Channel Islands Sailing
At One World Sailing Academy, we absolutely love the Channel Islands National Park. It is often affectionately referred to as the “Galapagos of the North Pacific” because of its incredible marine biodiversity, remote beauty, and largely untouched natural environment.
The Channel Islands National Park includes Anacapa Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island, San Miguel Island, and Santa Barbara Island, all protected as part of the United States National Park System. Just to the south is Catalina Island, which is not part of the National Park system but is equally spectacular and one of the most iconic cruising destinations in Southern California.
For anyone interested in Channel Islands sailing or Channel Islands cruising, this region offers some of the most beautiful and rewarding offshore sailing grounds on the West Coast.
The area is rich with marine life. Blue whales, humpback whales, gray whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and countless seabirds frequently move through the region. It is also a very popular destination for PADI diving instruction and recreational diving because of the incredible underwater environment surrounding the islands.
The Channel Islands National Park is powerful, rugged, remote, and incredibly beautiful. It also carries a deep maritime and natural history that makes sailing through the region feel truly special. There is a palpable energy in the Channel Islands. The combination of open ocean, rugged islands, marine life, weather, and maritime history creates an environment that feels wild, powerful, and alive.
Some of the outer islands, such as San Miguel Island, can receive up to 300 small craft advisories per year. This is an area that demands respect, seamanship, weather awareness, and careful decision making. The wind, weather, and sea conditions can become very serious, particularly around the outer islands. But for sailors willing to learn and properly prepare, the rewards for cruising this region are incredible.
At One World Sailing Academy, we teach a fully immersive liveaboard advanced sailing course aboard a Category A blue water cruising sailboat specifically designed for cruising, offshore passage making, and even circumnavigation, an Amel Super Maramu 2000.
Our training places a heavy emphasis on onboard systems, onboard safety systems, weather routing, passage planning, anchoring techniques, watchkeeping, night passages, system maintenance, and system operation. We are focused on teaching in an environment that gives students every opportunity to utilize every onboard system the same way they would during offshore passagemaking, long-distance cruising, or even a circumnavigation.
The Channel Islands region is a true proving ground for offshore sailors. It is the right boat in the right cruising environment. Students have the opportunity to experience a wide variety of weather and offshore sea conditions, anchoring challenges, navigation, watch standing, and real offshore cruising situations while aboard a serious blue water cruising vessel.
You will learn more aboard this vessel, in this environment, than almost anywhere else.
If you are interested in advanced sailing, cruising, offshore passage making, or blue water sailing, and you want to learn those skills in one of the most beautiful cruising environments you will ever experience, we invite you to contact One World Sailing Academy so we can help get you started right away.