2008.05.98 - A Swell Paddle

Partly cloudy skies greeted us this Sunday morning. It was cold last night, down below freezing but already the sun was warming the air and us up. It had been windy over night but the breeze was dropping off and it was expected to decrease further as the morning wore on. So with Paula and Bernie temporarily grounded with car trouble, we headed for Cadboro Bay.


It was a small group today, just Alison, Paula and myself. Bernie begged off with a bad back and Louise is trying to ward off a cold. It's been a heck of a winter for colds and flues. There's already been two bad outbreaks that have gone through the area, and it looks like a third one is going through now. It was pretty calm when we started....


...but it did get a little choppier as we headed out. We went past Flower Island, then out to Jemmy Jones Island...


...then we headed for the lighthouse at Ten Mile Point. We saw a bit of wildlife today -- seals, herons and oyster catchers -- but they were keeping their distance today. We saw a big young eagle take off from Jemmy Jones Island, but of course both Alison and I had just put our cameras away.


As we rounded the point, we saw this huge house under construction. At least the owner has a sense of humour....


....as he's flying a Jolly Roger.


To the side of the house, there was this contraption. Paula thought it some sort of coiled piping or wiring, while Alison stayed with the pirate theme and suggested that this was an electromagnetic cannon of some kind.


As we continued, we encountered the wake from a cargo ship that passed out the strait about 20 minutes earlier. We were faily close to shore and we caught the swells as they came in and bounced off the rocky shore and headed out to sea again.


I wonder if there's a bit of an undersea ridge in this area as the swells seemed to keep bouncing back and forth around us.




And as we headed back, the wind unexpectedly increased dramatically so it became even choppier. But we still had a great day on the water,




Trip length: 7.3 km

2008.04.97 - Bluster on the Harbour

Once again, the weather forecast was somewhat misleading. It was forcast to be sunny and clear, but it was cloudy and windy instead. But we were planning to go up the harbour into The Gorge, so we would not be going out into open water.


It was Pebbles, Louise, Paula and myself today.


We headed into the wind...


...and towards Ocean River Sports where Bernie and Marlene were joining us in a rented double.


We headed under the Bay Street Bridge and carried on up The Gorge...


...and under the Trestle Bridge.


We didn't see much in the way of wildlife today, but we did see something that you don't see on the water every day: a floating leather sofa. The tide was ebbing and the current carried it away, perhaps even out to sea. (Kids, remember that when you're encountering sofas in the wild that they are generally scared of humans and won't bite. In fact, they're just as scared of you as you are of them.)


We paddled up Cecelia Ravine, a small creek that runs into The Gorge that we've never explored before. At low tide, this is mostly a mudflat and a good place to spot herons and other birds, but we were here at high tide and there weren't many around.


We tried, but we couldn't go up very far. It dead-ended under Gorge Road.


Marlene was having a good time. She very quickly figured the secret to paddling in a double: relax and let Bernie do all the work.


As I said, not much in the way of wildlife today. But we did see this really gnarly tree.


The wind died down and it was time to head back.


My pictures are here.

2008.03.96 - Paddlin' 'Bout the Bay

Saturday was supposed to be a decent day for paddling, so we decided for a little paddle off of the home port at Cadboro Bay.


It was Richard, Paula....


...and Bernie and myself.


We put in at Gyro Park and headed out down the south side of Ten Mile Point towards Flower Island. It was forecast to be reasonably sunny, but there was the occasional dark cloud around above us and what looked like a front passing south of us, so we were wondering if we would get some squalls coming through.
We decided to head on out and the let weather come. But we were going to stick reasonably close to shore just in case.


The clouds broke up and we ended up with a mostly sunny paddle. We went out to Flower and Jemmy Jones Islands. Then we headed south off of Cattle Point and ended up at one of the lighthouses off Willows Beach. We debated heading out to the Chain Islands, but we knew that the "freight train" would be running and picking up speed, so we stayed close in.


We put in briefly at Mary Tod Island as Bernie needed to make an equipment adjustment. Then he struck a heroic pose. Go west, young kayaker.


After the brief stop, we headed back around Cattle Point and here we saw some cormorants enjoying their perches.




We spent some time noodling in between the rocks and islets. The tide was fairly high (although ebbing) so this gave us a chance to play between some rocks that we don't often get to. That's when Bernie spotted this eagle.






All in all a lovely day on the water.

Richard's GPS track of our paddle, originally uploaded by chaffneue.

2008.02.95 - Super Sunday

It's SuperBowl Sunday, so what are a bunch of kayakers to do? That's an easy choice...who cares about the big game when we've got kayaking to do!
Today we're putting in at Cooper's Cove in Sooke. It's cool and cloudy this morning, and there's also a forecast for a bit of a breeze. We were worried it might be too rough to go out of the cove into the Sooke Basin proper because of the breeze, but the winds simply never materialized. The water was flat and inviting, and we took up its offer.
The tide was right in, as we were launching at high tide. We didn't realize that we have so little beach to launch from. So we took it in turns to launch and headed out one at a time. Today we had Jason, Richard, Paula, Bernie, and Louise paddling.


And yours truly, of course.


So our little fleet headed out into the cool but otherwise perfect paddling conditions.


Bernie, Louise and Paula set the early pace.


Richard loves his new kayak.


We left the Cove and entered the Sooke Basin. We decided to head west towards where Sooke River enters the basin. None of us had gone this way before, so it would be a new experience. With the tide changing just as we were launching, we would be paddling into the out-going current on our return, but it shouldn't be too bad.
Always remember kids -- practice safe boating.


Many people have accused Bernie of losing his marbles. Well, give him some credit -- here he is looking for them.


Here's a fishing boat tied up for the winter. You can see just how glassy smooth the water was. It was just about perfect for paddling.


We made it around the point and into the mouth of the Sooke River. There's a highway bridge that you cross over just as you enter the town. While the rest of the gang went to the bridge, I went to check out something that caught my eye.
This seagull had found a gnarled tree branch to perch on. And even though I was a fair bit offshore, it was pretty shallow here which surprised me.


The other seagulls were giving me The Evil Eye. Since I was vastly outnumbered, I thought it best that I retreat. I was barely gliding over the bottom, and this was at high tide.
This stump begged me to take its picture. So I did.


As we turned to head back, we could see all the chimney smoke trapped by thermoclines. There wasn't a hint of breeze today, which is unusual for these parts, so for the moment the smoke wasn't going anywhere.
It was a super paddle on a super Sunday.

2008.01.94 - Up the Gorge

It's a been a long winter, as some of us haven't been on a paddle in a couple of months, what with bad weather, Christmas, the flu season and the invasion of the aliens from Tralfamadore (I was starting to think that we were never going to get rid of those guys). Anyway, we finally had a sunny Sunday when most of us weren't sick, busy or kicking alien butt, so Bernie, Paula, Alison, Louise and myself headed down to the harbour and put in for a paddle up The Gorge.


You can see that we started under an almost clear blue sky. This was a bit of a surprise, as rain or even mixed rain and snow were called for in the morning with some clearing later in the day, but it was looking like the clearing was going to come early. We headed towards the Johnson Street Bridge.....


...and here's something you don't get to do in a kayak everyday -- go under the bridge while it's going up!



Since the train was stuck waiting for the bridge, Bernie decided to wait as well. Solidarity forever.


Soon however, we were past the bridge and paddling up The Gorge.


This area has become quite built-up over the last couple of years. A lot of money is getting poured into this part of town....


...but you can still find some wildlife if you look.



Alison paddled under the docks at the Selkirk development....


...and Bernie checked out the dock at Point Ellice House.


It was perfect weather, a bit chilly, but it was bright and sunny, although there were some clouds building up behind us, but they seemed to be passing us to the south-east. The water was flat and glassy.


Bernie spotted this plastic deer....


....but then he spotted this heron on a branch.




I lagged behind to photograph the heron, and them I spotted another heron in a tree. The second one was a frustrating subject as every time I pointed my camera, he just sat there like a blob, but I when I would put my camera down, he would crane his neck or hop from branch to branch. He was much more interesting when I wasn't pointing the camera at him. What I didn't realize was that the rest of the group, who were now ahead of me around the next point, were also having an interesting time.


I left the heron and paddled around the point. The group was huddled around the small dock set aback from Tillicum Narrows, a very tricky piece of water where The Gorge narrows considerably and the water shallows and a strong current can run through depending on the tides. We've been here when it's been a dead calm, and other times when it's been raging whitewater. This seemed like a cross between the two; the current was clearly running, but it wasn't really kicking up a froth. Still, from the fact that Bernie had his boat on the dock and his PFD off, clearly I had missed something.


What I had missed was Bernie trying his hand at paddling in the current. He said later that he came at the current from the wrong angle and he didn't get enough edge on his boat. The current just grabbed him and rolled him. It seemed there was no panic by anyone and Bernie and his boat were recovered easily enough. What's interesting is that no-one used their to whistle to call me. Louise said she shouted for me, but I didn't hear anything even though I wasn't that far away. That's something to bear in mind when the distance between group members starts growing during a paddle. Bernie was fine, if a little bedraggled, and he still had enough energy to practice his Highland dancing.


I suggested to Bernie that he dunk himself again for the camera, and he jokingly replied, "Sure, John, anything for the blog." Little did we know that he was about to take up my offer. He readied himself to relaunch, and was going to try a so-called "seal launch," where basically you scuttle in your kayak across the dock and slide into the water off the edge much like a seal would. I'm frankly not sure if this is a recommended procedure for a sea kayak, but Bernie gave it a shot.


It did not go well.


Bernie regrouped after his second dunking and tried a more traditional launch off side of the dock. Even this was tricky I'm sure, because even though here we were out of the main line of the current, it was still strong here with eddies and small whirlpools pulling us every which way. We were constantly getting pushed about and in danger of banging into each other as we waited to get organized again.


And since Tillicum Narrows was the end of the line for our paddle, we turned around and headed home, and saw that the weather has turned...


...and so we quickly headed back.


The wind came up a bit, not too strong, but a couple of hours later these clouds started dropping hail in the area and later in the evening they would dump snow up the Fraser Valley on the mainland.


But it was good to back on the water, and we had a great time, and great stories to tell!