May 9-12 - Gulf Islands (#s 17-20)

Sarah and I led a group of 7 grade 9 students on a 3 night, four day, camping trip in the gulf islands. We camped on Portland Island, Rum Island and D'Arcy Island, and landed on Moresby and Sidney Islands as well. We had spectacular conditions until the last morning when it was a bit windy and wavy... no capsizes!

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40 km, YTD 196 km

April 25th - Portland Island (#35)

Scott and I set out from Swartz Head to paddle out to Arbutus Point on Portland Island and visit Mark and Christine. Conditions were great and we had a nice time visiting with Mark and Christine. We saw eagles, turkey vultures, otters, mink, raccoon, mergansers and more!
I enjoyed paddling the surf ski on a longer paddle and managed to catch a bit of ferry wake at one point!

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14 km, YTD 304 km

April 27th - Portland Island (#29)

I decided on the spur of the moment to head out for an afternoon paddle to Portland Island where I knew several WestCoastPaddler.com folks were camping for the weekend.I had thought I would not make it, but then decided to try to do it in the afternoon. Left home just after 1 PM and was home by 6 PM! The paddle out was fast. I averaged over 4 knots and made it to Arbutus Point in 50 minutes. I spent just over an hour visiting with folks at Arbutus Point and then left to go back just after 4. This time, due to a stiff SW wind, it took a bit longer (70 minutes) even though the distance was slightly less - you can see how much slower the track is from Portland Island back to Knapp Island. I paddled back with Scott and Mark and had a fun paddle through the waves in Shute Passage. It was great to see several WCP folks again, even if it was for a short while. The Tahe Greenland T performed very well as did my shoulderless NLP paddle. I was very glad to have made it out and cleared my head!

Yahoo imagery of track - click to enlarge

Google imagery - click to enlarge

14 km, YTD 321 km

April 14th - Portland Island (#31)

I decided to make a quick visit to the Westcoastpaddler.com campout on Portland Island after a day spent up at UVic with particle physics! I left Swartz head at 4:30 and was at Arbutus point in an hour. I spend a nice 3 and a half hours chatting with folks and then, after waiting for the International Space Station to fly over, set off back for Swartz head at around 9 PM. The bio-luminescence was neat and it was a nice change to do a night paddle. It was great to meat up with many friends as well as to meet new friends and very worthwhile the trip out!

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14 km, YTD 393 km