April 11th - Brentwood Bay (#23)

Monica and I joined Bill and Sharon (on their OC-1s) for a paddle around Brentwood Bay and Tod Inlet. conditions were great and it was wonderful to chat with friends! There were lots of moon jellies in Tod inlet!

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7 km, YTD 123 km

December 8th - SISKA paddle to Spectacle Falls (#55

I joined 14 other SISKA paddlers for a Sunday paddle out into Saanich inlet. We were ably led by Gary and it was a perfect day for a paddle with no rain and calm seas. We paddled across to Bamberton and then along the shore to Spectacle Falls before heading to Mackenzie Bight for lunch. On the way back from lunch to the launch site I managed to paddle under at least 20 docks! We saw a good number of birds: buffleheads, surf scoters,  bald eagles, great blue heron, hooded merganser, common merganser, belted kingfisher and glaucous-winged gull.
This was the first time I have taken the kayak on the roof for a day paddle since March! It was great to chat with a bunch of old friends and make some new ones.

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15 km, YTD 408 km

May 26th - Tod Inlet (#37)

Bill and I went for a quick paddle to Tod Inlet and gave each other a chance to try each others' boats. I had my Think Beg Eze surfski and Bill had his OC-1canoe. Boith are light weight and fast and fun! I managed not to flip the OC-1 and Bill did the same with the surf ski. It feels wierd to only paddle on one side at a time! :)

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7 km, YTD 298 km

January 21 - Saanich Inlet with Gordon Brown (#7)

I joined a group of five other SISKA instructors for a day with Scottish paddler Gordon Brown. We had a nice paddle to Spectacle falls and over to McKenzie Bight as we discussed instructional techniques and practiced various skills. It was an excellent day on the water where I learned skills to help me teach better as well as a few extra paddling skills for me!

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15 km, YTD 68 km

September 16th - Saanich Inlet (#87)

I joined the "Wednesday group" for a paddle today out of Brentwood Bay with 7 others.  Conditions were good and we had a nice paddle. It was nice to launch from somewhere other than Caddy Bay!

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21 km, YTD 698 km

August 9th - Butchart Fireworks (#64)

Monica and I joined a SISKA paddle, ably led by Joanne, from Brentwood Bay to Tod Inlet to watch the Saturday night summer fireworks show. We found a nice beach and ran into Kirby who was also there to watch and video the show. The show was excellent!
Here is a hand held video of the show taken with my phone (1 minute)

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4 km, YTD 578 km

July 20th - Butchart Fireworks (#52)

I joined the SISKA evening paddle led by Gary to watch the Butchart Gardens Fireworks display. We launched around 8:45 and paddled our way leisurely over to Tod Inlet and then found a nice spot to watch the display from. The fireworks started promptly at 9:45 and were spectacular! The fireworks used were varied and abundant! The echoes in the inlet were also pretty neat! I also ran into another local C-Dory owner - "Upgrade".

Google imagery - click to enlarge

 I have included to screenshots of the gpsvisualizer track plots. The one above is using Google imagery and the one below is using Yahoo imagery. I think I prefer the Yahoo one...

Yahoo imagery - click to enlarge

6 km, YTD 669 km

September 26th - Brentwood Bay (#70)

Bill, Beth, Simone, Benson, Monica, Steven, Heather and I went for an afternoon paddle in Brentwood Bay to unwind after a day's retreat for the science department. Conditions were wonderful and we saw thousands of moon jellies just below the water's surface as we entered Tod Inlet. We also met up with Pete and Kyle in Pete's beautiful row boat. It was also Benson's first trip in a kayak!

our track - click to enlarge

4 km, YTD 823 km

May 16th - Brentwood Bay (#37)

I went for a delightful afternoon paddle with 6 colleagues (Heather, Jane, Min, Harumi, David and Clayton) during a break in meetings at the Brentwood bay lodge. We had wonderful weather and conditions and poked our noses into Tod Inlet. Hopefully a great first paddle for Harumi! It was also the first paddle for my new Tahe Greenland T (HD model)

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4 km, YTD 449 km

April 29th - Brentwood Bay (#34)

Monica, Bill, Sharon, Heather and I went for a nice relaxed paddle into Tod Inlet. Conditions were overcast but nice and calm and we had a great "family" paddle. Sharon had one of my Wispers and Heather had the F1. We did some harpoon practice with a Scotty pump masquerading as a seal target... I need to practice a bit more to get some range. We also discovered a weird phenomenon whereby Heather was able to move both boats forward by pushing back and forth on my tahe... not quite sure why we were able to make progress!

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 7 km, YTD 433 km

October 2nd - Brentwood (#88)

Dan, Bill and I met up in Brentwood Bay to do a test 6 mile/10 km route as a sort of practice for possibly racing at Greenland week.The 9.5 km course took us an hour and 10 mins, at an average speed of 8.2 kph (4.4 kt, 5.1 mph). It was a reasonable workout and a good pace for that distance. After that we spent some time practicing with Bill's harpoon. Bill had at least one good throw of 40 ft.

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10 km, YTD 1012 km

August 22 - KFAC Victoria _ Brentwood Bay (#77)

I helped Don lead a group of 28 paddlers on the 3rd annual Kayak for a Cure Victoria paddle out of Brentwood Bay. The winds were a bit on the strong side, so we had to slog a bit to get from Willis Point to McKenzie Bight and decided not to cross over to Spectacle Falls. 4 of the group decided to turn back at willis point, but the rest of us had a great paddle and the event raised over $11000 for Cancer reserach! On the way back we had a very relaxed "amble" into Todd inlet.It was great to connect with some of last years paddlers as well as Bill and Heather!
If you are interested in donating to the cause, feel free to go to http://kayakforacure.org/2010-events/victoria/.

15 km, 8 NM, YTD 768 km

Feb 13th - Spectacle falls with Freya (#15)

I organzied a paddle for Freya with a few ORS and SISKA folks (Brian, 3 Gary’s, Sheila, Dorothea, Joanne and Maddie) to Spectacle falls. We decided on Saanich inlet as the wind forecast as for 25+ knot winds. As it turned out, the winds off 10 mile point were consitently between 25 and 30 knots theough much of the paddling day (http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IBRITISH32). In Saanich inlet, however, we experienced light winds and light rain throughout. Several of us got a chance to try out Freya’s spare wind paddle. Sacrilege though it may sound, I was very impressed with the effortless way the Epic wing paddle pushed me through the water. It was a grwat pleasure and honour for all of us to spend a few hours paddling with Freya and we thank her for joining us.

   15 km, 8 NM, YTD 208 km.

Trip album on picasaweb

January 24th - Spectacle falls (#9)

I joined a SISKA energizer paddle led by Jennie from Brentwood Bay to Spectacle falls and back. The fourteen of us went by way of Bamberton and came back by way of McKenzie Bight (where I practiced a few rolls in my Tahe). Conditions were cool and a bit damp, but the forecast winds did not materialize in Saanich Inlet.

19 km, 10 NM, YTD 127 km

August 9th - Kayak for a Cure Saanich Inlet (#80)

I joined 24 others on a fund raising paddle out of Brentwood Bay with Kayak for a Cure – Organized by Don Lowther and Mark Starkey. We started the day off in a bit of drizzle but condfitions were calm and things gradually improved over the course of the day – finishing off with sunshine!

and even bigger…

Photos from the trip – click to see full size:

Opalescent squidd eggs at our lunch beach:

moon jellies in Brentwood Bay

17 km, 9 NM, YTD 827 km

July 11 - Brentwood Bay (#63)

I joined a SISKA paddle from Brentwood Bay to Mill bay and had a wonderful day. Conditions were magnificent and we covered a fair bit of ground for a “relaxed” paddle. Did a bit of rolling in the Tahe Greenland. Paddled nicely on a day paddle!

20 km, 10 NM, YTD 691 km

November 12 (#72)

Dennis, Heike and I set off from the Brentwood bay beach on a rather damp morning. It rained pretty steadily until just before we got back. Dennis had to go back after a mile, so Heike and I paddled back with him before starting again. We made it to Sawluctus island and back and conditions were fine, though wet and a bit cold. We did not tarry long at lunch in Misery bay as it was not warm enough. The east side of the inlet was dripping wet with small scades coming off it everywhere. We also enjoyed checking out the Robertson II. The tide was very high all day, so there was very ltle around in of beaches.

    

 15.7 nm, 29 km, YTD: 1192