December 31 - 2006 a year of good paddling

As the year draws to a close, it is nice to look back at a great year of paddling. I started the year with a goal of paddling 1000 km for some reason and it was quite easy to make - just had to paddle regularly which was easy to do! The highlight of the year was certainly the west coast trip from Quatsino Sound to Nootka Sound. It was a lot of fun planning and preparing for it and then it was exciting to do it - many special sites and some pretty amazing paddling. It was also neat to cover so much ground. I have learned a lot about weather, navigation, gear  and more - that too has been fun. Paddling Vancouver Island is wonderful as the paddling companions, tides, weather, and currents make each paddle to the same place unique.

Keeping the journal has been fun too - it was not as hard as I thought to "log" each trip, save the track with my trusty etrex legend and post a few photos. I plan to keep the journal up next year, but have no distance goal in mind.

The Optio 33WR and Canon S1IS in a housing have been great cameras to use while paddling and have no worries about water.

GPS visualizer's track to map image conversion site has been a great encouragement to keep the tracks posted as it was so easy to do.

The blog image site has somewhere over 650 images (including the maps) - Some of my favourite shots from the year:

 

Happy New Year and thanks to all of you that came out with me!

December 29th, Brentwood to Goldstream (#77)

Dennis, John and I went for a paddle in Saanich inlet, thinking that the weather forecast was a bit iffy. As it turned out, we had calm conditions and just a sprinkle of rain throughout our paddle. Visited Spectacle creek and Goldstream boathouse. Had a fairly protected lunch break in Misery Bay. The tide was remarkably high this morning - no launching beach! Probably the last paddle of the year and it was a good one - I managed to make the 1000 km even without the summer west coast trip!

28 km, 15 NM, YTD 1273 km  

Spectacle falls

high tide at Repulse rock                         Goldstream Marina                 Google map of route

December 23 - Gorge #76

Seasonn and I took the Passat to the gorge and paddle from the Craigflower beach to the Bay Street Bridge. The wind was building from the southeast and was making it hard going. Once we turned around, I put up the large Spiritsail and we moved along quite nicely with the wind and the current at our back!

 

4.5 NM, 8 km, YTD 1245 km

December 20th Jordan River

Did not go sea kayaking today, but managed to spend an hour playing in the surf at Jordan River. We were out staying at Point No Point for a couple of days. It was a nice flat sea with a decent swell. I am out of practice since I had trouble catching several nice waves. I did manage to get a few nice rides though.

December 17th - Crystal Pool

Did not manage to get out this weekend as I had a bunch of jobs to do around home. However, I was able to get to the pool to do a couple of hours of rolling and bracing practice. I brought my Gulfstream and my Feathercraft. I wanted to practice chest sculling with a view to graduating to a reverse sweep or storm roll, but did not make great progress. I did get some successful chest scull recoveries, but not consistently. I was using the Feathercraft with a modified back (#3) rib so that the back deck was low and this was great for layback type rolls - I almost had a hand roll with it. It also worked great for doing a static brace and recovery. Interestingly, I found the Gulfstream easier to chest scull with but harder to do a static brace with. I obviously need some more practice, so I will be heading back to the pool in the New Year! Mark and Craig were also at the pool.

December 10 - The Gorge (#75)

George and I went for a "lazy" Sunday afternoon paddle in the Gorge. We left the beach near Craigflower and went as far as Ogden Point. The weather was calmer than expected and there was hardly any rain.

not a "live" map

8.3 NM, 15.4 km, YTD 1237 km

December 3 - Discovery (#74)

George, Dennis and I went out for 9 AM OTW from Cadboro Bay and had a nice winter's day paddle out to the Islands. The tide was high, so we were able to get into the inlet and visit "cactus island". Conditions were fine, windy at times, but nothing that made paddling hard. Chatham and Discovery Islands are a such a wonderful spot. Dennis found a couple of crab trap floats and I found a hula hoop!

George and Mt Baker

The view from the cockpit - darned water drops!

17.2 km, 9.3 NM, YTD 1222 km.

Nov 26 - did not paddle today

The picture says it all:

November 13 (#73) - Oak Bay - made it to 1200 km!

Craig, Mike and I set off from Cadboro Bay to play in the bay for a few hours. It was rainy and windy with the forecast “Winds westerly 25 to gales 35 knots easing to westerly 20 to 25 this afternoon” – the storm warning had been downgraded.

It was hard work paddling into the wind to make our way to Gonzalez point, but fun. I landed at the golf course to check the wind with my anemometer – got a reading of 25 knots.

  Craig and Mike off Gonzalez point.

  7 nm, 13 km, YTD 1205 km.

November 12 (#72)

Dennis, Heike and I set off from the Brentwood bay beach on a rather damp morning. It rained pretty steadily until just before we got back. Dennis had to go back after a mile, so Heike and I paddled back with him before starting again. We made it to Sawluctus island and back and conditions were fine, though wet and a bit cold. We did not tarry long at lunch in Misery bay as it was not warm enough. The east side of the inlet was dripping wet with small scades coming off it everywhere. We also enjoyed checking out the Robertson II. The tide was very high all day, so there was very ltle around in of beaches.

    

 15.7 nm, 29 km, YTD: 1192

Oct 29th - D'Arcy (#71)

I headed out early (9AM) frim Island View beach to head out to D’Arcy. Conditions were nice and I made it to the campsite in an hour. Dennis, Tony, Heike and Paolo were camped there and were loading their boats. Craig had left earlier. Heike, Dennis, Tony and I set off back to IVB via James Island. Shortly after we left it got cold and the wind picked up – must have been nearly 20 knots as it slowed me down to about 2 knots! Kelp reef was up to 24 knots.

17 km, 9 nm, YTD: 1163

October 22 - D'Arcy island (#70)

Pete, George and I went for a Sunday afternoon paddle to D’Arcy Island from Island view Beach. beautiful sunny calm day!

17.5 km, 9.5 nm, YTD: 1146 km

October 13

Went for a short evening paddle in Beaver lake to try greenland SOF boats with Robert Morris and Mark from Nomad Boat Building

October 8th, Rum Island, (#69)

Dennis, Paolo, George, John, Heike and I went for a relatively early (9AM OTW) paddle over to Rum Island. It was wet and a bit windy as we set off and the current was ebbing southward as we went by Sidney Spit and Forrest Island. We stopped for a nice “Brunch” on the south side of Rum. By the time we had finished, the weather had improved and the sun was peeking out.

12 nm, 20 km, YTD 1129km.

October 7th (#68)

 I ran a PaddleCanada(CRCA) flatwater course today for the VCKC. We were in the Gorge and operated out of the club house. All 4 partcipants paddled well and passed (Jen, Will, heather and Emily).

3 km, YTD 1109

 

September 27,28 Beaver Lake

Charlie and I took a group of SMUS students out to Beaver lake to work on their CRCA flatwater and level 1 course. The water was warm which made practicing wet exits and rescues quite bearable!

6 km YTD 1106 km

September 29 - October 1 (65,66,67) Cedar to Thetis Island

Charlie and I led a group of 8 grade 11 students and 2 grade 12 assistant leaders on a 3 day trip around the northern Gulf Islands. We set out from Cedar and headed over to Blackberry point on a wonderful calm sunny day. the rock formations on DeCourcy Island were magnificent. We camped at Blackberry and 3 of us went for a short night paddle to see the bioluminescence. The next day we paddled over to and around Thetis Island, stopping at Telegraph harbour for lunch and finishing up at the headmaster’s cabin on Thetis (where we were treated to a hot tub and wonderful food!). On the last day we paddled back to cedar via Yellow point. We faced a stiff headwind which slowed us down considerably and made the trip a bit of a slog.

Thetis trip on google maps.

 

54 km, 29 miles, YTD 1100 km

September 24th - Discovery Island - #64

Tony, Gordin, George, Paulo, Simon and I made an earlyish start (9AM OTW) setting out from Cadboro Bay for a very nice day’s paddle around Chatham Island. Visited a colleague, Douglas on his sailboat, had a nice lunch break looking out at the freighters on the south side of Discovery. I was testing out some new greenland paddles…

 9.5 nm, 17.6 km, YTD: 1046

 

 

Visits since July...

I was quite suprised to see how many visits there have been as well as their sources…

September 17 Portland Island (#63)

Mike, George, Kent, Paolo, Dennis and I headed out early from Amherst (8:30 OTW) and paddled around Portland Island. We stopped for “brunch” on the northeast corner of Portland – just after a student group from SMUS left. The day was damp on and off, but the predicted winds never materialized. We ran into another SMUS group when we returned to Amherst. I paddled the wisper and it performed well – needed the skeg in the morning though.

 11 nm, 20.4 km,  YTD : 1028

Sidney Island, September 1, #62 - made it to 1000 km!

Well, I finally made it to my 1000 km goal – 4 months ahead of schedule!

Paulo and I set off from Island View Beach to paddle around Sidney. The paddle was uneventful but very nice. There was a bit of current and wind, but nothing significant. We kept up a good pace with a few stops (every 5 miles or so) and made it to 16 miles.

I got Paulo to take a photo at the 1000 km mark and I reciprocated.

MJ makes it to 1000 km! Paulo assists!

 16 nm, 29.7 km, YTD 1008

22 km to go!

Well, my original goal was to make 1000 km in the year, but I have now decided that I should modify the goal to be 1000 km before the school year starts on September 5th. It looks as if all I have left is a nice one day paddle!

 

Cox Bay, Tofino, August 24th (#61)

I was up in Tofino with the family for  a week and had the FC wisper with me. I managed to get out off Chesterman Beach one morning when there was no fog and paddle around Cox Bay. It was a beautiful morning, the tide was way out and the inter tidal zonation was very clear on the rocks. The FC wisper paddled nicely in the swells and it was fun to poke around the rocks and kelp beds.

 6.5 km, 3.5 nm, YTD 978 km