My dad was a pilot, and one time years ago when he came to Santa Barbara to visit me, we rented a small place from the airport to go enjoy the sights from a bird’s-eye view. He was carefully and methodologically working through the pre-flight checklist.
When he checked the compass, he stared at it for a long moment, then looked around at the mountains and ocean, reached out and tapped the compass repeatedly. I caught his wrist and said, “Yes, Dad, that mountain really is to our north and the islands are to our south. We have transverse mountain ranges.”
As a navigator, he really had to come to grips with that strange reality.
This evening I was sitting at the Beachside Bar-Café having a business dinner and telling my colleagues from the East Coast that just below Campus Point (which we could clearly see from the restaurant) was an east-facing beach. I always enjoy pointing that out to folks. As we enjoyed our dinner, the sun set over land to our west, not over the sea.
Our directions just seem warped. I know it is simply a result of our transverse (running east-west) mountain ranges, but it just seems wrong. On my charter boat (www.wavewalker.com) and in my tackle shop (www.hooklineandshooter.com), I hear people all the time talk about taking their boats out of the harbor and heading north. That’s actually not a good idea because it would put them right back into the harbor and up onto West Beach, much to the dismay of beachgoers. To run up the coast, people actually steer westward. And to go fishing or whale-watching down the coast toward Carprinteria, we head eastward.
When we stand on the most local beaches and look at the islands, they are south of us. This means the Santa Barbara Channel runs east-west, which explains why we get such powerful winds and tall, dangerous seas out on the channel. Weather/winds move down our coast and wrap around Point Conception, picking up power and speed, then aiming at San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands in the morning and then in the afternoon come howling down the channel like screaming banshees. Experienced boaters know this well and play along the coast when the winds are wild out in the channel.
Many of our smart phones have built-in compasses. Take a looksee for yourself. The directions you had in your head may not quite match what the compass says.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.