July 7 - MEC paddlefest Willows Beach (#47)

I spent the day around Willows beach instructing three clinics for the MEC paddlefest. conditions were pretty good and I had a good time - I forgot to reapply sunscreen in the afternoon...
The clinics were: intermediate edging, intro to rolling, and an intro to Greenland-style paddling.

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4 km, YTD 370 km

July 6th - Chatham and Discovery Islands (#46)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. Great conditions again with calm waters, sunshine and little current. On our way out we saw a fire on Chatham and eventually discovered that it was from a beach fire on the beach at Puget Cove - probably the result of a boat party last night. It had spread through the logs on the beach. There was a guy from C-Tow using a pump to put water on the fire and he blamed the fire on "irresponsible kayakers", which did not sit well with Dan or me. We continued our way around the islands and ran into Cheryl and had a good chat. We also met Mike B who is a regular visitor to the islands. On our way back across Pumper Passgae/Baynes Channel, we saw the SISKA group heading over for the campout. We made a short detour to chat with them too!

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16 km, YTD 365 km

July 5th - Cadboro Bay (#45)

I went for a quick morning paddle around the bay. Fabulous conditions! Calm, sunny and a little current. I sawthe usual suspects again: rhinoceros auklets, marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorant, bald eagles, great blue herons and many Canada geese! Some nice yachts moored in front of Uplands...

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7 km, YTD 349 km.

July 2nd - Discovery Island (#44)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands - the first time in quite a while it seems. It was great to get out. Conditions were good and there were a lot of power boats out and about! I saw Canada geese, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, bald eagles, marbled murrelets, harlequin ducks and great blue herons.

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15 km, YTD 342 km

June 18-28 Haida Gwaii (#s 41-43)

While on board MV Swell as naturalist for Maple Leaf Adventures, I managed to get out for 3 paddles. One in Hutton Inlet on the first trip, one in De La Beche Inlet in the second trip and one at Moresby camp in the evening of our changeover day. 3 nice little paddles in a beautiful area!

Hutton inlet - 3 km - click to enlarge

De La Beche Inlet - 5 km - click to enlarge

Moresby Camp - 4 km - click to enlarge

South Moresby Island overview - click to enlarge

12 km, YTD 327 km

June 6th - Chatham Island (#40)

Dan and I went out for a morning paddle out to the Islands. We have not paddled together for a while since Dan was in Scandinavia for 6 or 7 weeks, so it was good to catch up. The weather was great - sunshine and light winds - and the only lumpy water we found was the wake of the V2V ferry!

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11 km, YTD 315 km

June 3rd - SISKA Intertidal Paddle (#39)

Though we normally do this paddle out of Willows Beach, we decided to do it in Caddy Bay this time to avoid conflict with the Oak Bay Tea Party! The weather was a bit cool and occasionally rainy, but we still had a great time exploring the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones. Highlights included a white lined dirona nudibranch as well as a bunch of mussels, worms, sponges and sea squirts that were living on my mooring buoy - it was a good excuse to clean it!
We made it as far as Spoon Bay for lunch and had fun exploring the RVYC breakwater and Loon Bay. Dave G and I were acting as the naturalist resource people and Debbie L was the paddle leader. A nice coffee was had afterwards at Olive Olio's

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4 km, YTD 304 Km

June 2nd - SISKA Picnic (#38)

I joined the gang at the SISKA picnic for the day and managed to get out for a short paddle in the afternoon. Though the track is only 0.5 km, I estimate that I actually went about 2 km as the GPS was not on for a good part of the time! We spent some time playing kayak games which involved races, stealing pool noodles from others' kayaks and various other crazy/fun antics!

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2 km, YTD 300 km

May 26th - Tod Inlet (#37)

Bill and I went for a quick paddle to Tod Inlet and gave each other a chance to try each others' boats. I had my Think Beg Eze surfski and Bill had his OC-1canoe. Boith are light weight and fast and fun! I managed not to flip the OC-1 and Bill did the same with the surf ski. It feels wierd to only paddle on one side at a time! :)

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7 km, YTD 298 km

May 23 - Clinic with Blair Doyle (#36)

I joined Blair from NS to help with a SISKA workshop on "on water scenarios". Blair kept us busy all day with a variety of interesting and testing scenarios and I think we all learned a lot!
Alan sent me a "Relive" version of our paddle which is fun to watch! (my GPS turned off at one point so the track across Baynes in interpolated!)

my track - click to enlarge

11 km, YTD 291 km

May 18-20 - TRAK Surf camp (#s 32-35)

I went to Wya Point Resort for a 4 day TRAK kayak surf and coastal paddling camp. It was really neat to meet a wonderful group of TRAK owners and also to paddle in a "one design" group where everyone was paddling the same kayak!
We did our first day of training paddling in Wya Bay working on skills. Our second day was a coastal journey from Wya Bay to Wickininnish on Long Beach, and the third day was a surf session at Long Beach.

Day 1 - click to enlarge - AM + PM paddles

Day 2 - Wya to Wick journey - click to enlarge

Day 3 - surf at Long Beach- Click to enlarge

Paddle 32 May 18 AM 4 km
Paddle 33 May 18 PM 4 km
Paddle 34 May 19 - 14 km
Paddle 35 May 20 - 2 km

YTD 280 km

May 12th - Oak Bay and Chatham birding paddle (#31)

I paddled over to Turkey Head beach to join a SISKA birding paddle guided by Daniel and led by Jennie. Conditions were excellent and we saw a nice variety of shore and sea-birds. Due to paddling over to the starting point and back it was a nice long paddle for me! I was able to get a better handle on identifying our three species of cormorant (pelagic, Brandt's and double-crested). Plenty of rhinoceros auklets and pigeon guillemots around.

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22 km, YTD 256 km

May 6th - Oak Bay intertidal paddle (#30)

I paddled over to Willows Beach to join a group of SISKA paddlers to help lead an intertidal exploration paddle. My paddle was 7 km and the club paddle was 3 km! You can see a difference in my pace getting to the group and back vs the actual exploration paddle! I saw a few Canada geese and pelagic cormorants on my paddle and we also saw some black oystercatchers. An intertidal highlight for me was seeing some small individuals of the "pretty red sponge nudibranch " (Rostanga pulchra). Conditions were outstanding when we were out looking beneath the water's surface as there was no wind for a while and the water was quite clear. No lumpy water to interfere with viewing!

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10 km, YTD 234 km

May 5th - Cadboro Bay (#29)

I went for a quick morning paddle on the surfski and enjoyed sunny weather and a decent northerly wind. You can see it slowed me back on the return leg of the trip. Saw Jennie and Edgar doing a SISKA PC level 1 class on the beach as I was returning.

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8 km, YTD 224 km

May 2nd - Cadboro Bay (#28)

I joined Jennie at Gyro Park to lead a SISKA clinic on forward stroke for sea kayaking. We had a dozen participants and all showed a much improved stoke by the time the sun went down - the clinic started at 6 PM!

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2 km, YTD 216 km