November 27th - Discovery (#100)

I led a SISKA adventurous paddle today to Chatham and Discovery Islands. 11 of us set out from the beach together and then we met up with 3 more out at Cadboro Point. It was raining when we started at 10 , but that let off by 11 and it was even sunny in the afternoon.  The winds were pretty much as predicted by BWD, with winds gusting to near 20 knots around 1:30 or 2 PM (you can see the weather record from Ten Mile Point here). The stretch from the top end of Chatham to Strongtide seemed like hard work, but was over quickly - you can see we made slower progress. We celebrated Gary's birthday afterwards at the Smuggler's Cove Inn. Thanks to everyone who joined me on my 100th paddle of the year!

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18 km, YTD 1146 km.

November 19th - Chatham (#99)

Dan, Gordin, and I set out from Killarney and met Paulo and Olivier out between Flower and Jemmy Jones Island. We paddled out into Baynes which was showing some nice waves with a flood current and a northerly wind. We turned south for a while to get some nice rides and then made our way around Chatham, with a visit to the inlet. As you can see from the track speed, it was a bit of a slog making our way back across Baynes but the waves were a nice size and fun. We stopped for a tea break in Maynard (Smugglers') Cove and then back to Killarney. Temperatures were barely above freezing and felt like several degrees below with the wind chill but we were well-dressed and pretty comfortable.  A nice 99th paddle of the year!

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Paulo made some video of this trip: http://youtu.be/kn0z-UhZphg it was fun!

13 km, YTD 1128 Km

November 12th - Discovery (98)

Dennis and I went for a morning paddle out to the islands. The forecast was for some rain and some wind later, but not too much. We did a quick check on a sail boat that seemed to drifting ashore to see if we could find a contact number, but no luck. We checked out my mooring which now no longer has someone sitting on it and then made our way out to the islands. We paid a visit to "Cactus Islet" in the inlet in East Chatham as the tide was nice and high. There were some small swells off the south side of Discovery which made for some fun around the rocks and then the rain began. I was able to make good use of my Kokatat Storm Cag!

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17 km, YTD 1115 km.

November 11th - Jordan River (#97)

Scott and I drove out to Jordan River where we met Yves, Patti, Gerhardt, James, Joanne, Sheila, Jas, Roy and Chris to try a bit of surfing. The waves were a bit small and the wind built up after lunch but we had a good time anyway all getting a few decent rides. The Delphin performed well as did the Northern Lights Greenland Paddle. We had a great lunch of chili made by James!

4 km, YTD 1098 km

November 5/6 - Surge Narrows (#95&96)

I joined a group of SISKA instructors on a trip to Discovery Islands Lodge and Surge Narrows for the weekend. We drove up on Friday and returned Sunday afternoon after two wonderful days on the water and two nights at the lodge. The Lodge was wonderful and we had great conditions including a current that maxed out at around 6 knots. While we were there on Saturday we ran into Alan, Brent, Jonathan and Paul who gave us some great tips on surfing the wave. At maximum the wave was hard for me to get onto and stay but we had a of of fun trying and some great rides before and after max. A great weekend! :)

16 km, YTD 1094 km

our track around the wave site...