September 27th - Discovery Island (#84)

Dan, Paulo and I went out for a morning paddle around Discovery. There was a good ebb building and we looked for the sea otter at Cadboro Point. On our way back, the fog came down so we navigated across Baynes with a strong ebb current using GPS. Seemed to work quite well.

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16 km, YTD 816 km

September 25th - Discovery (#83)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle around Discovery Island. Conditions were nice - flat calm and sunny - which was nice after a few fall days earlier in the week. The 14.5 km paddle took just over 2 hours. Looking at the track we almost made a perfect straight line back from Commodore Point.

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15 km, YTD 800 km

September 20/21 - Portland Island (#s 81 and 82)

Don, Susan and I set out from Amherst on Saturday morning to paddle out to Arbutus point to join a group of SISKA paddlers camping there. We had a nice paddle over and a relaxing afternoon and evening socializing with the other paddlers. I had a good sleep in my Hennessey Hammock and we returned to Amherst just after noon on Sunday. We saw lots of Orange sea cucumbers on the east shore of Portland Island. This was SISKA's first official camping paddle and was a great success - thanks Alan for leading and organizing!

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20 km, YTD 785 km

September 14th - Sidney Spit (#80)

I led a group of 12 SISKA paddlers to Sidney spit to do a cleanup as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Conditions were magnificent - sunny and clam and we had an uneventful paddle to Sidney spit via the Ker Group and the Dock Islets. We saw porpoises and a nice glacial erratic along the way as well as some honeycomb weathering on the Dock Island sandstone. We had lunch and then spent an hour an a half walking the spit's beaches looking for garbage. Once again, foam pieces were the predominant items. Our total amount of garbage was less this year, which was encouraging. We returned directly to Amherst and had a nice visit to the Rumrunner to celebrate our safe return! I just realized that this is our 6th year of doing this - see the links below.

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Previous years trips:

http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca/2013/10/october-6th-sidney-spit-beach-cleanup-73.html

http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca/2012/09/september-15th-sidney-spit-66.html

http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca/2011/09/september-17th-sidney-spit-cleanup-and.html

http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca/2010/09/september-12th-siska-sidney-spit.html

http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca/2009/09/september-20th-sidney-spit-cleanup-91.html

9 km, YTD 765 km

September 8th - Caboro Point (#79)

L ed a group of 15 SISKA paddlers out on an evening paddle to Cadboro Point and Maynard (Smugglers') Cove to watch the harvest supermoon rise. Conditions were windier than I would have liked at 5-10 knots in the bay, but were OK for the group. We saw the sea otter at Caboro point and a group of nine river otters outside Maynard Cove while we were waiting for the moon to rise. The moon rise was spectacular and we made it back to the beach just as darkness set in.

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6 km, YTD 756 km

September 7th - Loon Bay (#78)

I went over to Loon Bay to do a Paddle Canada skills course with Mary, Paul and Bart. I am happy to say that they all did well and passed! Conditions were nice and the water was not too cold!

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2 km, YTD  748 km

September 6th - Gonzales Point (#76)

I paddled over to Willows beach to help guide/lead with the Annual Paddle for Health event (http://www.paddleforhealth.ca/) organized by Don. The weather and conditions were great and we had around 60 paddlers! The original plan was to paddle to Caddy bay, but the beach was still "closed" due to the Oak Bay sewage over run earlier this week, so we went to Gonzales Point instead (the beach is open again as of this afternoon!). Great BBQ afterwards and then ran into a bunch of SMUS boarders having a picnic!

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14 km, YTD 746 km.

September 4th - Staines Island (#76)

Took the Starboard SUP for a quick evening paddle out and around Staines Islet. Another beautiful calm evening! I love caddy bay!

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3 km, YTD 732 km

September 3rd - Cadboro Point (#75)

I went for an after dinner paddle - flat clam seas  and sunshine. I went out to Cadboro Point and saw the otter again, though this time he was not as friendly as last time. I popped into Smugglers/Maynard Cove where I saw Patti and a client and then made my way back along the shore, stopped by to chat with Mary and Tim and then Paul as I cruised the shore of Caddy bay.

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6 km, YTD 729 km