Don, George and I left Amherst at around 9:30 and paddled our way out to Rum Island by way of Dock, Sheep, Brethour and Comet Islands. Weather was superb - felt like summer! Had a lunch on the south beach and made our way bay via Rubbly, Domville and Forrest Islands.
21 km, 11 NM, YTD 86 km
Bill, Doug, Gordin, Gary and I set out at 9:30 from Island View Beach to paddle out to visit the campers on d’Arcy. Craig paddled up from Agate beach to join us for the paddle out. Dennis and a group were camped on d’Arcy for the night which was a tad chilly since there was frost all about in the morning. The morning started off breezy with 5–10 knots of wind which gradually died. By the time we began the paddle back via little d’Arcy and James, the sea was calm and the sun was out – a beautiful afternoon. We all had a snack/lunch on the beach on the south side of James – some recent mud slides since our last visit. I saw a pair of Dall porpoises on the way back. There was a good ebb running between James and the peninsula…
18.3 km, 10 NM, YTD: 65 km
I joined a VCKC "Energizer" paddle today and we (all 27 of us) went to Becher Bay. The weather was great, though a bit windy at the start, and we made a very pleasant paddle over to Aylard farm. I had a quick go at sailing at the end and the Pacific Action sail worked well. We finished off by going to MyChosen Cafe to celebrate Duncan's "62nd" birthday!
http://www.islandnet.com/~mjackson/google/2007_01_20_becher.htm is an interactive Google maps link to our track.
Some shots from the day:
Mike and I went for a fairly early paddle out of Roberts Bay. The forecast was indicating that the wind would be out of the south and then build out of the west, so we decided to stay close to shore and follow it down to Bazan Bay - I hoped for a good tail wind back from Bazan... The sail rig worked well and Mike took some pics. However the wind was already turning to the west, making it harder to track.
Pete and I snuck out for a couple of hours from McNeill Bay. My main goal was to try out the new Pacific Action sail that arrived on Friday and I installed this morning. It worked great in that it was easy to deploy and to furl. It also moved me along at a good clip - a fast paddling pace at least. It also seems to work quite well off directly downwind. I will need to tinker with the location of a couple of things and practice sail trimming a bit more, but it looks like it will be fun! I was sailing in all the purple/blue sections of the tack below and also in the second run north east from Trial Island. The wind was probably about 10 knots most of the time and gusting occasionally to 15 knots.
8.8 km, 4.8 NM, YTD 25 km.
Mike and I decided to start the year off with a good paddle and set out from Robert's bay at 0930. We had calm dry conditions for launching and the wind gradually built while we made our way to Ker. By the time we got to Forrest, it was blowing nicely from the SE, so we paddled to the south end of Forrest and then let the wind take us to Coal Island. Great ride. I had my small (0.75 sq m) Sprit Sail up and was making great progress without paddling (max speed 15 kph or just over 8 knots!). Mike paddled and got some great rides on the surf. We rounded coal and entered calm quiet waters where we stopped for lunch. Mike found a bottle with a message in it and is e-mailing the writers... The wind was blowing strongly when we were making our way from Curteis Point to Roberts Bay, making it quite hard work, but conditions were pleasantly exhilarating. We made it back to the beach by about 1330.
Kelp Reef recorded fairly steady SSE winds between 23 and 28 knots for the period from 0900 to 1300.
17.8 km, 8.2 NM, YTD 18 km!
North of Coal Now you see him... Now you don't!
As the year draws to a close, it is nice to look back at a great year of paddling. I started the year with a goal of paddling 1000 km for some reason and it was quite easy to make - just had to paddle regularly which was easy to do! The highlight of the year was certainly the west coast trip from Quatsino Sound to Nootka Sound. It was a lot of fun planning and preparing for it and then it was exciting to do it - many special sites and some pretty amazing paddling. It was also neat to cover so much ground. I have learned a lot about weather, navigation, gear and more - that too has been fun. Paddling Vancouver Island is wonderful as the paddling companions, tides, weather, and currents make each paddle to the same place unique.
Keeping the journal has been fun too - it was not as hard as I thought to "log" each trip, save the track with my trusty etrex legend and post a few photos. I plan to keep the journal up next year, but have no distance goal in mind.
The Optio 33WR and Canon S1IS in a housing have been great cameras to use while paddling and have no worries about water.
GPS visualizer's track to map image conversion site has been a great encouragement to keep the tracks posted as it was so easy to do.
The blog image site has somewhere over 650 images (including the maps) - Some of my favourite shots from the year:
Happy New Year and thanks to all of you that came out with me!
Dennis, John and I went for a paddle in Saanich inlet, thinking that the weather forecast was a bit iffy. As it turned out, we had calm conditions and just a sprinkle of rain throughout our paddle. Visited Spectacle creek and Goldstream boathouse. Had a fairly protected lunch break in Misery Bay. The tide was remarkably high this morning - no launching beach! Probably the last paddle of the year and it was a good one - I managed to make the 1000 km even without the summer west coast trip!
28 km, 15 NM, YTD 1273 km
Spectacle falls
high tide at Repulse rock Goldstream Marina Google map of route
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!
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