About 37 or 8 years ago a friend of mine and I were sailing past the Channel Islands and decided to stop at Santa Cruz and visit the "Painted Cave". Now we were pretty young and didn't have much money so the stores on board were limited to say the least. Flashlight batteries weren't very high on the "need to have list". We anchored in the mouth of the cave, bow and stern, launched the dinghy, grabbed the only flashlight on board and headed into the cave. We got as far as the second chamber but found that the poor flashlight with it's half dead batteries was no match for the pitch black of the cave. We turned around and headed back out to the boat, popped a few beers and discussed the problem. We hit upon the idea of a white out of date flare. This, after a few more beers. My friend rummaged through the box and came up with one and we headed for the dinghy but as I was holding the dinghy waiting for him to get in he decided that the flare was only out of date by three or four years and he had several that were his fathers and they were much better suited for the job. He headed back to the box and came up with one that was so old that you could hardly read the printing on the side. We headed back into the cave and worked our way to the third chamber with the flashlight but by that time it was so dead that we could just make out the flare enough to light it. Much to out surprise, instead of it being a white flare it turned out to be a red smoke flare! Well, I have to tell you that there are about 15 or 20 seals that live back in that cave and they were not happy with us at all. They started jumping off the rocks all around us with the water splashing into the dinghy and almost turning us over. Of course we tried to put the flare out by stuffing it into the water but that didn't even slow it down. We managed to row out of the cave coughing and sputtering only to find the red smoke rolling up the front of the cave and into the air. Way up into the air! My friend had given up trying to put it out and dropped it back in the cave so we just had to sit there wondering if it was going to be reported and just how much trouble we were going to be in. As it turned out, no one reported it so we were able dodged the bullet. I'm sure that after all these years the smoke has been washed off the walls of the cave. It's funny how a few beers can make a really bad plan seem like it's just perfect....