Seasonn and I took the Passat to the gorge and paddle from the Craigflower beach to the Bay Street Bridge. The wind was building from the southeast and was making it hard going. Once we turned around, I put up the large Spiritsail and we moved along quite nicely with the wind and the current at our back!
4.5 NM, 8 km, YTD 1245 km
Did not go sea kayaking today, but managed to spend an hour playing in the surf at Jordan River. We were out staying at Point No Point for a couple of days. It was a nice flat sea with a decent swell. I am out of practice since I had trouble catching several nice waves. I did manage to get a few nice rides though.
Did not manage to get out this weekend as I had a bunch of jobs to do around home. However, I was able to get to the pool to do a couple of hours of rolling and bracing practice. I brought my Gulfstream and my Feathercraft. I wanted to practice chest sculling with a view to graduating to a reverse sweep or storm roll, but did not make great progress. I did get some successful chest scull recoveries, but not consistently. I was using the Feathercraft with a modified back (#3) rib so that the back deck was low and this was great for layback type rolls - I almost had a hand roll with it. It also worked great for doing a static brace and recovery. Interestingly, I found the Gulfstream easier to chest scull with but harder to do a static brace with. I obviously need some more practice, so I will be heading back to the pool in the New Year! Mark and Craig were also at the pool.
George and I went for a "lazy" Sunday afternoon paddle in the Gorge. We left the beach near Craigflower and went as far as Ogden Point. The weather was calmer than expected and there was hardly any rain.
8.3 NM, 15.4 km, YTD 1237 km
George, Dennis and I went out for 9 AM OTW from Cadboro Bay and had a nice winter's day paddle out to the Islands. The tide was high, so we were able to get into the inlet and visit "cactus island". Conditions were fine, windy at times, but nothing that made paddling hard. Chatham and Discovery Islands are a such a wonderful spot. Dennis found a couple of crab trap floats and I found a hula hoop!
Craig, Mike and I set off from Cadboro Bay to play in the bay for a few hours. It was rainy and windy with the forecast “Winds westerly 25 to gales 35 knots easing to westerly 20 to 25 this afternoon” – the storm warning had been downgraded.
It was hard work paddling into the wind to make our way to Gonzalez point, but fun. I landed at the golf course to check the wind with my anemometer – got a reading of 25 knots.
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.
I headed out early (9AM) frim Island View beach to head out to D’Arcy. Conditions were nice and I made it to the campsite in an hour. Dennis, Tony, Heike and Paolo were camped there and were loading their boats. Craig had left earlier. Heike, Dennis, Tony and I set off back to IVB via James Island. Shortly after we left it got cold and the wind picked up – must have been nearly 20 knots as it slowed me down to about 2 knots! Kelp reef was up to 24 knots.
17 km, 9 nm, YTD: 1163
Pete, George and I went for a Sunday afternoon paddle to D’Arcy Island from Island view Beach. beautiful sunny calm day!
17.5 km, 9.5 nm, YTD: 1146 km
Dennis, Paolo, George, John, Heike and I went for a relatively early (9AM OTW) paddle over to Rum Island. It was wet and a bit windy as we set off and the current was ebbing southward as we went by Sidney Spit and Forrest Island. We stopped for a nice “Brunch” on the south side of Rum. By the time we had finished, the weather had improved and the sun was peeking out.
12 nm, 20 km, YTD 1129km.
I ran a PaddleCanada(CRCA) flatwater course today for the VCKC. We were in the Gorge and operated out of the club house. All 4 partcipants paddled well and passed (Jen, Will, heather and Emily).
3 km, YTD 1109
Charlie and I took a group of SMUS students out to Beaver lake to work on their CRCA flatwater and level 1 course. The water was warm which made practicing wet exits and rescues quite bearable!
6 km
Charlie and I led a group of 8 grade 11 students and 2 grade 12 assistant leaders on a 3 day trip around the northern Gulf Islands. We set out from Cedar and headed over to Blackberry point on a wonderful calm sunny day. the rock formations on DeCourcy Island were magnificent. We camped at Blackberry and 3 of us went for a short night paddle to see the bioluminescence. The next day we paddled over to and around Thetis Island, stopping at Telegraph harbour for lunch and finishing up at the headmaster’s cabin on Thetis (where we were treated to a hot tub and wonderful food!). On the last day we paddled back to cedar via Yellow point. We faced a stiff headwind which slowed us down considerably and made the trip a bit of a slog.
Thetis trip on google maps.
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