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