CHAPTER XXI 



A PASSING island: SAN NICOlAs 



TO make the trip to San Nicolas I would advise 

 a fifty or sixty ton yacht: yet I have known 

 men to go in a skiff; the Indians sailed it 

 in their canoes; and small fishing-boats of twenty-five 

 feet or more make it readily. The island lies so far 

 offshore that it is exposed to all the winds that come 

 down the coast, and appears to be an island against 

 which the wind gods have an especial grievance. 

 Three times I started in a sixty-ton yacht before I 

 finally reached San Nicolas. Each time we were 

 blown off, but on the last attempt we determined to 

 stand by it. The close-reefed yacht laid to somewhere 

 between Santa Barbara Rock and San Nicolas in mid- 

 channel, but about four o'clock we feared it would 

 blow the sails out of her, so we squared away with the 

 jib and power and ran into Santa Catalina Harbor, — 

 a shelter that Cabrillo doubtless sought many times in 

 1542, — the only perfect refuge on any of the islands. 

 This must have been the anchorage of Vizcaino when 

 he was driven about by the storms of winter. There 

 is much in his accounts relating to running to San 

 Clemente for shelter, the worst place to go. This 

 harbor must have been the refuge of all the mariners 

 caught at the islands in a gale. 



In running for San Nicolas from Santa Catalina we 

 pass by Santa Barbara Rock. The former is the outer- 



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