2006.44.59 - Sidney Islands

It's hard to believe it's the first weekend of Fall. It's a warm, blue and cloudless sky. Just gorgeous. Really. I mean it. There won't be many more weekends like this for the next few months, so we'd better enjoy them while we can.


Tracy heads out. You can see that we had some chop and currents to deal with today.


Alison and Louise follow...


...and Paula and Bernie take up the rear. Actually, I guess I took up the rear so I could get the picture.


We were going to the same islands we went to a couple of weeks ago, and we ended up going a little farther this time.
We battled some strong current to start...


... we took a little refuge in a small cove.


We crossed over to some rocks.


Here's a Spirit-class BC Ferry approaching the nearby Swartz Bay ferry terminal.


Bernie went around north side of the little island to try and catch the current that came around the south side. He caught it, all right.


He came whipping down the current sideways. Clearly Tracy is not worried.


The Sidney Sphinx.


We rested again and Bernie told us a story about a kayaker that had a whale breech right in front of him and swamp his boat. Just as he finished a seal popped up and splashed right beside Tracy. She almost jumped right out of her kayak (and that would have made an interesting photo)! And remember that ferry? It had passed well to our north about 20 minutes earlier... and suddenly its wake came through the same channel that Bernie ran. A couple of huge waves came sweeping by us. Always watch out for those ferries!


We moved on to other rocks and found some seals.



Then we crossed towards Coal Island and this little guy insisted on posing for me.




As we turned around, we saw a sailboat off in the distance.


We passed some rocks with more seals on them.



Homeward bound.


My pictures are here.