October 24 - Chatham (#101)

Pete and I went for a quick paddle out to Chatham. We went and checked out the power boat that had come ashore during the night and then went over to my mooring buoy to discover that the boat had been on my buoy and had attached their chain to the top ring (a well know no no) and the ring on my buoy was broken open! :(
Now I have to track down the owner of Sea Fever IV to see if he/she will repair/replace my buoy!
Pete and I went through the yacht club were we ran into Nick who was giving a course and then made our way over to the "sluice" between Vantreight and Chatham islands to play in the current. Water and air are definitely getting colder...

10 km, 5 NM, YTD 988 km.

October 23rd - Coal and Piers Islands (#100)

For my 100th paddle of the year I joined a  SISKA paddle led by Dan. The 15 of us were going to go to Rum Island but, based on the forecast, decided to stay more in the lee and decided to go to Coal and then Piers Islands. As it turned out the wind did not get too strong until we were well off the water, but we had a great paddle in good conditions. I guess only 22 km to go for my unofficial 1000 km goal...
As I write the wind is blowing hard, gust of up to 58 kph at 10 mile point . Winds defintely picked up around 4 PM!

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17 km, 9 NM, YTD 978 km.

October 15th - Jemmy Jones Island (#99)

I got home to a beautiful fall evening and decided that I should get out for a quick paddle before I head off to Bamfield for 4 days on a field trip. Conditions were fabulous! Sunny and calm. I began by doing my rolling sequence including the brick roll (with a 8 lb brick this time) and then did a fast (looks like I was able to maintain 4 knots+ throughout the paddle) paddle out to Jemmy Jones and back. A wonderful way to make use of the last couple of hours of sunshine... my 99th paddle of the year!

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5 km, 3 NM, YTD: 961 km.

October 10th - Finnerty Cove (#98)

I led a SISKA relaxed paddle (with 15 participants) from Cadboro Bay around to Finnerty Cove and back. There was a bit of a SW wind all day so, after we had made it out to Cadboro Point, we decided to continue on north instead of back across to Cattle Point as planned. Once we rounded Cadboro point, the wind was calm and the sun came out! We had a delightful paddle along the shoreline and stopped for lunch in Telegraph Bay.

click to enlarge

13 km, 7 NM, YTD 956 km

Oct 8th - Chatham (#97)

George and I went out for a paddle to do some rolling in Loon Bay and then went over to Chatham to clear out some cobwebs. George was paddling his new Seaward Chinook and I the usual Tahe! I decided to do a test run of the Greenland rolling competition and I was able to complete all the rolls I can do in 7 minutes... so I should not have a problem with the 15 minute time limit! George took some video which I will try to upload...

12 km, 7 NM, YTD 943 km

Oct 5th - Loon Bay (#96)

Dan and I paddled over to Loon Bay for a rolling session. We decided to work through the Greenland Roll list and see how many points we could rack up...(http://www.qajaqusa.org/QK/rolls/rolls.html). Doing just one side as per the plan for the Seattle Greenland week (http://www.kayakacademy.com/pages/lessons/courses/greenland_week.aspx) we figured that we could rack up over 50 points. If I could pull off a brick roll (#31)(9 pts) and an elbow roll (#32)(10 pts), I could bring that up to a total of 70!

2 km, 1 nm, YTD 931 km

October 3rd - Discovery Island (#95)

Dan and I went for a nice morning paddle around Discovery. On the way we saw a few other paddlers, a group of canoe campers in Rudlin bay and we ran into the Gray whale again in Rudlin Bay. I managed to forget to turn the GPS on for the first half hour or so until we were at the top end of Chatham. As I enter month # 10 of the year, I think that my chances of reaching my goal of 100 paddles and 1000 km look pretty good - 5 paddles and 71 km! No close encounters with seal pups this time...

15 km, 8 NM, YTD 929 km.

September 26th - Cadboro Bay Seal pup (#94)

I went out for an afternoon paddle with Heather, Becca and Monica. We made our way out towards Cadboro Point slowly along the north shore of the bay. Before long Becca had a curious visitor - a seal pup who kept wanting to climb aboard. The pup stayed with us for almost an hour visiting all four boats but seemed to prefer the blue wisper! We also saw great blue herons and a group of otters out by Flower Island. A magical afternoon!

5 km, 3 NM, YTD 914 km

September 25 - Race Rocks (#93)

Dan and I co led a SISKA "adventurous" paddle out to race Rocks. As things turned out the conditions were excellent: sunshine, little wind, low currents and an experienced group of 14. The sea lions at the Race were spectacularly noisy! We had coffee at the new Pedder Bay coffee house afterwards. Nice set up and definitely convenient!

17 km, 9 NM, YTD 909 km

Sept 21 - rolling in Loon Bay (#92)

Dan and I went for an afternoon rolling session in Loon Bay. The water is getting cooler. I am still working on my elbow roll which I got once in probably a dozen tries. You can see me reading Helen Wilson's email under water to try and figure things out... I am close but not quite there...

more photos here 

2 km, 1 NM, YTD 892 km

September 19th - James Island (#91)

I joined David, David, Don, John and Dennis for a VSKN paddle around James Island. The forecast was for rain and it poured as we left Cadboro Bay, but by the time we got to Island View Beach, the rain had stopped and the fog was lifting and the wind was light! We had a nice paddle around the island and lunched on a beach (below high tide of course!) on the east side of James. There was a bit more wind and wave action on the south of James as we made our way back to the launch. We had sunshine by lunchtime - another surprisingly nice day on the water!

16 km, 9 NM, YTD 890 km

September 18th - Thetis Lake (#90)

I assisted Joanne in giving a PC Intro to Kayaking course at Thetis lake. The weather ended up being nicer than the forecast and we did not see rain. Thetis was nice and warm for rolling and it was a nice change to paddle in fresh water!

4 km, 2 NM, YTD 874 km

September 17th - Cadboro Point (#89)

Liz and I went out to Cadboro Point for an evening paddle - Liz wanted to try out her brand new P&H Scorpio LV and also pick up once of Kent Card's nice Greenland paddles. It was nice paddling as dusk fell though we did get rained on a bit...

5 km, 3 NM, YTD 870 km

September 16th - Chatham Island (#88)

Paulo and I went for an after work paddle to Chatham. It was calm but raining gently - a very we(s)t coast day...
We did a bit of rolling here and there. Paulo was using his newly made tuilik and it seemed to work well.
We stopped on the way back to check out the Pacific Swift which was anchored in the bay for the night.

10 km, 5 NM, YTD 865 km.

September 15th - caddy bay (#87)

Dan and I took the Tahes out for an afternoon roll/paddle in the bay. Flat calm but rainy. The Tuiliks were great for these conditions - we felt in our element. I am still working on my elbow roll - did not quite have it today...
The other rolls were all fine. Thinking about entering the Greenland competition in November...

4 km, 2 NM, YTD 855 km