and a book was written about her titled Island of the Blue Dolphins, a must read right up there with Sailing on Wildflower.
 
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Interesting people hang out at Inverness Yacht Club boatyard. How would I know a neighbor from a nearby boat just sang a duet for the King of England at his Coronation? May I introduce IYC member tenor Mark Bonney, back row, tall gentleman at right.

.Mark Bonney.jpg

Here's a closeup of Mark, on the left.
Mark Bonney 2.jpg

Congratulations, Good Sir! (Mark is the only one we know who memorized a 110 race course by singing it to himself.) http://www.markbonneytenor.com/listen.html
 
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We were lucky enough to visit Santa Rosa Island during a spectacular week of weather in late September 2008. The Island Packers boat delivered us, our kayaks, and a pile of gear from Channel Islands Harbor to Santa Rosa Island, with a stop at Santa Cruz Island, in about 3.5 hours if I remember correctly. It's an easy, though over a mile, walk to the campground which keeps it lightly attended. We employed various rolling devices to make the trek some of which were successful. The kayaks can be paddled from the pier to the beach in front of the campground, which is set in a canyon above the beach with lean-to's at each tent site and a very nice vault toilet/solar hot shower. Bechers Bay beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen.
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We arrived five days before the lobster season opened so were not able to have fresh bait, but I was determinded to try it.
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It was one of the last years the Gherini family was still running an Elk hunt so the roads around the island were off limits to hikers. We were lucky enough to get a ride from a park service vehicle to the remote canyon.
 

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