January 22nd - Discovery Island

Today I led a Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club Intermediate Members’ Paddle to Discovery Island. On the paddle were Duncan, Peter, Roscoe, John, Val, Marie, Doug, Dennis, Gary, Tony and me. We met at Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay at 9:30 and were on the water by just after 10 AM. There was a steady 5-10 knot wind from the S/SE and the currents for Baynes channel were supposed ebbing strongly and steadily all day. Mike and Dorothea decided to go and play in the waves off 10 Mile point (Dorothea was trying a new boat!). Gary managed to forget an important piece of equipment and caught up with us later. Duncan and Peter paddle out to Strongtide with us and then decided to stay close to shore as Duncan did not want to risk getting his eye wet - Doctor’s orders!

As predicted, there was a strong current in Baynes Channel and some good standing waves off 10 mile point. We chose to head over to the channel between Chatham and Discovery via Jemmy Jones Islet, avoiding most of the wave action. We played around in the channel between Chatham and Discovery while waiting for Gary to catch up and then headed for lunch on a beach on the north side of Discovery Island. After lunch we went counter clockwise around Chatham via the inlet (where we had to line our boats up the dry channel) where we went to check out the prickly pear cacti. After that we continued on around past Strongtide Island and back over to Jemmy Jones and Cadboro Bay. There was still some good current in Baynes (as evidenced by our track log) but the area was in the lee of the islands and not too choppy.

Coffee at Olive Olio’s finished off a nice day.

(8.3 Nm., 15.3 Km) YTD: 76 km