November 15th - Discovery Island (#22

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Dan and Paulo for a morning paddle around the islands. The weather and sea conditions were great  a bit of an ebb on the way out, turning to flood for the return. The birding was excellent! Over 20 species - https://ebird.org/checklist/S202588508 and I also saw some Steller's sea lions, harbour seals and heard a California sea lion. A highlight was seeing hundreds of ancient murrelets by Cadboro Point on the way back.

The tide was nice and high which allowed us to check out some areas that are usually to dry!

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16 km, YTD 233 km

November 3 - Discovery Island (#21)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were nice with little wind and a relatively weak ebb. Nice birding (https://ebird.org/checklist/S201321337) and nice conversation! I thought it was cool that I saw blackish oystercatchers in Patagonia earlier in the week and a black oystercatcher today! Had a short play in the sluice and met some SISKA paddlers out with Jo on the way back across Baynes. You can definitely see the current effect by comparing speeds on the southbound and northbound tracks

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16 km, YTD 217 km

October 12 - Buttle Narrows (#20)

While Monica and I were camping at Buttle Lake, I took the Aquaglide Chelan out for a short paddle around the narrows. My GPS plot did not work, so I have made an approximate route based on memory...

We had great weather and it was good to be testing our new trailer for off grid camping...

click to enlarge - route is rough!

4 km, YTD 201 km

October 3 - Discovery island (#19)

I paddled out to meet Dan and Paulo at Cadboro Point for a paddle around the islands. It was hard work paddling over the top of the islands and also back across Baynes (wind and current against). I saw both Steller's and California sea lions as well as marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, harlequin ducks, dunlin, cormorants, gulls, turkey vulture, bald eagle, great blue heron. It was good to get out again, though I was a bit out of shape!

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15 km, YTD 197 km

September 7 - Nanaimo River (#18)

While Monica and I were camping at the Living Forest Campground I went out for a short paddle around the estuary and up the river a bit. The estuary was shallow!

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5 km, YTD 182

August 29 - Oak bay (#17)

I went for a shoreline paddle to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel and back. Stopped at a nice little beach for a break.

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9 km, YTD 177

August 23- 27 - Great Bear rainforest trip (#s13,14,15,16)

While I was leading a trip on Cascadia, we managed to fit in 4 nice little paddles

23 August -Campania Island # 13

This was a very special paddle as we saw a wolf amble down the beach and then sit down in front of us! 6 km

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23 August evening and 24 August morning #14, #15

We paddled into the cove twice and were surrounded by pink and chum salmon. 5 km

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27 August - Europa Hot Spring (#16)

We went for a visit to the hot springs and while some were pooling I went paddling! 3 km

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4 paddles totaled 14 km, YTD 168

August 10th (#12)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Paulo for a paddle around the islands. We had some fog crossing over to Chatham, but it cleared up after that. I saw a few seals with small pups and thousands of gulls on the south side of Discovery. We ended up having great conditions: sunshine, little wind, and little or no current. There were lots of harlequin ducks around and a few bald eagles.

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15 km, YTD 154 km

August 4th - Discovery island (#11)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the islands. there was a strong ebb happening when we started which turned to a flood by the time we finished which was nice. Not much wind but there was a fog bank to the SE which eventually moved in so that my paddle back from Chatham was in fog! A birding highlight was a group of western sandpipers which visited us while we rested on a Discovery Island beach. It was too foggy to see Mt Rainier or Mt Baker!

click to enlarge - data from my watch

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16 km, YTD 139 km

July 7th - Discovery Island (#10)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a morning paddle around the islands. Another beautiful day with a bit more current - a fairly good ebb throughout as you can see from my track back across Baynes Channel!

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16 km, YTD

July 4th - Discovery Island (#9)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Dan and Paulo for a paddle around the islands. Conditions were excellent! We met Alan and his group of Thursday paddlers on our way back - nice to see a few mor friends - I have not seen many this year due to a lack of paddling time! It was a great way to celebrate Aphelion - our greatest distance from the sun! I managed to remember to record the track with my watch today!

click to view the stats from my watch

click to enlarge the track

more stats

16 km, YTD 107

July 3rd - Discovery Island (#8)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Jennie and her "Wednesday wonderers" for a paddle out to the islands. Conditions were excellent and it was nice to catch up with a bunch of friends. I met Paulo at Rudlin Bay as I was heading back and we had a nice run with the current. Saw lots of Canada gees, some harlequin ducks, rhinoceros auklets, bald eagles, and a couple of marbled murrelets

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16 km, YTD 91 km

June 29 - Oak bay (#8)

I went for a morning paddle to Oak Bay and stopped at a beach in front of the Oak Bay Beach hotel. It was lovely calm weather with little current. Lots of Pigeon Guillemots around. I also had great views of Mt Rainier on the outbound trip. It looks as if I am a bit behind on my annual paddling stats!

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9 km, YTD 75 km

May 21 - Mull (#7)

I borrowed a kayak from Jon at Bendoran watersports in Bunessan, Mull. It was a lovely day and it was wonderful to go paddling on this beautiful Scottish coast. I went from the kayak centre to Market Bay which was a gorgeous white sand beach.

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10 km, YTD 66 km

February 21 - Port Renfrew (#6)

I went for a solo paddle in Port Renfrew on the San Juan river mouth looking for some small surf to play in with the Hammer. There was very little surf but I did find a small break at the end of the beach and got a few runs. I saw a nice selection of birds. It was nice to be out on the water in Renfrew!

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2 km, YTD 56 km

February 18 - Discovery Island (#5)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet up with Dan and Paulo for a morning paddle around the Islands. Conditions were a bit lumpy on the north side of Chatham but the rest of the paddle was pretty calm. Currents were not to strong nor was the wind. We saw some Steller's sea lions out by Seabird Point as well as a few harbour seals. The birding was good with all the usual suspects: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S162108547

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15 km, YTD 54 km

February 12 - Discovery Island (#4)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle out to the islands. There was a pretty good current running as well as a stiff northerly breeze.  We decided to go through the gap so as to avoid some current and wind, however, it was very hard work heading back! Lumpy water, strong headwind and a strong ebb running! You can see from my track that here were several parts of the trip where we were pretty slow... probably one of the most tiring paddles I have done in as long as I can remember! We saw some Steller sea lions and one California sea lion as well as a good number of birds. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S161352956 

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16 km, YTD 39 km

Feb 11 - Cadboro Bay Crabbing (#3)

I took the trident angler kayak out to check on the crab traps. Managed to find a keeper in each trap!

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3 km, YTD 23 km

Feb 8 - Discovery (#2)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to join Paulo and Dan for a morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were excellent with minimal currents or wind. The tide was high throughout which allowed us to pass through some channels that are not usually available! Nice to be back out on the water!

Birding was good (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S160980385) seeing over 23 species as well as Steller and California sea lions and some harbour seals.

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15 km, YTD 20 km

Jan 12 - Snow Hill Island (#1)

While on board the National Geographic Explorer, I managed to get out for a couple of short paddles with guests. These were in the vicinity of the Snow Hill Emperor Penguin Colony. I also got out for a paddle on Jan 2nd but did not record the track.. It was probably a 2 km paddle

The two paddles chalked up 3 km to start the paddling year! The paddle tracks look as if they are on the glacier, but it seems as if either the ice has receded or the image is not properly georeferenced.

The paddle tracks - click to enlarge

I think the brown smudge is the colony in this image...

5 km, YTD 5 km.