March 30th - Cadboro Bay (#19 and #20) - back in home waters!

(#19) Mark and I set out for a morning paddle around Cadboro Bay. For me it was the first trip for the Cape Falcon F1 in Canadian waters! We were able to play in the eddies behind the overfall at Cadboro Point and also play in the waves in Baynes. The F1 performs well and I even got a couple of nice surfs in. I tried it with the Spirit line seat which was comfy but raised my centre of gravit a bit more than I liked and also seemed to press in a bit at the top of one thigh. After playing around at Cadboro point for a while, we went over to Cattle point where we saw a large otter feasting on a halibut carcass. We also ran into Mike P and JF who were running a level 2 instructor course. The tide was very low - as low as I have seen it since moving here. The keel of the Magic Bullet is still there… (10 KM) I also checked out some mooring floats on the way back in case I could get a number from someone who might want to sell one.

Moving water by the overfall – video clip

(#20) Dan and I set off for an afternoon paddle around the Bay. You can tell I was keen to get some paddling in before going back to work tomorrow! We went out to Cadboro Point and then out past Ten Mile Point and back. The tide was still low, and the tide was flooding. This time I used the “foamie” seat system and found it more comfortable. There are a few loose ends I need to finish off on the boat. The Spirit Line baidarka bags worked well. I also used the Feathercraft sea sock this aft and this morning and it worked well too. (8 km).

Total for the day 18 KM, 10 NM, YTD 184 km

March 24th - Oregon sand dunes and Siltcoos Creek paddle (#18)

Monica and I spent a full day touring and hiking the sand dunes south of Florence – spectacular! The morning was spent hiking in the Oregon Dunes day use area – we had the place to ourselves for four hours.

8.5 km hike

After lunch I went for a short paddle down Siltcoos Creek. I took the newly made Disko Bay replica to the mouth of the creek and back.

From 2009-03-24_oregonmjj

From 2009-03-24_oregonmjj

Pictures posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090324_oregonmjj#

4.5 km, 2 NM, YTD 166 km.

Day 8 - kayaks are complete! plus a pair of maiden voyages (#17)

Today we spent the morning getting the holes made and the decks rigged as well as installing seat backs and foam seats. We then cleaned up and to ok the kayaks to Nehalem State park and gave them thrie first tastes of the water…

Pictures of the day posted on picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090322_oregon#

2 km, 1 NM, YTD 162 km

March 20 - kayak building day 6

Today we did the polyurethane coating of the kayak hulls. It was a somewhat frenetic process of chasing dribbles of goo up and down the hull and trying to achieve a smooth finish. I had a couple of house flies decide to become part of my kayak!

When we were done with the hull coating, we began work on making paddles. I decided to make a storm paddle as I already have several regular sized GPs. I can see wanting to make more…

It rained all day but began to clear as we finished work. I decided to go to Manzanita and walk on the magnificent 7 mile beach there.

 a shiny boat and a partly carved storm paddle

Other photos from today posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090320_oregon#

kayak building day 5

Today was a long but satisfying day. We began the day with bare finished frames and finished with fully skinned kayaks (some of which were stained – I decided to have the west greenland boat stained brown while leaving the F1 “white”) I did a lot of sewing today! Stretching he skin required some interesting manouevers!

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090319_oregon#

No time to paddle today – perhaps tomorrow or Sat/Sun…

 

 

March 18 - Day 4 kayak building and Nehalem river (#16)

Another good day of kayak building. Today was mostly spent tidying up loose ends, fairing off various edges, drilling holes for the deck lines and oiling the frame. Tomorrow should be a long day of “skinning” the kayaks.

We were finished a bit early and I took one of Brian’s West Greenland boats for a test drive in the North Fork Nehalem River. I went the opposite way to yesterday. It was a comfortable ride and the kayak seemed fast. I did not try rolling it yet as I was not sure of the cockpit seal etc. I paddled with my drysuit and an akuilisaq which worked quite nicely.

end of day 4

BTW, as you can see from the photos, it is not warm here in March! Today was also the first dry day!

More photos posted on picasaweb at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090318_oregon#

10 km, 6 NM, YTD 160 km

March 17th - Kayak course Day 3 and Nehalem Bay (#15)

Another productive day of kayak building – the frames are ready to be cleaned up and oiled.

Pictures posted on my picasaweb site: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090317_oregon#

After “work” I took one of Brian’s F1s to Nehalem and went for a paddle on the estuary. The kayak paddled nicely and it was great to be out on the water. I was able to keep up a nice pace and manouever well.

10 km, 5 NM, YTD 150 km

March 16 - kayak building day 2

Another long and busy day at the kayka building course. At the end of the day we definitely have a kayak like thing!

I have another set of photos posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090316_oregon

The kayak is held together by a combination of “artificial sinew” (coated twine) and wooden dowels.

 

March 15 - kayak building course day 1

Today was the first official day of the kayak building course I signed up for with Brian Shulz of Cape Falcon Kayaking (http://www.capefalconkayak.com/). I actually began yesterday as I came down a day early to help with some of the machine tool prep.

Today we assembled and fit the gunwales and finished by making and fitting the tenons that inserted the deck beams. I am making a Brian Shulz “F1” kayak while Brian is making a Disco Bay West Greenland kayak for me. By the end of the day, we defintely had things that looked like they were kayaks in the making!

 

 

After “work”, brian and I went for an exciting paddle down the river that flows by the barn – a few nice class III drops and some beautiful water falls.

March 12 - Cadboro point (#14)

Gordin, Logan, George and I set out for an afternoon paddle in Cadboro Bay. Logan was visiting from Whitehorse. We paddled out to the point and played in the building waves for a short while and then came back to Cadboro Point light where we found the keel of the magic bullet exposed at low tide. We then paddled over towards cattle point and then back through RVYC to have a look at the Magic Bullet itself (sans keel). Nice conditions – great sunshine and a light wind.

9 km, 5 NM, YTD 140 km.

I am off to Manzanita to spend a week building a skin on frame kayak with Brian Schulz of Cape Falcon Kayak. Hope to have some construction and padling reports as the week progresses!

March 7th - Victoria Harbour Paddlers' Rally (#13)

I set out from Banfield Park around 2 PM to participate in the paddler’s rally against the mega marina project (which plans to drastically reduce paddlers’ access in and out of Victoria Harbour). The winds were strong (see the Vic harbour weather reports below), steady at 25 knots and gusting to 32, which meant that the rally was held on the beach by the Delta hotel instead of the proposed marina site. I went around the corner a few times and played in the waves and surf – the feathercraft wisper was catching waves nicely. Good speeches by Brian Henry and Denise Savoie. I was happy to see lots of familiar faces!

Victoria Harbour weather reports:

07-Mar-2009 16:00:00 W 25 32 270.0 99.9 1014.2
07-Mar-2009 15:00:00 W 22 31 270.0 99.9 1013.9
07-Mar-2009 14:00:00 WSW 25 32 247.5 99.9 1014.6

6km, 3 NM, YTD 131 km.

March 1st - Ogden point (#12)

Heike, John, Paolo and I set out early from Caddy Bay and made our way to near Ogden Point for lunch. On the way out we had the tide and wind with us (I had the spirit sail up most of the time) but the wind was against us for most of the return journey. However, the tide turned around our lunch time so we had a little current hel on the way back too. The forecasted SE gales did not materialize thankfully and we had a good day’s paddle!

at the end of the day on Caddy Bay beach

you can see quite a difference in outward and returnm track sppeds!

25 KM, 13 NM, YTD 151 km.