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.