Clarion Island
george_of_the_jungle
90 knots and is beginning to fade in cooler water. A moderate swell
should hit Newport, the Wedge and places that pick up hurricane
swells.
The question is what's the surf like at Clarion Island? It seems well
situated to pick up the big NPac winter swells plus the occasional
summer hurricane swell and southern hemi swell. Is Clarion Island
accessible?
-George
Terry Hendricks
(george_of_the_jungle) wrote:
> ...<snipped>...
>The question is what's the surf like at Clarion Island? It seems well
>situated to pick up the big NPac winter swells plus the occasional
>summer hurricane swell and southern hemi swell. Is Clarion Island
>accessible?
>
>-George
I've never been there. But it is described (but not from a surfer's
point of view) in the Baja Sea Guide (part reproduced below). It
sounds kind of sketchy, surf-wise, but the most promising location
would seem to be on the south side (see last part of the section below
in particular). Although not mentioned in the Sea Guide, I seem to
rember Scripps divers talking about the sharks in the area.
From: Baja Sea Guide
Isla Clarion is a precipitous, rocky, and virtually inaccessible all
around except in the vicinity of Sulphur Bay on the southern side,
midway between the southwest and southeast points. The northern side
of the island is comprised of perpendicular rocky cliffs rising
straight up from the sea as high as 600 feet. The eastern and western
sides of the island are also precipitous and inaccessible from the
sea. Off the northwest point of the island, Roca Momumento, 200 ft
high, stands as a remarkable and prominent landmark plainly visible
for a considerable distance; it is comprised of a broken pyramidal
shaft of alternate layers of red and white rock rising 200 feet above
a great square base. Pinnacle rocks of various heights stand close off
the corners of the base. Between Monument Rock and the northwest point
of the island are a number of smaller pinnacle rocks. One great
cluster of variegated pinnacles surmounts a lofty stone bridge through
which the sky can be seen when bearing properly; this group is known
as Rocas Pinaculos. Above Rocas Pinaculos the island rises in a white
striated cliff several hundred feet high. Caution: A rocky shoal
covered to a depth of 3 fathoms lies about 3/4 mile northeastward of
Monument Rock. Off the north side of the island, about 1.25 miles
east-northeastward of the northwest point and standing about 375 yards
from the cliffs is a detached rock 25 feet high.
Detached rocks, submerged, awash and exposed, lie scattered off the
cliffs that comprise the island's northern shore. A rock over which
there is a depth of less than 6 feet is situated 400 yards off the
northeastern end of Clarion Island. On the eastern side of Clarion
Island, near its northeastern point, is a prominent rounded hump
forming a volcanic cliff with multiple layered strata folded downward
at a sharp angle. This landmark is called Escarpa de Escoria and is
easily recognized when approaching from the eastward.
Roca del Cuervo, designated Shag Rock on many marine charts, is
situated close off the eastern side of the island about midway between
the northeastern and southwestern points. The rock is 40 feet high
with numerous smaller rocks close around it.
Roca Piramide stands close off the southeastern point of the island.
The coast between Pyramid Rock and Sulphur Bay, situated about 2.25
miles westward is a sweeping indentation backed by a white coral-sand
beach and fronted by foul ground which extends as much as 600 yards
offshore in places, and upon which breakers curl havily shoreward.
Farallon de la Bandera, about 2.5 miles westward of Roca Piramide, is
a black lava headland 173 feet high, connected to the island by a
broad neck of white coral-sand beach. This headland stands at the
eastern entrance to Bahi Sulphur, a protected bay backed by a wide,
sandy beach, indented between Farallon de la Bandera and Roca Cresta
de Gallo, the latter a high rocky point, about 0.5 mi westward, that
looks very mucl like a coxcomb. Bahia Sulphur affords the only
tolerably anchorage at Clarion Island and there are several landing
places in it's vicinity. Immediately westward of Roca Cresta de Gallo
is a deep, very narrow indentation where a landing on a protected
rocky ledge can be made when the sea is calm.
Punta Rocosa, 1.75 miles westward of this landing place, comprises the
southwestern point of the island. Rocky cliffs, 75 to 200 feet high,
run about 1.25 miles in a northwesterly direction along the western
shore of the island, then round up to an almost 1.5 mile strestch of
cliffs oriented north and south; thence break to a northeast and
southwest alignment, where the most remarkable landmark ofl Clarion
Island, the 200 foot high massive Roca Momumento, stands off the
northwest extremity of the island.
Standing well off the southern side in clear weather, a silhouette
view of Clarion Island shows Cerro Gallegos, the prominant peak near
the western end, Roca Cresta de Gallo, a rocky headland at the western
entrance to Sulphur Bay; Farallon de la Bandera, a black lava hill at
the eastern entrance of Sulphur Bay; Monte de la Marina, the highest
rounded peak of three in the center of the island; Cerro del
Hormiguero, a flat-topped peak just westward of Pico Tienda de
Compana; Cerro Neptuno, a lower hill southward and beneath Pico Tienda
de Comapna; and Escarpada de Escoria, the volcanic headland comprising
the most significant feature of the eastern end of the island.
A well developed coral reef fringes the south side of Clarion Island.
It is especially well developed in Bahia Sulphur and along the shore
eastward from Farallon de la Bandera. The reef in Bahia Sulphur
extends westward fromt he landward side of Farallon de la Bandera to
the opposite side of the bay, so that the inner half of the bay is
well protected from the surf, especially at low tide. The reef lies
within a few inches of the ocean surface at low tide and forms a bold
underwater scarp some 20 or 30 feet high, from the base of which the
ocean floor decends rapidly seaward. It forms a similar platform
eastward of Farallon de la Bandera extending several hundred yards
from shore. Soundings obtained off the southern side of Clarion Island
show 20 fathoms at 0.5 mi from shore, increasing to 50 fathoms at 1
mile. Between Clarion and Socorro the general depth is nearly 2000
fathoms.
Sulphur Bay was named by Captain Edward Belcher of the British Royal
Navy who anchored at Clarion Island in 1837 in the course of a
zoological and botanical expedition aboard the H.M.S. Sulphur. This
anchorage affords fair holding ground during northerly winds in depths
of 12-13 fathoms at a distance of 600 yards from the sand beach. The
inner 2/3 of Sulphur Bay is blocked by the coral reef upon which the
surf breaks heavily.
...<section on marine life snipped>...
A landing may be made in moderate weather on a steep beach of coarse
coral and volcanic cobbles on the west side of the bay, preferably at
high tide; no attempt should be made to land straight on through the
breakers toward the central part of the beach, as a small boat is most
surely to be swamped in the surf. At the head of the bay the beach is
composed of fine white coral sand; the beach eastward of Sulphur Bay
beyond Farallon de la Bandera is composed of coarse fragments and
white coral sand intermixed with cobbles and pebbles of volcanic rock.
Near the center of this beach where the surf breaks heaviest, the
coral is banked up in three well-defined terraces; the breakers extend
out 0.5 mi from this beach.
...<the remainder deals largely with the onshore characteristics and
has been snipped>...
rodNDtube
> On Thu, 30 Aug 2001 07:41:07 GMT, george_of_...@my-deja.com
> (george_of_the_jungle) wrote:
>
> > ...<snipped>...
> >The question is what's the surf like at Clarion Island? It seems well
> >situated to pick up the big NPac winter swells plus the occasional
> >summer hurricane swell and southern hemi swell. Is Clarion Island
> >accessible?
> >
> >-George
>
> I've never been there. But it is described (but not from a surfer's
> point of view) in the Baja Sea Guide (part reproduced below). It
> sounds kind of sketchy, surf-wise, but the most promising location
> would seem to be on the south side (see last part of the section below
> in particular). Although not mentioned in the Sea Guide, I seem to
> rember Scripps divers talking about the sharks in the area.
<snipped description>
Terry (aka sdbchguy), it's great to see you posting again in AS! I trust
you have the dueling Pentiums up and humming now.
Dan tells me you guys are headed down to Baja... have a great trip!
Rod Rodgers
eMail: rrod...@bcpl.net
Homepage: http://www.bcpl.net/~rrodgers/rodpage1.html
GP2K1: http://www.GuidoPalooza.com