December 24th - Cadboro Bay (#118)

Monica's sister Seasonn and I went out for a nice, relaxed, morning paddle around the bay. Winds were northerly at 10 kph, so the bay was pretty calm. The sun was so bright that we had to adjust our route so as not to paddle into it. We saw lots of birds, otters and seals. We toured all 6 of the beached boats! One of them is now just fragments of hull.

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4 km, YTD 1004 km

December 23rd - Margaret's Bay (#117) Made it to 1000 km!

I joined Jim, Alex, David, Debbie and Kari for a "Wednesday" paddle, organised by Jennie, out of Telegraph Cove. The winds were forecast from the SW, so it should have been quite protected, but the winds seemed like they were more from the S and SE. The seven of us headed south to Ten Mile Point to see how conditions were there, but by the time we could see the Ten Mile Point weather Station, it was fairly lumpy and windy (for much of the trip it was 10-15 knots). We encountered some wind and lumpy water on the way back and I had some fun playing in the partial clapotis by the shore.
I wanted to make it to 1000 km today, so I had to do an extra 1.5 km loop at the end to make it! A nice paddle to reach my annual goal with!
We "debriefed" at Olive Olios for coffee and I treated myself to a celebratory raspberry-chocolate scone!

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16 km, YTD 1000km

December 19th - Discovery Island (#116)

Olivier and I went for a spur of the moment paddle out to the Islands, since the forecast was not bad. It was a bit breezy (pretty steady 10-15 knots), and the current was turning to an ebb, so we decided to paddle around counter-clockwise. Before we got to Vantreight Island, I saw a couple of very big splashes and likely blows about a mile to the north of the VK (Fulford reef)  marker. I am pretty sure that we had spotted a pod of orcas, some of which were breaching!  We stopped briefly in the lagoon in East Chatham Island and saw over a dozen herons in the trees. The tide was high enough that I was able to paddle over spots I don't think I have paddled before! By the time we got to the south side of Discovery, we were experiencing reasonably lumpy water (the wind was closer to 20 kt) and by the time we got to Seabird Point, it was "exciting"... I had to employ more than a few braces! We stopped to catch our breath in boathouse bay and then made our way to cactus islet lagoon. The tide was still high and we counted 5 patches of prickly pear cactus on the south side of the islet. Two of the patches had been partly submerged recently - I hope they are tolerant of some immersion. On our way back, we dropped by Maynard (smuggler's) Cove to visit with Alex, Sheila, Morley and Jo who were heading out to play in the waves that were developing of Cadboro Point (the ebb current was meeting a SE swell from the Puget Sound area). All in all, a great day's paddle, with good paddling and plenty of wildlife too! I almost surfed into a seal at one point. Only 16 km to go before my 1000 km goal is reached...

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18 km, YTD 984 km

December 17th - Jemmy Jones (#115

Dan and I went for a "lumpy water" paddle out to Jemmy Jones island and back. The way out was hard, slow,  work, but the way back to the yacht club was fun with quite a few good surf rides in the 2ft or so waves. The wind was blowing between 30-40 kph at RVYC and 40-50 at Ten mile point throughout most of the paddle and then died right at the end. We had fun and were pretty tired at the end. Hot soup and coffee were welcome on my return home! You can see quite a speed difference between the outward and return tracks! Still several boats aground in the bay... 4 sailboats at the south end of the beach, one more is just in pieces on the beach and the big concrete-hulled boat is still in front of Gyro park.

RVYC winds - click to enlarge

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6 km, YTD 966 km

Another no paddling day...

With winds well over 50 knots, the sea is a bit lumpy today!
Here is a screeenshot of the day's wind at Trial Island:

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And here is the same graph for the RVYC station - similar pattern, but not as strong.

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 A video from the steps at the end of the street

a still image from the steps at the end of the beach.

 another wave video - I get doused!

December 11th - cadboro Bay (#114)

Dan and I went for an early afternoon paddle around the bay. The tide was about as high as I have seen it in a while and it had caused many logs to float out into the bay. I am sure they will be back with the next storm! We decided not to cross Baynes as it was a bit lumpy (and we were not sure of the forecast) and instead did a "tour de Cadboro". Only 40 km left to go for my annual distance goal! There were several more boats ashore on the beach that I remembered from last weekend... 6 in total!

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8km, YTD 960 km

No paddling today!

The water in the bay is a bit lumpy today...

looking towards the yacht club - click to enlarge

another view of the bay

A video clip...

the wind report from RVYC - gusts over 80 kph!

BigWave Dave wind forecast for today...

December 4th - Discovery Island (#113)

Dan and I went for a mid morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were nice between the storms - hardly any lumpy water! The tide was as high as I can remember in a while, so we were able to go thru many small gaps and channels that we rarely get to go through. One of the gaps, we had never been through.We saw a raft of long-tailed duck and surf scoters at the top end of Chatham.
There was little current on the way out, but a small eb was building as we came back. Ben had managed to get his sailboat off the beach. It had come ashore yesterday in the storm. I wonder if more will come ashore tomorrow. Nice paddle!

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16 km, YTD 952 km

November 27&28 - surge Narrows (#s 111 and 112)

I went up to Campbell River to spend a few days at Surge Narrows. This was an event that Alan had organized for the Nanaimo Paddlers. There were 6 of us on Friday and 9 on Saturday. The wave was good on both days and I was able to get my fill of paddling on the wave. I have some video clips that Alan took with his camera. I will post them on line eventually, but here is one short one of the wave at the end of the first day when I was tired and the  wave small again. https://vimeo.com/147157465
Two great days at Surge to start the season and good company as well. Thanks so much to Alan and Chris for hosting me. It was fun playing in the lumpy water behind the wave as well. I avoided getting sucked into any whirlpools! It is hard to describe how nice it is to feel the water rushing underneath your kayak while you virtually stay in one spot! A wildlife highlight was seeing a peregrine falcon chase a gull on the Saturday! I am looking forward to seeing some of David'd video as well.

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10 km, YTD 936 km.

November 25th - Discovery Island (#110)

After a nice lazy breakfast and coffee, I met Dan and we went for a morning paddle around Discovery. Conditions were good, sunny and 10-15 knots from the North. The bay was protected , so the only lumpy water was around the top end of Chatham. We had good chats and ran into Reale and some friends who were doing the same thing as us, only a couple of hours later.
I am at paddle #110 for the year and have only 74 km left to reach my goal, so it is looking promising! I still have all of December! Heading up to Campbell River and Quadra for the weekend.

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15 km, YTD 926 km.

November 14th - Discovery Island (#109)

Dennis, Olivier, Paulo and I went for a morning paddle out to Chatham and Discovery. When we launched from the beach we noticed that the beach was closed due to the needles and stuff that had washed off the derelict boat that had washed ashore on Wednesday. There was a good ebb current running so we decided to go around the islands counter-clockwise for a change. We ran into Lanny at the beach in Rudlin Bay and he joined us for the paddle back. We also ran into the lady who has been watching the wolf from her 16ft(?) Hourston. She and Olivier heard shots being fired on Chatham and we are a bit worried for the wolf.
You can see the effect of the ebb current running SE through Baynes channel on the track.

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16 km, YTD 911 km

November 12th - Victoria Harbour (#108)

I joined 4 of the "Thursday Paddlers" (Alan, Alex, John and Debbie) for a paddle in the gorge and Victoria Harbour. Winds were forecast to be substantial today, so it seemed sensible to paddle in protected waters. We launched from Esquimalt-Gorge Park a few minutes late since I got half way there and realized that I had forgotten my spray-deck! We made it down the gorge and into the inner harbour passing by several derelict live-aboard boats. We made our way under the Blue Bridge past the new bridge construction and over to take a look at MV Swell (the boat I was guiding on during the summer). We then made our way along the Songhees shoreline to West bay and then out to Ogden point where we stopped for lunch. The predicted winds did pick up around noon, but did not affect us much. We stopped for a coffee at the Spiral cafe on Craigflower and had a good chat. By the time we had finished the paddle, it had started to rain quite heavily.

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16 km, YTD 895 km

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You can see a wind record for the day for Trial Island and another one for Ogden point:

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By the time I made it home, Cadboro Bay was looking pretty wild and at least three boats had come aground!

November 11th - Cadboro Bay inner loop (#107)

I went for a short afternoon paddle, to make sure I got one in before the winds hit (gales due tomorrow!). Conditions were not bad with 5-15 knots in the bay. One powerboat is aground after last night's winds (35 kph from the SE at Ten Mile Point. I expect there may be a few more aground tomorrow...
On my way back, I saw a strange plane flying around the bay - basically a flying boat! It landed and dropped someone off on the beach and then took off again. I later discovered that it was a Lake amphibious seaplane. I had never seen a plane land in the bay, nor had I seen a seaplane like this one!
It is definitely getting cooler and I came home to make a fine pumpkin latte!

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5 km, YTD 789 km

November 5th - Cadboro Bay (#106)

I went for a morning solo tour around the bay in the F1. It was fun to watch the V of the kayak's bow slice through the water in front of me. While I was out I saw scoters, cormorants, loons and more. I was able to keep up a nice steady pace - 6.3 kph.

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8km, YTD 874 km

November 1st - Albert head (#105)

I joined James and 3 others for a day long Greenland paddling and rolling course. We did some paddling in the morning, including some fairly lumpy water. It was good to see everyone in the group using their GPs well. After lunch we went into the lee of the head to do a rolling session. James is a great instructor, clear about how things work and also good at spotting errors. The weather was fairly windy and rainy but we had a good, productive day. I was able to improve my forward finishing rolls.

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7 km, YTD 866 km