April 26th - Goldstream (#15)

Dan, George, John, Kent and I set out from Brentwood Bay to paddle down to Goldstream. We went by Spectacle falls on the outward trip and had magnificent weather. There was a bit of a tail wind for the last part, so I put up the spirit sail which gave a nice speed boost (see the blue part of the track). We went back to Misery Bay for lunch where we had a very relaxed and pleasant break on a sunny warm beach. As we were leaving we ran into Chris and his sit on top. he was paddling with his family and was doing some fishing/crabbing. We were paddling into a headwind for most of the way back which slowed us down a bit.

26 km, 14 NM, YTD: 265 km

April 20th - Oak Bay (#14)

Dan, George and I set out from Cadboro Bay Beach and made our way out to 10 mile point to play in some waves. We had a couple of runs through the race and then allowed the current to take us towards Trial Island. Our speed maxed out at about 15 kph which made good progress! We had a nice run around Trial and lunched on the west side. We had a nice chat with the lightkeeper and then made our way back to Cadboro Bay via the shore, finishing with a nice coffee at Olive Olio’s. (george and I abandoned our plan to paddle to pender today due to the unsettled and windy forecast – conditions probably would have been fine, but we had a great day!)

19.3 km, 10.5 NM, YTD: 239 km

April 13th - Discovery (#13)

Dan, George and I set out from Cadboro Bay at 9 AM for a paddle around the islands. We had a great paddle with pleasant conditions, including a nice bit of standing wave on the way back to Jemmy Jones.

17.5 km, 9.5 NM, YTD 220 km

Sunday April 6th - Rum island (#12)

George, Dennis and I set out from Amherst on a reasonably strong ebb which almost carried us by Sidney Spit. We had a nice paddle along the south side of Gooch (saw lots of snail eggs) and then stopped for lunch on the north beach of Rum. After a while we wer joined by four paddlers who we did not know and then by Heike, John, Paolo and Hans who had set off from Roberts Bay a bit later. We had some good chats on the beach and then the 3 of us set off back, taking a detour out to Cooper reef. Apparently Doug and Tom qarrived at Rum just after we left. I was still not feeling 100% as a result of the stomach bug, so had to go slower than usual. By the time we got back I was tired! The current was flooding stongly betweem Forrest and Dock Islands, and we were almost taken sideways!

22 km, 11.7 NM, YTD: 202

April 5th - Discovery Island (#11) - Back in the cockpit again!

After a wonderful 3 week trip to Ecuador and the Jungle was back in a boat today with george and Dan as we set out from Smuggler’s cove for the islands. We had a strong ebb to start with which gave us some nice waves of 10 mile point as well as a quick ride south. On the south side of Discovery we had some rougher water, but the current was slackening and even helped us on the return trip. Looking forward to another paddle tomorrow.

12 km, 6.5 NM, YTD: 180 km