2009.05.136 - Good Friday Paddle

Any Friday that you can paddle is a good Friday as far as I'm concerned. And today the church of Gaia was open for business.


It was a cloudy morning, but the rain for the day had already fallen. The sun occasionally tried to poke through, but for the most part we faced a solidly cloudy day. But it was calm and the sea was flat.
Today Lila joined us in the red Pamlico. She's only been in a kayak a few times so Louise, Paula and I knew we would be sticking close to shore today. We decided to try a trip down to Cattle Point again, the same route that we abandoned in the wind a few days ago.


It didn't take long until I spotted...

...a heron.

In fact the herons were out in force today. You pretty much couldn't spit without hitting a heron, although spitting at herons is not really recommended.

It seemed like there was a heron hiding behind every rock.


And there were a lot of harlequin ducks out, too.



As we headed back, we encountered a group of four ducks swimming along. They looked they might have been fishing. Here's one diving in front of me.

But when they surfaced, they headed towards Louise and Paula and began squawking and quacking. Their quacks sounded just like they were saying, "Redrum! Redrum! Redrum!" We found that very disconcerting, and gave them a lot of extra room, just in case one of them had an axe.


And after we passed by the sailboats we were home again.


Trip length: 8.47 km
YTD: 32.44
My photos are here.

2009.04.135 - No Line on the Horizon

We hit the rocky beach at Telegraph Bay early on Monday, hoping that the wind would not be quite as strong as yesterday. Today we're going for a three-fer -- three paddles in three days. While it was a bit breezy on our arrival, by the time we got in the water the wind was gone and we were in a flat calm. The sun quickly burned off the the thin cloud cover and we were in paddling heaven. Another perfect day on The We(s)t Coast. I'm almost starting to be convinced that winter just might be over.


But before we even started, something caught our eye on the beach. The seagulls were enjoying a meal.

Paula decided to investigate...

...and discovered that the gulls were feasting on a halibut. It was impossible for us to guess its size (there wasn't much left) but we guessed that it must have been dragged up here by a large seal, or the resident area sea lion. It certainly wasn't something the seagulls would have caught!


It was just the three of us today -- Paula in her pink Necky Eliza and Louise and I in our red Deltas.


It was just gorgeous on the water -- dead flat, no wind. You couldn't ask for better conditions.


Long-time readers of this blog will recall that every time we paddle here, we pass by one specific tree that always has an eagle in it. And today was no exception.


We saw a few eagles flying around, and a number of otters scrambling along the rocky shore and one that was happily swimming along.
We found the little cave and had a look around.



We carried on around the point. These rocks are usually covered in seals, but this time of year they are off some place else a little more private making baby seals. So the birds took over the rocks, and here we found a flock of sand pipers enjoying the day.



Too soon, it was time to head back.





Trip Length: 8.94
YTD: 23.77
My photos are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

2009.03.134 - Windswept

Occasionally, some paddles end up being exercises in frustration. Like today's, for instance. It was a sunny day, but unexpectedly breezy so we decided not to head out to Discovery and just putter around from Cadboro Bay to Cattle Point.

I stole this idea from Paddling With a Camera. By using an upturned monopod attached to a kayak sail base at the rear of my Delta Eighteen5, I hoped to get some shots from a new angle.


And that's when the frustration started. For some reason I couldn't get the camera to work. After a few minutes of pressing buttons and the camera bleeping and blooping, I discovered that the problem was operator error.
Sigh.
So I got the camera figured out and launched. Then my GPS crapped out on me. (I'm hoping it's just the batteries.) The paddle was not off to an auspicious start.


Louise was in her Delta Seventeen, while Paula took her Advanced Element AdvancedEdge that she is testing as she wanted to try it in windy conditions.


We headed out of Cadboro Bay towards Cattle Point.


I didn't get a lot of pictures today because the winds were just blowing us around. Anytime I stopped to take a picture with my big camera, the wind would sweep me away before I could get the shot.


As we explored the rock garden along the coast, Paula moved ahead to scout out whether the tide was high enough to allow us through the small channels. She shouted back that one looked too shallow to pass, but that was exactly what I was looking for at that moment. A heron had alighted and I thought if I grounded in the shallow channel, I would be stable enough to get a few shots. I snuck up to the heron and, as Paula thought, I grounded. Louise was coming behind me, and a sudden violent gust spun her sideways and into my stern. She pushed me over the bump I was on, and we both went sideways down the little channel, Louise trying to gain control of her boat, while I had no control as I quickly tried to stash my camera.
In the end, no harm done, but the wind was rising and we were all feeling a little frustrated. Paula was holding her own in an unfamiliar kayak, but we were all feeling like there wasn't much "fun" going on.
My camera mount was also leaning over precariously, the end result being a lot of pictures that looked like this:

The suction cups were giving way and I'm not sure why. Was it behaving like a sail in the wind? Or did I just raise it too high and make it unstable? The theory of the camera mount worked, it just needs to be refined. But with it leaning off to the side, it was in danger of leaning over too far and dragging in the water and that would have no fun on a calm day, let alone a stormy day like today. My paddle partners re-attached it and we headed back.

And, naturally, as soon as we packed up our boats, the wind died off.
And so it goes.

Trip length: 4km
YTD: 14.83 km
My pictures are here.

2009.02.133 - Advanced Elements Trial

At the beginning of the year, I set an unspoken goal of breaking my record of 49 paddles in one year and go for the half-century mark of 50 paddles. So far, things have not turned out so well.
January brings storms, of course, and not as many chances to paddle. While I did manage to get in one paddle in mid-January, my elderly mother became gravely ill a few days later. Paddling time became visit the hospital time, and worries over whether I could afford a new paddle gave way to concerns over my mom's health and future. Then in February, I had a second eye operation as the cataract was removed from my left eye, which resulted in another lay-off from paddling.
After more than a month my mother left the hospital after what even the doctors call an amazing recovery, and plans for her future care are in place and in motion. My eye healed up quite nicely, thank you, and now that both eyes have had their respective cataracts dealt with, I am actually able to see where I'm kayaking (and I might even be able to catch some of thoze speelling mistakez that kreep into the blog with an annoying frequency).
A few weekends ago I was happily looking forward to be finally back on the water. Instead, Louise sprained her ankle at the gym, and another winter storm blew in bringing snow, wind and cold temperatures. And then the next weekend I got the flu and another windy storm blew in.
25 days of flu-suffering later, the stars have aligned and we headed to Cadboro Bay to test some Advanced Elements kayaks that Paula acquired.


It was also the chance to test out some new gear, like my new hat. Bernie said it was the dorkiest hat he has ever seen.


Okay, maybe the hat wasn't working out so well, but the kayaks didn't do so bad. Louise headed out in the AdvancedFrame Expedition kayak...

...while Lila and I tried the Straitedge2...

...while Paula led the way in her Dragonfly.


These are perfect boats for slowly meandering along the shore. Terrific initial stability and maneuverability means that an utter novice could hop into in one and have some fun right away.



We put in at Sheep Cove...

...and played musical kayaks: Lila moved into the Dragonfly, Louise and Paula into the Straitedge and I tried the Expedition.


I liked both kayaks. The Straitedge was a lot of fun and tracked reasonably well. The Expedition tracked a little less well, but both were very easy to correct and keep on course. I did have issues with the seats and really did not feel comfortable. We're going to try these kayaks again soon, and I'll have to pay a little more attention to the seat adjustments and see if that helps.
Still, they're well-built kayaks and if they fit the style of kayaking you want to do, then are probably worth the investment.


Trip length: 4 km
My photos are here.

2009.01.132 - Inner Harbour

Now this is the way it's supposed to be. The rest of the country is freezing, but here on the We(s)t Coast, the sun is shining brightly on this warm January morning. Okay, so it didn't start warm -- it was bitterly cold to start the morning and my fingers nearly froze off loading up the kayaks, but by the time we got to our launching point on the Harbour, the day had warmed up quite nicely under the bright sun.


It was just the three of us today: Louise, Paula and myself. The Harbour was unexpectedly blustery, but certainly nothing that we couldn't handle. It felt good to finally be back on the water after a long lay-off over Christmas.


Today I mounted my deck cam at the stern facing forward. I ended up with 129 pictures of a bright orange PFD.


This part of the harbour is still a working harbour. We passed by tied-up fishing boats and shipyards....


...and we passed this poor ship that got caught when the tide went out.


And we also paddled past a large number of cormorants who, like this fellow, were enjoying this lovely winter morning.


We moved out of the Harbour and into the Gorge waterway...


...where we weren't the only ones along the shore.


This heron grew a beard over the winter just like me.


We got to Tillicum Bridge, where we turned around.


Of course after turning around, we were paddling back into the low and glaring sun.


The wind was still up, but it was really a great day for a paddle.




Trip Length: 6.83 km
My pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

Here's some bonus pictures. After a nice nosh at Estevan Village, we drove Paula home via Cattle Point where we saw this sailboat out on the water...

..and Mount Baker looking splendifourous.

Paddle Stats 2008

I managed 38 paddles in 2008, not a bad total considering there were three extended periods the year when paddling was not possible: my eye surgery in early summer, Louise's hand injury later in the summer, then the record-breaking cold and snow in December.


The weather was much improved with more sunny day paddles this year over last year. Most forms of inclement weather went down this year, including cloudy days, rainy days and foggy days. Snowy days did rise slightly, but even though most of December turned into a near total wash out due to very unusual cold and snowy conditions, we still had fewer bad weather cancellations than last year. (And what crazy weather it was. On December 23, Victoria had more snow on the ground than any any other urban centre in Canada. And more than the North Pole. Santa felt right at home here as we enjoyed only our fifth white Christmas since 1965. I shoveled snow for 90 minutes on Christmas Day. Bing Crosby has been moved to the top of my "list." But I digress.)
Next year will be the fifth year I've tracked paddling weather stats, and that should be a large enough sample (even if it is mostly subjective) to track averages.
So tune in next year!