June 20th - Discovery Island (#50)

Dan and I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet up with Paulo for a paddle around the islands. Conditions were calm with favourable currents - so much so that our moving average was 7 kph (3.8 kt) for the trip. It was a very low tide and there was lots of kelp at the surface. I love how sea kayaking allows one to work on fitness while socializing.
It was a good way to celebrate the start of summer! (the solstice was officially a couple of minutes ago! 3:34 PM Victoria time)
I am off to Haida Gwaii this Friday for a couple of weeks of being the naturalist aboard M/V Swell. I hope to get a few short paddles in like I did last year.

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15 km, YTD 529 km

June 18th - Discovery Island (#49)

Dennis, Rob, Paulo, Dan and I went for a nice morning paddle, setting of at 8AM. We did "the usual" trip around my favourite islands and encountered no significant current or wind during the trip. No lumpy water. We were back by 10:30 and I had time for a nice late morning coffee!

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15 KM, YTD 514 km.

June 12th - Cadboro bay (#48)

Monica and I went out for a nice morning paddle around the bay. I was in the F1 and Monica in the Whisky 16. It was nice and flat, a bit overcast, and the only waves we encountered were from boat wakes! We saw Ben on his Epic V10 surfski when we returned to the beach and had a quick chat.

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5 km, YTD 494 km

June 11th - Discovery Island (#47)

Dan, Rob, Olivier and I went for a morning paddle out around the islands. There was a steady 15 kt wind from the SW, so the out ward journey was reasonably lumpy and quite fun! As we reached the east side of Discovery, the water flattened out until we came around into Baynes channel where things were lumpy and fun again!

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14 km, YTD 489 km

June 10th - Cadboro Bay (#46)

I took the surfski  and wing paddle out for a short  morning paddle to clear out some cobwebs and test out the new gopro housing I picked up. Both were successful. I didn't find any lumpy water, but was able to keep up a nice pace throughout. I will upload the video results in due course.

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8km, YTD 475 km.

May 31-June5 - Broughtons (#s42-45)

I went on my almost annual trip with our grade 10 experiential program to the Brougtons. We had some great days of paddling - three 17 km days - and a day visiting alert Bay via water taxi as well as a beachbound day due to wind and lumpy waters. On our first day of paddling we saw several humpbacks, a pod of orcas, several groups of Dall's porpoise, Steller sea lions and pacific white-sided dolphins. We had good visits to Village Island and to the Earth Embassy CMT camp. The students were great and it was fun to be leading with Sarah and Beth-Anne again.

Day 1 Telegraph to Compton -  click to enlarge

Day 2 Compton to Village Island and back - click to enlarge

Day 3 - Compton to Hanson and then to Blinkhorn - click to enlarge

Day 5 - Blinkhor to telegraph - click to enlarge

56 km, YTD 467 km

May 28th and 29th - PPS (#40 & 41)

I was at PPS for a wonderful weekend of paddling. Great to spend time with old friends and make new ones! I went out for a full day trip to Rock garden from Whiffen Spit with Rowan and Jaime. Conditions were as flat as can be so we were able to get deep into many slots with little or no risk which was fun. we practiced many handy manouevering strokes and stopped for lunch on Secretary Island (landing on the rocks). On the second day I went for a short paddle in Pedder Bay itself to experiment and play with the Motionize Paddle unit. I am intrigued...

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9km, + 1 Km, YTD 411 km