December 31st - Caddy Bay (#92)

Monica and I went for a morning paddle around the bay. Conditions were great, not too cold and calm. The tide was high so we were able to explore passages that usually are not available. One of the boats that came ashore recently on the Caddy bay beach was actually afloat, but no one was around to take it off - another abandoned boat?
There was a nice pair of bald eagles on a rock on the SW corner of our route, and Monica stopped to take some pics. We were able to paddle over the wall of the Naze, and i checked out a sailboat anchored in shallow water in Loon Bay, following its anchor all the way out!
A great way to finish off another good year's paddling. Planning to get the year off to a good start tomorrow!

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7 km, YTD 1063 km.

December 29th - Discovery Island (#91)

Dan, Dennis and I went for another nice Sunday morning paddle around Discovery. The forecast was for 5kt from the SSE, but it was more like 10-15, so it was harder work paddling out than usual.

today's wind plot for Discovery - click to enlarge

I stopped once to check out if a red object was a usable trap buoy, but it turned out to be a bucket. The tide was high so we went into cactus islet inlet in Chatham Island, and then decided to portage across. Longer than we expected!
I may have time for one more paddle this year! :)

today's track - click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 1056 km

December 22 - Discovery Island (#90)

Dennis, Dan and I went for a Sunday morning paddle around Discovery. It was a cool grey day with a building ebb current, but no wind to speak of. We made good progress until we started back up between the Chathams when the ebb was against us! We stopped for a while to recover a crab float and line that had drifted over from Washington State!

click to enlarge

15 km, YTD 1040 km

December 18th - Telegraph Bay (#89)

Dan and I went for a quick afternoon paddle around Ten Mile Point from Cadboro Bay to Telegraph Bay. Conditions were good with a 5-10 knot northerly wind, and it was good to get out. Conditions are definitely colder than last week - air temp is around 5 ºC instead of 25 ºC! We stopped on the south side of the point for a few rolls, and I had to stop after half a dozen due to getting an ice cream headache! (I also forgot to turn the GPS on for the first 400 m!)

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10 km, YTD 1025 km.

December 8-13 - Galapagos (#s 86-88)

I was able to fit in 3 paddles while I was aboard the National Geographic/Lindblad Endeavour in Galapagos this week. I was invited to accompany an AAAS group as their guest lecturer and host and had a wonderful week renewing old friendships and making som new ones.
The 3 paddles were in Gardner Bay, Espanola Island, Post office Bay, Floreana Island and Darwin Bay, Genovesa Island. The Endeavour had 8 Necky Looksha T kayaks available which were pretty decent little doubles, though the cockpits are close enough together that it is important to synchronize!
Seeing the islands by kayak is wonderful, and I recommend it to anyone who gets a chance.

An overview of the islands - click to enlarge

 This map shows the archipelago. I paddled at the two southernmost islands as well as the north-easternmost one.

Gardner Bay, Espanola - click to enlarge

 On this paddle we had great views of colourful marine iguanas

Post Office Bay, Floreana - click to enlarge

 On this paddle we managed to see Galapagos sea lions and Galapagos penguins.

Darwin Bay, Genovesa - click to enlarge

On this paddle, we managed to see many seabirds as well as Galapagos sea lions and Galapagos fur seals.

paddling by Espanola - click to enlarge

paddle by Floreana - click to enlarge

8 km, YTD 1015 km

December 1st - Discovery Island (#85)

I left Cadboro Bay beach at 8 and paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet up with Olivier. Olivier had seen the wolf again earlier this week (7 times now to my 2!) and I had hoped we might see it. However, the wind and rain were probably causing it to take shelter. The winds were pretty strong from the SW (up to 33 kt at Trial and 25 kt at Discovery) which made for some interesting paddling. There were a couple of times when we were barely making any progress as we paddled between Discovery and Chatham - a lot of yellow on this track plot! It was definitely hard work paddling back today against the wind and the current.
This was my 4th trip to Discovery in 8 days, and I have now made my 1000 km goal for the year!

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17 km, YTD 1007 km