2005.07.07 - Attack of the Jellyfish

We return to Cadboro Bay for another paddle. This is pretty much becoming our home port. Wouldn't it be cool to live right off the beach and carry your kayak down to the water every day? Ah, we can dream.


No sooner do we get out on the water when we find some giant scrambled eggs. No, wait -- they're jellyfish!



Holy crap, these guys are big!


The paddle started with Louise, Alison and myself, with Paula taking the first shift in the Pamlico....


...and Bernie taking the second shift. (Those two have got to get another boat!)



A little cloudy, a little windy...but still a great paddle!


My photos are here.

2005.06.06 - James Island

Finally I am equipped with a skirt and it's just Bernie and myself today, and we were going to make a try for James Island.
That was the plan anyway, but we found the currents and the wind a little too much for us. You can see that we were in some choppy water.


It was good experience to be out in some water that was rougher than flat, but it seemed that James Island would elude us today.




Then suddenly, just as we were going to head back in, the wind died off, and the water calmed.


Did we finally make it to James Island? You betcha!


My photos are here.

2005.05.05- A Gorge-ous Day

Today, we're putting on The Gorge and heading into Portage Inlet. It's myself, Bernie and Louise today....


...and geese. Lots of geese.


Here we see some of the very rare saanich walking geese. They don't swim or fly, they only walk. Sometime they catch a bus.


We puttered around the inlet....


...then headed up Colquitz Creek.


Another gorge-eous paddle!

John's pictures are here.

2005.04.04 - Return to Cadboro Bay

We've returned to Cadboro Bay for another paddle. We paddled along the south edge of Ten Mile Point, which is apparently ten miles from somewhere. Louise looks to be enjoying herself.


Bernie went with us this time. He and Paula only have the one boat between them and it's a wee bit too small to be a tandam. Here he makes landfall. He thought he saw some birds eating something so he's checking it out.


Now he's back in the paddle.


We went as far as the lighthouse.


Then Bernie had what I'm sure will be the first of many dangerous ideas: "Let's play in the wakes of the whale watching boats!"


So we did -- and it was fun!


More pictures are here.

2005.03.03 - First Time Out

A lovely sunny day for a paddle. Bernie's keen to begin.


Here I am, the first time out in my new ride, a Dagger Bayou. My sister and her hubby owned a pair of these and have hardly used them over the last five years. So in one fell swoop I bought two kayaks, all the gear and roof racks. Yes, I know my paddle is facing the wrong way. I'm just a newbie. This is only the third time that I've been in a kayak. I don't even have a skirt yet.


The Daggers are slightly longer than Paula and Bernie's Pamlico, which they took turns in.
Here's Louise in her Dagger.


Paula is really setting the pace.






This is fun! I think I could get used to this!


John's pictures are here.