November 13 - Discovery Island (#29)

I paddled out to Maynard (Smuggler's) cove to meet Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the islands. Conditions were very nice with a favourable current for the outward and return trip! You can see our pace was fast for the outward journey around the east side. There was a little bit of lumpy water here and there. Birding was good with nice sightings of a dozen or so Ancient Murrelets (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S154418982)! First for me this season! We also saw some Steller sea lions on the rock off Seabird point. I also met Tom and Maureen from the house by the beach on my way home.

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15 km, YTD 324 km

November 10 - Chatham Island (#28)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a paddle out to the islands. It was hard work getting out to the point with a stiff head wind and lumpy water. I said that I did not think I could do the whole circuit so we did a smaller circuit around the Chatham Islands. Once we were across Baynes we were in the lee and also over the course of the paddle, the wind speed dropped. As a result, the p[addle back was a lot easier. We also had a bit of current assist for the crossing back.

I did see a decent number of birds including lots of marbled murrelets. 17 species:  https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S154181170

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11 km, YTD 309 km

November 4th - Oak Bay (#27)

I joined Michael, Ali and Jo for a coaching session with Gordon Brown. Lots of great tips and I was tired at the end of the day even though we only went 5k! As you can see from the track we were between the Oak Bay Beach Hotel and the Marina. Conditions were not bad and we had several nice rainbows!

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5 km, YTD 298 km

October 19 - Discovery island (#26)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the islands. As soon as I got to Cadboro Point, the fog came down, so the visibility crossing Baynes was so-so. You can see from the track we accidentally went 90 degrees to our intended path! Other than the fog, conditions were great - light winds and a small ebb current. The sea was mostly glassy and the fog gave things a magical atmosphere.

I saw a good number of birds - partial list here: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S152627287 

We saw one sea lion near Seabird Point and hundreds of harbour seals

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16 km, YTD 293 km

October 1 - Loon Bay SUP (#25)

I went for a short afternoon SUP paddle to Loon Bay and back via the yacht club. I could see Rainier today as the air was much cleaner after the rains!

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2 km, YTD 277 km

September 18 - Cadboro Bay (#24)

I went for an afternoon paddle after getting a bunch of tasks finished. Kind of a reward. Lovely conditions. I tried the kayak mode on my watch as well as my regular GPS (Etrex HCx). Both gave similar results, though my watch went 30m further! 

Ten species of birds recorded: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150240848 

from the eTrex HCx

From my Garmin Fenix watch

6 km, YTD 275 km

July 22 - Oak Bay (#23)

I went for a morning paddle over to Oak bay. I took a short break on a beach by OBB hotel and then made my way back. Lovely conditions!

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9 km, YTD 269 km

June 2nd, 3rd,9th and 12th - Haida Gwaii (#s 18-22)

I was up in Gwaii Haanas for a couple ofd trips and managed to get five short paddles in.

June 2nd and 3rd - De La Beche Inlet

I managed to take guests out for an afternoon and an early morning paddle in De La Beche Inlet. Such a lovely spot with plenty of seals following us!

click to enlarge - De La Beche

6 km

June 9 - Dolomite Point

I managed to get out before and after breakfast for paddles with guests before heading to Dolomite (Burnaby Narrows)

I had a great encounter with a young seal who followed me for almost the entire paddle - it even came up and played with my paddle!

click to enlarge - Dolomite point

6 km

June 12 -  Echo Harbour

We managed to get out for a short paddle before dinner in Echo Harbour. A lovely last paddle of the trip.

click to enlarge - Echo Hbr

2 km

All paddles

all tracks - click to enlarge

14 km, YTD 260 km

May 26 - Discovery island (#17)

Dan and I paddled out of Killarney to go around the islands. Conditions were excellent! No wind and very little current, so we made a good pace. we saw both the SALTS ships, Pacific Grace and Pacific Swift. swift was in Cadboro Bay and Grace was off Puget Cove on Chatham. It is a little hazy to the east - fire smoke? - and we could barely see Mt Baker. We did see both Steller Sea Lions and a California Sea lion male. The Steller's were on Brinn Rock and the California was swimming in the are and barking regularly!

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15 km, YTD 246 km.

May 21 - Telegraph Cove (#16)

Dave and I led a small group of SISKA paddlers on another intertidal exploration paddle. We originally planned to operate out of Willows Beach but we decided to move to Telegraph Cove due to the winds and the possibility of lumpy water. We had a beach talk about tides and intertidal life followed by an exploration of the low tide area by kayak. We ended up pretty much avoiding any significant wind and saw many seaweeds and marine invertebrates. A lovely day on the water!

We also saw a lot of purple "ochre stars" - more than I have seen around here in some time!

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4 km, YTD 231 km

May 17th - Discovery Island (#15)

I organized a "Wednesday group" paddle to go around the islands - 20 kayaks and 21 paddlers. We had great conditions. Lots of nice colours in the track. I decided to head out into the gap/Baynes early since there was a strong flood current and we had a nice push back into the bay. Nice coffee visit after at the Moka house.

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16 km, YTD 227 km

may 16th - Margaret Bay (#14)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Dan and Paulo, intending to paddle around the islands, but it was quite windy from the south, so we decided to paddle north instead. Conditions were great! :) On the way back I had the wind mostly at my back for the paddle into the bay which was nice!

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20 km, YTD 211 km.

May 14th - Discovery Island ((#13)

I paddled over to Staines Island to meet Fraser who is over from Vancouver for a paddle around the Islands. Conditions were excellent - sunny, not too much wind or current. As we paddled across Baynes Channel, I noticed that the VK cardinal buoy at Fulford Reef was gone. As we approached Seabird Point (1.6 NM to the SSW) we noticed a north cardinal buoy, paddled over to it and sure enough it was VK (Victor Kilo), so it has moved quite a bit in the past few weeks!  The navigational buoys around Victoria are usually prefaced with a V - one of my favourites is the VF buoy which is almost at the US-Canada border south of Race Rocks. I have been out there a few times fishing for coho! You can see where we paddled around the buoy at the easternmost part of the track.

We saw some Steller sea lions, harbour seals as well as surf scoter, rhinoceros auklet, pelagic and Brandt's cormorant, Canada goose (a few with small chicks), and pigeon guillemot.

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17 km, YTD 191 km

May 7th - Oak Bay (#12)

Dave and I led an "intertidal paddle" for SISKA. We began on the beach where we talked about how tides work and also how life handles the intertidal zone. We then set off to cruise along the shore looking at seaweeds and intertidal invertebrates. I use these handy ID guides. We had a low tide of 0.0 m in Oak Bay today! On my way home, I went over to Flower Island to do some ecological work. Just before we launched I saw a couple who had just built themselves Cape Falcon F1 kayaks - nice to see a couple more in Victoria! 

ID guides - click to enlarge

paddle route -click to enlarge

11 km, YTD 174 km (The club portion of the paddle was about 3 km!)

April 27th - Discovery Island (# 11)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Paulo and Dan for a paddle around the islands. There was little current for the way over and a bit more on the way back, but conditions were generally nice , so no lumpy water! I saw a couple of folks on Griffin Island who were doing plant surveys for the ecological reserve and checked in with them. We also recovered some crab floats off Jemmy Jones.

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16 km, YTD 163 km