In October 2020, E/V Nautilus explored the Santa Lucia Bank area and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) and surrounding waters offshore of California. This expedition furthered research priorities shared by the West Coast Deep-Sea Coral Initiative, the EXpanding Pacific Research and Exploration of Submerged Systems (EXPRESS) campaign, and other research initiatives to document the distribution of deep-sea resources. Santa Lucia Bank is an area of interest for the development of offshore wind energy and is also within the nominated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS). Eleven ROV dives were conducted in the designated and proposed national marine sanctuaries to validate seafloor mapping data and habitat suitability models for deep-sea corals and sponges, and to better understand the distribution and connectivity of these habitats via targeted sampling. After exploring the deeper areas of the Santa Lucia Bank and escarpment, deteriorating weather chased us inshore where we completed a short dive in an area surveyed with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in 2005 and 2018.