A little over a week ago, Saturday morning, March 1, storm swells were pummeling the shoreline of Monterey Bay. Sets were regularly breaking over the Santa Cruz Harbor breakwater. Solid water occasionally broke halfway up the Walton Lighthouse at the seaward end of the west jetty. Rainer, Howard, Julio, and I watched from the Kind Grind coffee shop, at O'Neill's Beach, near the East Breakwater at Santa Cruz Harbor.
A week later, at "Coffee Club," the same crew again sipped sunrise coffee, while overlooking the Harbor Entrance. Rainer asked if we noticed anything different about the East Breakwater. Nothing was immediately evident to my eye. Rainer, who looks at these rocks every day, pointed out the tip of the East Breakwater had been "rearranged."
Holy macaroni, I saw it. There was now an extra large rock standing proud at the outer end of the breakwater where none had been before.
We speculated where this rock had come from and what it weighed. Howard guessed it weighed about 165 pounds per cubic foot, about the same as wet cement he had hauled in buckets for his father years before.
From a distance of about 700 feet, we guesstimated the "Ghost Rock" measured about 6 feet on a side, or about 215 cubic feet. That would make it weigh approximately 33,000 pounds or 17 tons.
Although Ghost Rock was now perched on top of the breakwater, the glint in Howard's eye said he knew more than just the weight of a cubic foot of wet cement.
"In about 1969 or '70 I hit Ghost Rock, or it's brother, with the second Hobie 14 that I had bought from Ed Mabie."
Howard continued, "I was leaving the harbor about this time of year and thought I had timed the swell properly. But the combination of current, and lull in the wind, combined to get me bashed on the end of the jetty by a four to six foot wave. That put a 12 inch diameter hole in the port hull and broke the 1/2 gallon bottle of Red Mountain that I had lashed to the port shroud, leaving me to fend off the jetty with a jug of broken glass dangling from the shroud. Even worse, it got my matches, and stash soaked."
"I sailed back to the hoist and spent the next week repairing the boat so I could race the next Sunday. I got a third that day."
Howard's encyclopedic recall usually leaves me thoughtful. I went home, grabbed my camera and tape measure, returned, and began a rock hop out 500 feet of breakwater. It was not easy going, somewhat reminiscent of descending talus in Yosemite Valley after a rock climb.
After about 10 minutes, I reached a position about 10 feet from Ghost Rock. Initially, I had hoped to descend and put a tape measure on its sides. But a breaking wave drove me upwards. A closer approach to Ghost Rock was unsafe.
I sat down to study the possibilities of Ghost Rock's previous location before the storm swell. I could see barnacles on the top of Ghost Rock, where no barnacles should be. I could also see a gap where Ghost Rock had come from.
Holy Tamale. Ghost Rock had been levered upwards several feet and rotated 90 degrees into its new location.
I could now also estimate Ghost Rock's measurements. Though not symmetrical, 7'x 7' x 4.5' seemed a pretty good guess. In my head that figured to be about 220 cubic feet, or pretty close to our original estimate. Call it the proverbial "16 tons."
What force had moved 16 ton Ghost Rock? A breaking wave had done it. Respect.
I retreated inland and began a research as to Ghost Rock's origins. Providentially, there is a good book on the subject, available online. It is called Santa Cruz Harbor, by George Wagner, an enlightening document of 133 pages here:
http://www.santacruzharbor.org/documents/TheSantaCruzHarbor_byGeorgeWagner.pdf
Ghost Rock began life at the Lone Star Quarry, near Davenport, 11 miles up the Coast from Santa Cruz. This rock, and many like it, were dynamited in 1963 from the Quarry by Granite Rock Construction. Ghost Rock was weighed, and marked with blue paint as Class "A1," meaning it was about 17 tons, important when you get paid by the ton. Ghost Rock was then loaded on a Granite Rock truck for transportation to the location of the new Harbor.
Though resembling granite, Ghost Rock is actually Franciscan Sandstone, or "jetty rock." Similar rocks from the same quarry were used to reinforce West Cliff Drive, and build the Half Moon Bay Breakwater.
Ghost Rock was ultimately placed at low tide by a large crane on railroad tracks. According to Wagner, Ghost Rock was part of the 150' "skirt" of rocks that protected the outer end of the breakwater.
Ghost Rock's new location, as initially observed by Rainer, is likely to remain for sometime to come. But Santa Cruz Harbor is a magnet for natural events like the '89 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 2009 Japanese earthquake and resulting tsumani. Ghost Rock could conceivably move again.
If you sail into Santa Cruz Harbor, Ghost Rock is on your starboard hand, at the tip of the East Breakwater.
