My 2015 year

I finished off the year with 120 paddles and 1025 km, meaning that I met both of my goals (I think the key is to set ones that are relatively easy to achieve!). This is the end of my 10th year of the paddling blog and I am up to 960 paddles and 11,263 km. My only foreign paddle was in Iceland at the end of March.

Here are the stats:
Year/Paddles/Distance (km)
2015 120 1025
2014 98   911
2013 92 1063
2012 87 1001
2011 105 1217
2010 124 1214
2009 116 1381
2008 75 1080
2007 66 1098
2006 77 1273
Total 960 11263 km

Happy New year!

December 31st - Maynard Cove (#120)

I went for a quick (45 minute) paddle out to Cadboro Point and Maynard Cove. It was a beautiful clear day and I could see all the way past Seattle to Mt. Rainier - 215+ km away! It was a nice way to finish the year's paddling off! The surf ski is definitely fast, averaging 7.5 kph for the paddle. My original plan was that I would have paddles a kilobyte of km, but I went a few hundred metres too far!

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6 km, YTD 1025 km

December 29th - Cattle Point and Telegraph Cove (#119)

Dennis and I paddled from Killarney to Cattle Point where we joined up with a group of SISKA paddlers led by John. We had a delightful paddle along the shoreline of Cadboro Bay and Ten Mile Point and also got to play in the currents at Cadboro Point. Dennis and I left the group at the end and paddled back to Killarney, but I met them for coffee at Olive Olio's after! We saw many sea and shore birds as well as several groups of river otters.

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15 km, YTD 1019 km

December 24th - Cadboro Bay (#118)

Monica's sister Seasonn and I went out for a nice, relaxed, morning paddle around the bay. Winds were northerly at 10 kph, so the bay was pretty calm. The sun was so bright that we had to adjust our route so as not to paddle into it. We saw lots of birds, otters and seals. We toured all 6 of the beached boats! One of them is now just fragments of hull.

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4 km, YTD 1004 km

December 23rd - Margaret's Bay (#117) Made it to 1000 km!

I joined Jim, Alex, David, Debbie and Kari for a "Wednesday" paddle, organised by Jennie, out of Telegraph Cove. The winds were forecast from the SW, so it should have been quite protected, but the winds seemed like they were more from the S and SE. The seven of us headed south to Ten Mile Point to see how conditions were there, but by the time we could see the Ten Mile Point weather Station, it was fairly lumpy and windy (for much of the trip it was 10-15 knots). We encountered some wind and lumpy water on the way back and I had some fun playing in the partial clapotis by the shore.
I wanted to make it to 1000 km today, so I had to do an extra 1.5 km loop at the end to make it! A nice paddle to reach my annual goal with!
We "debriefed" at Olive Olios for coffee and I treated myself to a celebratory raspberry-chocolate scone!

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16 km, YTD 1000km

December 19th - Discovery Island (#116)

Olivier and I went for a spur of the moment paddle out to the Islands, since the forecast was not bad. It was a bit breezy (pretty steady 10-15 knots), and the current was turning to an ebb, so we decided to paddle around counter-clockwise. Before we got to Vantreight Island, I saw a couple of very big splashes and likely blows about a mile to the north of the VK (Fulford reef)  marker. I am pretty sure that we had spotted a pod of orcas, some of which were breaching!  We stopped briefly in the lagoon in East Chatham Island and saw over a dozen herons in the trees. The tide was high enough that I was able to paddle over spots I don't think I have paddled before! By the time we got to the south side of Discovery, we were experiencing reasonably lumpy water (the wind was closer to 20 kt) and by the time we got to Seabird Point, it was "exciting"... I had to employ more than a few braces! We stopped to catch our breath in boathouse bay and then made our way to cactus islet lagoon. The tide was still high and we counted 5 patches of prickly pear cactus on the south side of the islet. Two of the patches had been partly submerged recently - I hope they are tolerant of some immersion. On our way back, we dropped by Maynard (smuggler's) Cove to visit with Alex, Sheila, Morley and Jo who were heading out to play in the waves that were developing of Cadboro Point (the ebb current was meeting a SE swell from the Puget Sound area). All in all, a great day's paddle, with good paddling and plenty of wildlife too! I almost surfed into a seal at one point. Only 16 km to go before my 1000 km goal is reached...

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18 km, YTD 984 km

December 17th - Jemmy Jones (#115

Dan and I went for a "lumpy water" paddle out to Jemmy Jones island and back. The way out was hard, slow,  work, but the way back to the yacht club was fun with quite a few good surf rides in the 2ft or so waves. The wind was blowing between 30-40 kph at RVYC and 40-50 at Ten mile point throughout most of the paddle and then died right at the end. We had fun and were pretty tired at the end. Hot soup and coffee were welcome on my return home! You can see quite a speed difference between the outward and return tracks! Still several boats aground in the bay... 4 sailboats at the south end of the beach, one more is just in pieces on the beach and the big concrete-hulled boat is still in front of Gyro park.

RVYC winds - click to enlarge

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6 km, YTD 966 km

Another no paddling day...

With winds well over 50 knots, the sea is a bit lumpy today!
Here is a screeenshot of the day's wind at Trial Island:

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And here is the same graph for the RVYC station - similar pattern, but not as strong.

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 A video from the steps at the end of the street

a still image from the steps at the end of the beach.

 another wave video - I get doused!

December 11th - cadboro Bay (#114)

Dan and I went for an early afternoon paddle around the bay. The tide was about as high as I have seen it in a while and it had caused many logs to float out into the bay. I am sure they will be back with the next storm! We decided not to cross Baynes as it was a bit lumpy (and we were not sure of the forecast) and instead did a "tour de Cadboro". Only 40 km left to go for my annual distance goal! There were several more boats ashore on the beach that I remembered from last weekend... 6 in total!

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8km, YTD 960 km

No paddling today!

The water in the bay is a bit lumpy today...

looking towards the yacht club - click to enlarge

another view of the bay

A video clip...

the wind report from RVYC - gusts over 80 kph!

BigWave Dave wind forecast for today...

December 4th - Discovery Island (#113)

Dan and I went for a mid morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were nice between the storms - hardly any lumpy water! The tide was as high as I can remember in a while, so we were able to go thru many small gaps and channels that we rarely get to go through. One of the gaps, we had never been through.We saw a raft of long-tailed duck and surf scoters at the top end of Chatham.
There was little current on the way out, but a small eb was building as we came back. Ben had managed to get his sailboat off the beach. It had come ashore yesterday in the storm. I wonder if more will come ashore tomorrow. Nice paddle!

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16 km, YTD 952 km