It wasn't supposed to be like this. Yeah, the wind was going to get heavier and come up from the south in the afternoon. Yeah, the currents out near Chatham Island were supposed to drop off as the morning wore on so we could go across. But it just didn't happen.
So as Louise, Richard and Paula and I put in at Cadboro Bay, the slight westerlies had already swung around and were coming harder from the south as forecast, but hours early. "Damn you," I shouted at Richard, "this is all your fault!" As he stared blankly back at me, I told him not to worry -- I have an issue with misplaced anger. Richard, for his part, is a pretty gung-ho-damn-the torpedoes-full-speed-ahead kind of paddler. Except when it comes to wind, which he really dislikes. Sometimes it makes him cry like a little girl. No, really. It's quite fetching, actually.
So instead of paddling out to Chatham, we putzed around Cadboro Point...
...then headed down past Willows Beach to Mary Tod Island.
We noticed an eerie near total absence of sea birds today. Clearly they knew something was up with the weather and had hunkered down somewhere.
From Willows Beach, we returned paddling through small chop with the wind at our backs. There's just not much more to say about today's paddle -- a fun but unexciting one!
Trip Length: 10.28 km
YTD: 179.27 km
More pictures are here.
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