January 19th - Discovery Island (#4

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the islands. conditions were very nice - no current to speak of and no lumpy water! I could see the silhouette of Mt Rainier in the distance as I set out as well as a 22 degree ice halo around the sun. There were so many logs in the bay as a result of the high tides this past week and also a lot of plastic (especially stryrofoam) floating as well. This had all been re-mobilized as a result of the high tides. I wish we could find some solutions to this issue...

Birding was good:  https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S126502712

Managed to get four nice paddles in this past week! :)

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16 km, YTD 60 km

January 17 - Discovery Island (#3)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands (my first of the year!). Though there was not much wind the water was fairly lumpy until we came back around Commodore Point on Discovery and headed back for Cadboro bay. It was nice to see some marbled and ancient murrelets as well as long-tailed ducks. The bird list: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S126391164 . We also were treated to half a dozen Steller's sea lions at Seabird Point.

The waters around Seabird Point were the lumpiest I have paddled in for quite some time. Some combination of swell and current made for steep and confused waves.  I was definitely tired at the end of the paddle!

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15 km, YTD 44 km

January 15 - Cadboro Point (#2)

Dorothea and I led a club clinic to practice sea kayaking in currents. The five participants all made great progress over the morning. At the end I took a short detour to play in the lumpy water at Cadboro Point Light. Also on the way back we saw Paulo, Dan and Ellen paddling back from going around Discovery and stopped for a quick chat.  A nice morning on the water!

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8 km, YTD 29 km

January 14 - Gordon head (#1)

I paddled around to Telegraph Cove to join 12 others on a SISKA  paddle led by Jo. It was nice to get out on a SISKA paddle again and it was a great first paddle of the year. A highlight of the paddle was seeing a feeding grey whale of Glencoe Cove. Surfaced several times around us.

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21 km, YTD 21 km!