Epic Overnight - Painted Cave Kayak and Dive

You will board Truth starting at 7:00 am and check in with our crew. A bunk will be assigned to you based on your reservation request.

A mandatory briefing will occur at 8:00 am and all loading of personal items should be completed before then. All guests must be present for this orientation. The crew will introduce themselves and provide a comprehensive safety briefing and trip orientation. After the briefing, we will depart for Santa Cruz Island. 

Morning coffee/tea and continental breakfast will be available during boarding, a hot breakfast will be provided while underway.

Check-in at 7:00am. Mandatory briefing at 8:00 am. Departure at 8:30 am.

Meet your crew at the Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor (at 301 West Cabrillo Blvd, Santa Barbara, CA).

You will board Truth after 7:30 pm and check in with our crew. A bunk will be assigned to you based on your reservation request.

A mandatory expedition briefing will occur at 9 pm. All guests must be present for this orientation. You will have a chance to meet your crew and go over all of the safety equipment onboard the vessel. After the briefing, we will prepare for departure. Departure times vary depending on conditions in the channel. We may stay in port for several hours or we may depart right away. After the briefing, passengers are not permitted to depart the vessel (except to retrieve last-minute items from parked vehicles).

If you arrive early there are many different options for dinner in the Santa Barbara Harbor.

Check-in at 7:30 pm for a 9:00 pm briefing

Santa Cruz Island is the largest island off of the West Coast of the United States. It also has some of the largest volcanic sea caves on the planet. The largest is called Painted Cave and it is almost a quarter-mile long deep into the darkness. We will spend about an hour in this cave exploring and taking in the massiveness and beautiful lichen growing on the inner walls of the cave’s ceiling.

In addition to Painted Cave, there are roughly a dozen other large sea caves that we may be able to explore (everything is dependent on swell and tides).

We take our time on this trip, spending lots of our afternoon inside the back chamber of Painted Cave.

This guided kayaking trip is “one-way” or “downwind”. With the Truth (the big boat) always nearby, we’ll begin our paddle on at the Blimp Hangar on the west and head down current to Quail rock where Truth will be waiting to pick us up!

After our kayaking is wrapped up, we’ll have the later part of the afternoon for diving, snorkeling, fishing, swimming, and relaxing as we find our resting place for the evening in a secluded cove. (SCUBA diving is limited to open water-certified individuals and you’re welcome to bring along full dive gear.) 

A full hot dinner will be served at anchor, followed by dessert for those with a sweet tooth. Alcoholic beverages may be brought with you on the trip but may only be enjoyed after in-water activities have concluded for the day. The overnight stay on this trip gives you a taste of the quintessential island experience – relax under an island sunset and fall asleep to the sound of the ocean lapping at the Truth’s hull.

Wake up at the islands, in a beautiful and protected cove, to the smell of breakfast and coffee.  Make an optional morning dive, snorkel, or swim if you want to get wet! (SCUBA diving is limited to open water-certified individuals and you’re welcome to bring along full dive gear.) If you don’t want to get in the water right away, enjoy a slower morning aboard, relaxing on the sun deck with your breakfast and coffee.

After the morning swim/dive, we’ll head to our kayak destination where we’ll put in near Arch Rock, an unbelievable feature on the island. There are many caves to explore in the area and lots of wildlife to experience. We’ll continue down the coast into several coves and end the paddle at a large cave we call “peg leg”.

After everything is loaded back on the Truth, we’ll pull the anchor and begin our journey home to Santa Barbara.

Enjoy the 2.5-hour return trip back to Santa Barbara Harbor.  Keep your eyes peeled for sea life along the way.  You can bring alcoholic beverages but they are only to be enjoyed on the return trip home.

Estimated arrival time in Santa Barbara Harbor is 6:00 pm

Santa Cruz Island, originally known as “Limuw” by the indigenous Chumash people, is located 23 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The Chumash people inhabited several large villages on Santa Cruz for thousands of years. Their creation story describes it as the birthplace of their people, who reached the mainland via a rainbow bridge across the channel.

Santa Cruz is the largest island off the continental United States. At 22 miles long, and between 2 to 6 miles wide, it has an area of almost 100 square miles. The island’s coastline has steep cliffs, large sea caves, secluded coves, and sandy beaches. The highest point is Devils Peak, at over 2,450 feet of elevation. A central valley splits the island along the Santa Cruz Island Fault, with volcanic rock on the north side of the island and older, sedimentary rock on the south side of the island. This volcanic rock was heavily fractured during an uplift phase that formed the island, and over a hundred large sea caves have been carved into the resulting faults by wind and waves. The largest of these is Painted Cave, among the world’s biggest sea caves.

Kayaking at Santa Cruz Island

Kayaking along the western end of Santa Cruz Island gives you the chance to explore along cliff faces, into secluded coves, inlets packed with marine life, and beautiful sea caves. We will explore Painted Cave, one of the largest sea caves in the world. Sea lions and harbor seals inhabit the many coves and caves of this stretch of the island. You’ll paddle through a Marine Protected Area where kelp forest provides habitat for an array of fishes and other marine life.

Downwind Kayaking

Rather than kayaking a loop or out and back, we will kayak downwind in one direction, with the Truth meeting us at the end of our paddle to pick us up. This gives you the opportunity to see more of Santa Cruz Island while making your journey less strenuous.

Sea caves are common throughout the Channel Islands and are formed where faults in the volcanic rocks are exposed to the force of waves and winds. Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island is one of the largest sea caves in the world (specifically it is the longest in the world) and penetrates over a quarter-mile into the interior of the island. The cave is named after the multi-colored lichen growing on the inner walls and ceiling. We explore the depths of this cave by kayak and check out the sea life that inhabits it.