2012.02.227 - Out In The Blue

Sunday dawned a little cloudier and cooler than we had hoped, but the sun was poking through a light cloud cover. A slow flood and a slight north breeze suggested that we should have some nice conditions of the water. The breeze was forecast to pick up around noon as a squall passed through so we should have had a couple of hours of calm if cool conditions.


Louise and I met up early with Paula for a paddle at Cadboro Bay, joined by Mark and Robyn from Gecko Paddler. They're new to kayaking, but the bug has bit them hard. They purchased their kayaks last fall, and jumped right into paddling with both feet.


Our plan was to paddle out of Cadboro Bay, island hop to Flower and Jemmy Jones, then cross to Chatham Island....

...but on the way Mark spotted an otter relaxing on the shore.



We avoided the sail boats...

...but as we headed across, the 12 o'clock squall roared in about two hours early, so we decided to turn back. We saw the eagle that usually sits in the tree on the island joined by another eagle. Some sort of eagle ruckus ensued. Louise was the closest and had the best few. She was pretty sure that they had been mating. Here they are enjoying the afterglow.


So instead of crossing, we continued up to Cadboro Point. While quite calm along the shore, we could see that the exposed northern shore around the point was getting the full blast of the wind. So we just paddled around the rocks at the end of the point, and Mark had his first taste of paddling in waves.

I think he liked it - he said he should get himself a surfing boat!

We headed back...

...and naturally the wind died off and the sun came out as soon as we hit the beach, but at least we were now able to enjoy our-post paddle coffee with Robyn and Mark at an outside table.

Trip Length: 7.29 km
YTD: 10.57 km
More pictures are here.

2012.01.226 - Snow Day

Now don't start laughing, but it snowed in Victoria last night. I know that barely 2 cm of white stuff on the ground wouldn't count as a "real" snowfall in most locales, especially here in the Great White North, but for Victoria, 2 cm is almost a blizzard. Which isn't to say what we haven't had real blizzards, for we most assuredly have, but snow is a rarity here and anything more than a light dusting throws this town into a tizzy.
I couldn't resist a quick paddle this morning and wheeled my kayak down the hill. It's not often you see a guy in a Santa hat walking his kayaking in the snow. Even one of Victoria's finest was distracted from the traffic ticket she was writing.


Louise would normally accompany me, but she stayed on shore and walked along beside me, the idea being that she could take a few shots of me and the snow for a Christmas card for next winter. She took some nice shots, but they'll have to wait until the holidays roll around again.


I put in at the bottom of my hill....

....and paddled into the quiet morning. Even the small amount of snow on the ground was enough to dampen the sound of the neighbourhood.
But I was quickly joined by a duck that landed right beside me.
While the ducks and other fowl are fairly tame in this area, it's still a bit unusual for them to approach this close unless it's obvious that you have food. I suspect that they're feeling a bit hungry this time of year, although they certainly aren't suffering. When it became obvious that I was wasn't going to feed him, he went on his way.


Enjoying the crisp and cool air, I continued on, past the (barely) snow covered trees...

...while three swans swam towards me.


The swans had also drawn the attention of a photographer on shore who asked if he could take a few pictures of "Santa" in his kayak, and even though "Santa" never brought him the bicycle he wanted. Turns out he's a local professional photographer named Jason, and he snapped quite a few shots. I was starting to feel like Cindy Crawford.

Check out his website,there's some nice stuff there.

I turned around at Craigflower bridge. Clouds were building to the east and there had been some wicked squalls blow through the last copy of days.


In the end, the clouds never amounted to anything, but on the way back I encountered the swans again at the same spot, only now we were both going the opposite directions.



A heron was bundled up against the cold...

...while Cormorant Tree was draped in its namesakes.

Meanwhile Louise kept pace with me, taking pictures as I drifted along in our temporary winter wonderland.


I landed and began organizing myself for the always fun uphill trek with the kayak.


Trip Length: 3.38 km
YTD: 3.38 km
More pictures are here.

2011 Annual Weather Stats

And now it's our annual paddling day weather stats wrap up. This year I eliminated the "cancelled due to bad weather" category, so the weather category percentages have been tweaked a bit from previous years.
What can we glean from this? Well, first we can see that Google Docs makes some neat-o charts. Second, we can see that over the six years we have been paddling that the percentage of sunny days has gone up over this time, perhaps something that should not be unexpected as we enter our future of human-caused climate change, although this is clearly not a scientific study by any means as no doubt we are self-selecting which days to paddle on. Still, it's an illuminating if anecdotal look at how our planet is changing right before our eyes.

2011.27.225 - Thetis Lake

Hard to believe it's been a month since we were last on the water. Life is like that sometimes.

Even though it was a brisk 1 degree as we headed out in the morning, the sun was occasionally poking through the clouds and the cool air certainly woke us up.
Our friend Alison is back in town for a visit. She's been post some great paddle reports of her kayaking adventures in Montreal, but she's here in town for a few days visiting her kayak and giving it a little workout.
Unfortunately, Alison suddenly realized that's she'd forgotten to renew her driver's license before visiting, limiting her options for moving her kayak to put ins. And with Paula limited to commando kayaking on public transit today, a tense two-hour negotiating session ended with the decision to paddle Thetis Lake today. (If David Stern needs help with the NBA lockout, tell him to give us a call. After this, we can negotiate anything.)

Louise and I put in with Alison....

....and caught up with Paula at a different part of the lake.

Checking my records, I see that this is our first paddle this year at the lake. How the heck did that happen?


Not only is this a great place to paddle, but it's a great place to do some rescue and paddle practice, but no one felt like doing that today. That water was cold!


So we spent a couple of hours meandering around the lake....

...and then spent a couple of hours warming up afterwards!

But before we could imbibe some warm beverages, we passed a bluff on the shore where a photographer took some snaps of us. We bumped into him later in the parking lot and he graciously emailed us the photos. Thanks for these pictures, Erik!



Trip Length: 7.55 km
YTD: 214.59 km
More pictures are here.

2011.26.224 - Lila and Yves

The seasons are changing, the proof being in the gloomy skies and cool air. As Louise and I waited on the Cadboro Bay beach for our co-paddlers, the sun was hidden behind puffy grey clouds. We could see off-shore showers on the horizon, and a soft by cool breeze foreshadowed the stronger winds predicted to come later in the day.


But we weren't planning a long paddle today. In fact today's would be rather short and safe. We were being joined by Paula, as well as her daughter Lila and her new husband Yves who are visiting from Edmonton. Neither are experienced kayakers, in fact this was Yves' first time in a kayak and he is not a good swimmer, so we were going to stick close to shore. Also, we didn't have a lot of time to paddle as Yves wanted to attend pirate school later in the day.


And off we went. Paula put her herself and Yves into her inflatable....

....while Lila went out in the Pamlico.


Louise and I in our Delta sea kayaks kept the lead, usually without even trying. Seals were popping up here and there, but they were very shy and unapproachable.


I managed to sneak off and take and watch some cormorants.


And after a quick trip to the point and back, we were done.


Trip Length: 3.90 km
YTD: 207.04 km
More pictures are here.

2011.25.223 - Seagull With A Mohawk

Louise has family visiting in town this in town this week, so she and I could only sneak away for a quick paddle up The Gorge today.


We rolled the kayaks down the hill, entered at the Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club launch point, and we were off. The tide was flooding under the Tillicum Bridge so we went for a quick look and saw a lone seal, far away from the open ocean, enjoying a playful ride in the current.


A few minutes later we discovered one of the more interesting seagulls we've seen. May I present Seagull With A Mohawk.

We first noticed him as he flew to the shore carrying some sort of shell. We thought that it may have been a crab shell, or maybe a clam. (I don't do shellfish, a shell is a shell.) Anyway, he landed on shore and spent a few minutes eating whatever was on the inside of the shell, then looked up and saw that there was another seagull on the beach a few metres away. This second seagull was paying no attention to Mohawk (or his lovely breakfast) but clearly Mohawk was feeling threatened so he dropped his meal and ran up to the other seagull and did a bit wing-flapping and squawking. He returned to his meal, but seagull #2 didn't get the hint, and Mohawk ran up and squawked again. He didn't take "no" for an answer and forced seagull #2 off the beach and into the air. Mohawk pursued him into the air, hoping to get the point across that he was not welcome. Louise and I watched the aerial dogfight, the two seagulls swooping and diving over our heads. Also watching were two crows that had sneaked up to Mohawk's dropped meal and finished it off. Mohawk returned to his empty shell, sighed (really! I swear he did!) and flew off.
A moment later....

...he had dredged up another shell and was finishing off the insides.

Cormorant Tree, often covered in cormorants, held only one today.


We continued on into Portage Inlet where the herons were out in force today.


Mohawk wasn't the only bird having good luck with food.


I thought I was cleverly sneaking up on this heron from behind. No such luck -- he knew I was there.


We also saw a few of the gelatinous egg sacks that we see in the waters here every fall. They seem to be a few weeks behind, but then everything is behind after the lousy spring.

The egg sack is the little round thing in the middle. The other brown lumpy things are sponges.

There's a lot of geese around now. They know winter is coming and so are heading south and using the parks in the area as a rest area.


With only limited time today, we quickly turned back.


Trip Length: 7.30 km
YTD: 202.14 km
More pictures are here.