Story by John Vonderlin (email John: [email protected]
Hi June,
Knowing a picture can be worth a thousand words you might want to include the picture numbers from the California Coastal Records Project (CCRP), that cover the Lou Denny Wayne shipwreck area.
The promontory with the pass-through sea cave with the unusual sealife inside it, is shown at the extreme lower left in Picture #6331. You can see the difficulty of passing by this area without a very low tide.
The next picture to the northwest #6330, with a large wave crashing on the promontory that the semi-submerged cave cuts through, illustrates the caution necessary and danger posed to anyone that tries to go this way. In the lower left hand corner of that same picture is the site of the Lou Denny Wayne‘s grounding.
With the only way off that beach being to climb the cliffs in the dark of night, my hat comes off to the captain’s son who accomplished that.
Finally, if you look carefully at the large file of Picture #6327 , you can see the top of the arch I mentioned. It’s part of the promontory about 2/3 of the way from the left of the picture. The arch is just to the left of the fountain of spray from the wave crashing into the promontory. Picture #200401039, which is of the same area, just two years later, shows the arch a little more clearly in the large file.
A WARNING: I urge anyone attempting to follow our path to be extremely careful. You might find yourself between a rock and a hard place and nobody is going to hear your scream for help. Enjoy. John