November 24th - Cadboro Bay (#33)

I went for an afternoon paddle around the bay since I wanted to get a last paddle in before I head south again. Conditions were excellent. The tide was high, the sun was shining, currents minimal and little wind. A good number of birds seen https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S122963444 I chatted with a recreational crabber who indicated that the crabbing was not great with the commercial crabbers around... I also ran into a paddler who was paddling a SUP with a double-bladed paddle! :)

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8 km, YTD 323 km

November 19 - Discovery Island (#32)

Dan and I went for a Saturday morning paddle around the Islands. Though the wind was forecast to be only 10 knots, it seemed a bit more and especially crossing Baynes the sea was lumpy! Probably as "active" as I have seen it in a while! Birding was good with lots of oystercatchers. We had a young seal come and play with our kayaks as we were coming back into Cadboro Bay by Staines Island.

 I also got to chat with Kellie and Eric as we passed by their house.

 https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S122688908

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15 km, YTD 315 km

November 15th - Cadboro and Oak Bays (#31)

George and I went for a nice morning paddle around the bays. It looked a little lumpy out in Baynes so we decided to stick to the two bays. Conditions remained good for us through and it was great to catch up on news. We saw great blue heron, black oystercatcher, double-crested cormorant, pelagic cormorant, pigeon guillemot, rhinoceros auklet, common murre and some gulls! (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S122481781)

You can see how the current helped us heading from Cadboro Point to Oak Bay Marina! I suspect our paddling pace was the same throughout!

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12 km, YTD 300 km

November 13th - Discovery Island (#30)

I led a group of 6 paddlers (Debbie, John, Shannon, George, Anne and Barbara) on a SISKA energizer paddle around Discovery Island. For most of the paddle, conditions were quite benign (sunny, no adverse current and little wind) but we did encounter some strong wind and lumpy water on the north side of Chatham Island on our way back.  We ran into John and David who were also paddling in the islands today. You can see from the track that we had a big help from the current as we headed south in Baynes Channel. We stopped for lunch in Rudlin Bay

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18 km, YTD 288 km

October 20th - Discovery Island (#29)

Dan and I went for an early morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were excellent and we got a nice paddle in before the weather turns. No sea lions around but a few seals and we are seeing quite a few marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots and common murres in winter plumage. We also saw (and heard the distinctive wing beat of) surf scoters.

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15 km, YTD 270 km.

October 8th - Discovery Island (#28)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the Islands. Conditions were wonderful. Not too hot, little current and no wind! We saw a bunch of the usual summer/fall birds and I tallied 11 species. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S120235409

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15 km, YTD 255 km

October 7th - Cadboro Bay (#27)

I went for a short afternoon SUP around the bay ( a partial objective was to feed some salmon carcasses to the crabs!), but conditions were gorgeous.  There was a group of kayakers working on a course and a few sailboats returning to RVYC. I went by Statia and the yacht club.

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2km, YTD 240 km

October 2nd- Cadboro Bay (#26)

I went for a nice afternoon paddle around the bay - it has been a while as I was away on trips!

Beautiful conditions, sunny, calm, little current, highish tide. I saw some nice birds, including a Heerman's gull. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S119873666 I also saw some good mirages out around the chain islets.

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8 km, YTD 238 km

August 11th - Discovery Island (#25)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. First "real" paddle since I got back from Iceland! Weather conditions were great and the tide was super low (zero tide height!) and many of our usual passages were blocked (We could not go between Griffin and Alpha Islets)! There was also a strong ebb current as we set out across Baynes which made for some squirelly and lumpy water and a pretty fast pace! You can see the grey section in the channel showing when I was over 10 kph! We saw some nice birds including black turnstones and a couple of common murres.

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16 km, YTD 230 km

August 9th - RVYC (#24)

I went for a short evening SUP over to the RVYC. the tide was super high so I had to lie down on the board to go under the bridge! Nice conditions! I have been away a lot this year... I probably won't make my 50/500 goal!

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2 km, YTD 214 km

July 9th - Discovery Island (#23)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were almost perfect with little current and no wind. We saw one other paddler and the ORS boat pulling into Rudlin Bay. It has been almost a month since I paddled around the islands and it was good to be back! I guess we must have cut some corners since the paddle was less that 14.5 km and usually it is closer to 15! :)

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14 km, YTS 212 km

June 16 to July 4 - Haida Gwaii (#s 13-22)

While working aboard Maple Leaf Adventures Cascadia  for three weeks, I managed to lead ten short paddles in various anchorages. Most of these were early morning (before breakfast) adventures!

Three were in Thurston Harbour, three at Dolomite Point/Island Bay, three at Echo Bay and one by Faraday/Murchison Islands.

Faraday/Murchison anchorage - click to enlarge

Echo Harbour, 3 paddles, click to enlarge

Dolomite Point/Island Bay, 3 paddles, click to enlarge

Thurston Harbour 3 Paddles (1 not recorded) click to enlarge

30 km, YTD 198 km

June 11th - Discovery Island (#12)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle out to the islands. Since it has been over 5 weeks since I paddled we kept a reasonable pace. Conditions were good. Not much current against us at any point and little wind.We did not see any Steller sea lions near Seabird point and my bird list was on the low side: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S112705436

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15 km, YTD 168 km

May 1st - Discovery Island (#11)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. We started out a bit later than usual (1000) so as to miss the breeze. There was a bit of an ebb when we started and then a nice flood when we finished. The highlight of today's paddle was spending some time with a Grey whale in the bay just south of Griffin Island! You can see where we stopped on the track - a magical experience to be close to one of these giants.

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15 km, YTD 153 km

April 26th - Discovery Island (#10)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the Islands. We had a 10 knot ESE wind so the water was a little bit lumpy in places but not too bad. Not much current though there was a light ebb happening. You can see the outbound track was slower than the return due to wind and current. All the Steller Sea lions were on the farther out rock today - looked crowded! A huge one surface near me in the water in Rudlin bay and gave me the "eye"! It has been good to get out to the islands several time in the past week and a bit!

Bird list here: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S108153961

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15 km, YTD 138 km

April 23rd - Discovery Island (#9)

Dan and I went for an early morning paddle around the islands. We went the opposite way than we usually do, thinking that it would be better if the ebb built strongly - but it didn't! We had many Steller's sea lions at Seabird Point. Their noises are amazing! Conditions were great. No lumpy water!

Bird list here: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S107847970

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15 km, YTD 123 km

April 21st - Oak Bay Islands (#8)

I paddled over to Cattle point to join a group of 7 others (Alan, Dave, Bob, Elizabeth, John, Luc, and Tony) from the Thursday group that Alan organizes. It was a bit windy from the SE to start so it was a bit of a slog getting to Cattle point as well as a bit lumpy. By the time we had made it over to Flower Island, the winds had calmed and we went out to Cadboro Point to watch the very lumpy water formed as the current overfalls around the point and was meeting a swell from the Salish sea. The waves and "haystacks" were as big as I have seen in some time! We had lunch at Gonzales point and then paddled the shore past the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. A few guests at the pool waved at us and took pictures! :)

The birding was good with at least 16 species seen: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S107646761

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17 km, YTD 108 km

April 19th - Discovery Island (#7)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a morning paddle around the Islands. This was the longest paddle I have done in a while! :)

Conditions were good with a strong ebb throughout the morning and around 10 knots of SE wind. Great to get out around the islands again. There was a bit of lumpy water in the middle of Baynes channel. You can see how the current swept me to the SW for a bit in the middle of the channel and then I was able to paddle in a straight line! I also found it interesting that the back eddy near the "gap" between the islands gave me a significant push. I also tracked my route using my usual trusty Etrex HCx and my Columbus P1 gps logger and both gave very similar results! The P1 recorded a bit more often...

Bird list is here: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S107494468

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15 km, YTD 91 km

April 13 - Chatham Island (#6)

After returning from the Utah road trip I managed to get out for an afternoon paddle with Dan. The wind was quite strong (10-15 kt) in our face for the outward journey, but it calmed down for the return so we did not have its help on the return. It was great to get out on home waters again, though I was out of practice and out of shape!

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10 km, YTD 76 km

April 2nd - Colorado River (#5)

 I took the inflatable Blackfoot with us on our Utah road trip and managed to get it out once! I did a paddle down a stretch for the Colorado River from just below Moab to our campsite at Gold Bar (by the Corona Arch Trail). It was nice to have around a knot of current in my favour and it was great to get out on the water for a couple of hours. The river was not deep and I even ran aground at one point! Not a lot of birds seen, though I did see one great blue heron. I did get to see some of the petroglyphs we had seen from the road again from the river which was nice and it was cool to paddle down a part of this famous river (though I guess when I paddled on Lake Mead and Lake Powell I was on the same river!)

my track down the Colorado - click to enlarge

12 km, YTD 66 km

February 2nd - Discovery Island (4)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Paulo and Dan. It was as cold as I have been paddling in a while! There was snow on Cadboro Point as well as on Strongtide, Vantreight and West Chatham Islands! Conditions were not bad with 10-15 kt of wind and a bit of an ebb current. This made for some lumpy water in Baynes Channel and around Seabird Point.

Birding was good with 21 species seen: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S101914475

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16 km, YTD 54 km

February 1st - Cadboro bay (#3)

I went for a solo paddle around the bay to enjoy the nice winter weather. Had a chat with Curran and kids on shore and saw a few different birds. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S101859406

The tide was fairly high allowing me to sneak through several gaps.

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7 km, YTD 38 km

January 25th - Discovery Island (#2)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Paulo and Lesley for a paddle around the islands. Conditions were good with light winds and a solid ebb current. On the way back we did a few turns in the current between Vantreight and West Chatham. Heard the Growler jets taking off from Whidbey Island a few times!

23 species seen today. Birding highlight was seeing ancient murrelets again. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S101443791

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16 km, YTD 31 km

2021 Paddling stats

My 2021 year did not get as many km or number of paddles as some years, but considering that I was away for almost half the year, not too bad.

2021 concluded with 77 paddles and 707 km

Previous year totals

Year #	Year	# paddles	km total	km per paddle
1	2006	77	1273	16.50
2	2007	66	1098	16.60
3	2008	75	1080	14.40
4	2009	116	1381	11.90
5	2010	124	1214	9.80
6	2011	105	1217	11.60
7	2012	87	1001	11.50
8	2013	92	1063	11.60
9	2014	98	911	9.30
10	2015	120	1025	8.50
11	2016	129	1076	8.30
12	2017	86	728	8.47
13	2018	69	548	7.94
14	2019	57	427	7.49
15	2020	101	905	8.96
16	2021	77	707	9.18
	Totals	1479	15654	10.58

It is kind of neat to see that I have blogged almost 1500 paddles and over 15000 kms!

January 22, 2022 - Discovery Island (#1)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Dan and Paulo for my first paddle in over two months. Conditions were pretty good with a solid ebb at the start and little current at the finish. It was nice to see the usual birds again (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S101250088) though I did not try counting today - 18 species. I encountered some lumpy water crossing Baynes Channel and also had great views of Mt. Baker. Great to be back on the water! :)

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15 km, YTD 15 km