2011.18.216 - It's A Gas

Louise and I met Paula at Brentwood Bay for a quick paddle.

Paula was in her inflatable today, so we thought we'd stick close to shore and meander down into Tod Inlet. From our put-in beside the ferry terminal we turned to the south and crossed towards the Inlet.

Someone followed us for a while.


As we entered Tod Inlet, and Gowlland Tod Provincial Park, Paula put ashore for some adjustments to her boat....

...while this heron enjoyed a little breakfast.


As we paddled down the inlet, we saw many sail boats and cabin cruisers that had moored for the night.


But as we paddled by this eagle....

...we realized that we were paddling through a slick of oil or gas on the surface on the water.

It wasn't very thick, nothing more than a thin skin on the surface, but it was everywhere. The whole southern end was covered in it, and occasionally Paula and Louise would gag when the wind shifted and they inhaled a lungful of fumes.
We initially assumed that one or more of the boats moored in the inlet had had a fuel spill, but then we recalled that there had been a major fuel spill into Goldstream River a couple of months ago. Goldstream River does not connect directly with Tod Inlet but it does with nearby Saanich Inlet. Could tidal action have pushed the fuel out of Saanich Inlet into Tod Inlet where there it sits, slowly evaporating?
It was a depressing thought that the fuel in the water that was spoiling the inlet was not being attended to, no matter how it got there. The only upside was that the animals did seem to be avoiding the area.

We turned around and headed back...

....and watched a heron cruise in for a landing.

He got into a staring contest with us.

I think he won.

Louise checked out some sea stars...

...and then it was time to head back.


Trip Length: 6.08 km
YTD: 137.01 km
More pictures are here.

2011.08.206 - Jellyfish Jellyfest

On this moderately sunny Sunday, Louise and I headed up to Brentwood Bay for paddle.

We hadn't been out this way since the fall of 2009, but there's been little change. The one thing we did notice was the work being done on the ferry dock beside where we put in.

That's because the long-serving MV Mill Bay, which has serviced this route since being built in 1956, was retired at the beginning of this month to be replaced by the larger MV Klitsa, necessitating renovations to the dock. (And from the Useless Movie Trivia File, the Mill Bay terminal was used for a scene during the filming of the 1970 movie Five Easy Pieces that starred Jack Nicholson and Karen Black.) So with the ferry out of service for the moment, that's one less bit of marine traffic we needed to look out for.
Clearly this heron wasn't worried about other traffic as he groomed himself.


We crossed over to 15 Minute Island. It's actually called Senanus Island, but we refer to is as 15 Minute Island because the first time we approached the island from the north, Bernie kept saying it looked only 15 minutes away. And after we'd paddled for an hour, his opinion had not changed -- it still looked 15 minutes away.

Today we were approaching from the south, and for the record it was a 20 minute crossing.

Once at the island, we found a lot of geese honking up a storm...

...probably because eagles were around and undoubtedly hunting for goslings.

Fortunately for this guy, oysercatchers didn't seem to be on the eagles' menu.


After we paddled around the island, we crossed back to the shore went into Tod Inlet, and Gowlland Tod Provincial Park.


Tod Inlet is a gorgeous place to paddle, very sheltered and usually brimming with aquatic life, and today was no exception, although we were a bit surprised to find the inlet full of jellyfish.

It was a jellyfish jellyfest! Although the heron didn't seem particularly impressed.


Trip Length: 10.67 km
YTD: 70.90 km
More pictures are here.

2010.20.189 - Mill Bay

We put in at Mill Bay this morning for a paddle down to Bamberton and back. Louise and I had never paddled this stretch before, while our paddling companions Richard, Tracy and Paula had. Tracy asked me if I'd ever been down this stretch, and after I answered in the negative she replied, "It's pretty boring!"
Well, it wasn't that bad, and if nothing else it's another few clicks to knock off our attempt at breaking the record for the Slowest Circumnavigation of Vancouver Island.

Richard squatted to take a picture -- at least, I hope that's all he was taking!


It didn't long to find where all the seal action was -- it was on the dock beside our put-in!




A rainstorm had blown through yesterday after weeks of clear skies. There were still some cloudy remnants but nothing that should have been of concern, although winds were forecast to pick up in the afternoon.



We approached the dock for the Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay ferry. A little warning if you're kayaking in this area: the ferry approaches the Mill Bay dock from the south and passes very close to shore. Very close. So close you could spit onto the beach from the car deck. So be Ferry Aware when you're kayaking near the dock.

Sometimes, there's other things to look out for as well. Louise and Tracy got a little ahead of the rest of us as we approached the dock. They became distracted checking out the clouds because Richard had been keeping us updated with weather reports and fog was rolling into some nearby locations. They were passing very close to the dock and as they passed by I noticed a large brown float of some sort up on the end of the concrete pad of the dock. As they passed only a metre or two away, the "float" unfolded itself. Richard and I began shouting, "Look out! To your right! A sea lion!"
They still didn't notice. It was only when the sea lion went "Bort! Bort!" right beside them that they realized that they were in a spot that maybe they didn't want to be in. The sea lion could have very easily rolled off the dock and landed on them swamping both kayaks. They quickly scampered out of the way.


We pulled in at a beach for a moment...

...where Paula and Richard discussed paddle shaft lengths.

Paula likes to use a 230 or even a 240, while some of us feel she should be using something shorter. Different strokes for different folks. The debate continues.

We'd been wondering about the fog. Although we could look back and see that Salt Spring Island was totally socked in...

...and hear the radio reports describing Fulford Harbour down to visibility of about two metres, it was holding off in our area. Besides, we weren't doing any crossings, just sticking to shore, so we felt reasonably safe.
We pressed on to the old cement works at Bamberton...

...then turned around for home.


As we approached the ferry dock again, we saw that the sea lion was still on his perch.

We're wondering if he is used to humans as the ferry had docked here once since we'd last seen him, but he apparently didn't move.

And then the wind came up a bit sooner than expected which made for an interesting paddle back to the take-out!


Trip Length: 15.94 km
YTD: 142.59 km
More pictures are here.

2009.27.158 - Saanich Inlet

The extreme temperatures of the last week or so have fallen to closer to normal, although it is still unseasonably warm in these parts. We decided to start a little earlier than usual today to avoid the mid-day sun. But none of this mattered at all to Alison; her visit here is nearing an end and she just wanted to put in at Brentwood Bay and go! And go she did -- she set a blistering early pace moving out of Brentwood Bay and into Saanich Inlet.


Louise, Paula and I eventually caught up to her and we continued at a more civilized pace. The water was flat and clear, making it easy to spot sea stars on the rocks during this low tide...

...as well as this jelly fish.


We paused for a quick stop at McKenzie Bight. Alison has been thinking of moving up from her Current Design Kestrel so Louise let her take her Delta Seventeen out for a spin.


We decided to press on. A slight breeze was making its presence felt but otherwise conditions were picture perfect.


Small little seal heads were popping up here and there. One popped up a short distance in front of me and we were so distracted by it that we all just about paddled right over another seal.

How could we not notice this guy? It's not like he's well camouflaged!


This eagle paid little attention as we all fussed over him with our various cameras.


This seagull looks like it was making a meal out of a small sea star, but it didn't seem to be enjoying it. The look on the seagull's face reminds me of the old joke about cooking seagulls and their apparent lack of taste:
How do you cook a seagull?
You put it in a pot of boiling water with a rock. When the rock gets soft, you throw away the seagull and eat the rock.
It looks to me as if the seagull was looking for his own rock right about then.


We paddled by more seals, a mother and her baby.


We crossed the Inlet and passed by more seals. At one point a small seal head popped up in front of me. He carefully watched me for a moment, then ducked under the water. As I passed the shallows where he was swimming, the sun turned the water almost totally clear and I could see this small baby seal playfully swimming just below the surface. He was rolled over a few times, then swam in circles chasing its tail. I was too mesmerized to even think of trying to get a camera out. I regret not getting a shot of that amazing moment, but then again there are so many amazing moments when you are kayaking.


Soon the paddle ended and it was time to say au revoir to Alison, although I think she'll return to visit her kayak soon.




Trip length: 14.95 km
YTD: 216.68
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.