The forecast was for fog, not cloud. Fog burns off, cloud not so much sometimes. But not this morning. Cool and cloudy. Despite that, Louise and I headed down to the harbour to kayak from downtown up The Gorge.
Louise looks thrilled, don't she?
As we were readying to launch, the nearby Johnson Street Bridge went up.
Venerable old "Big Blue" is being replaced late next year and part of the rail portion of the bridge has already been removed (as we reported here.)
Here on the southern side, construction is not obvious....
...but once we go under the bridge and look at the north side...
...construction is well under way.
Not being a bridge construction engineer, I'm not sure what we're looking out, but I'm guessing this is a temporary construction platform that's being used to sink the pilings.
The Inner Harbour is a working harbour. As we paddled past a tied-up fishing boat...
...a pair of eyes studied us carefully.
As we paddled by the Point Hope Shipyard....
....we saw the remains of the Undersea Gardens.
The Undersea Gardens was a long-time tourist attraction in the harbour. It's a 150-foot purpose built vessel where, according to Wikipedia, visitors "....descended 15 feet (4.6 m) beneath the ocean surface to look through the many viewing windows of the aquariums that surrounded the vessel and see the various marine life of coastal British Columbia, in their natural and protected environment." It was originally opened at the Oak Bay Marina in 1964, then it was towed to the Inner Harbour in 1969.
My dad took the picture below in 1971, showing the Undersea Gardens in its prime. I love that sign!
The Gardens closed late last year and was towed here where it waits to be scrapped or sold.
Under the Bay Street Bridge...
...then under the Selkirk Bridge...
...and we were paddling up The Gorge.
Suddenly to the left, a splash!
The culprit? An otter, that sought cover under a dock after being surprised by a pair of kayakers on his morning swim.
We spotted something in the water ahead of us.
Anybody want a slightly used Zodiac?
I did my best to push onto the shore. Hopefully someone will come and collect it.
After that, it was time to head back.
The cormorant pointed the way.
Trip length: 6.66 km
YTD: 12.71 km
More pictures are here.
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