Pete, Jim, George, Lindsay and I joined Craig for a day of white water paddling on the Cowichan. We did a new section of the river to me – From Sandy Bottom pool to Duncan. Nice water at this river level. Quite a few chum salmon seen breaking the surface. I took a good bump to the helmet in one run.
I led a VCKC Energizer paddle from our launch at Gyro Park to lunch on Gonzalez beach and back. It was a beautiful day. We had 18 boats including a double. The currents were with us both ways and we averaged a comfortable 3 knots. I made my 1000 km for the year by lunch which felt nice. A group of us stopped off at the Smuggler’s cove pub afterwards.
George and I set out early to paddle around Trial Island. Weather and conditions were great. We ran into Pete and Andy as we were returning. Coming back, I noticed a nice roche moutonee made by the glaciers during the ice ages.
15 km, 8 NM, YTD 991 km
I joined Ken, Alphons, Bob, and Ralph at Jordan River to spend a couple of hours in the surf. Since it was my first time in a while, the conditions were great – the waves were big enough that I got rides, but not so big that it was “too exciting”. No mileage to record today, though I probably put in a couple of km…
I went out bu myself for a morning paddle to visit the grade 11 group camped at Arbutus point. The wind was around 10 knots from the south and it gave me a bit of a push on the way out. Had a chat with Beth-Anne and Charlie and then headed back home. The wind definitely slowed me down on the way back (see track). Gale force winds forecast for the PM, so I decided to get back early.
Cousin Ginny, Ant and Julia (visiting from Botswana) and I set out from the VCKC beach to paddle down to the inner harbour. Nice conditions. There was a strong ebb as we were heading down stream, but it had almost ended by the time we returned. The Johnson street bridge went up while we were in the harbour.
7.5 km, NM, YTD 962 km.
George and I headed out from Smuggler’s cove for a quick Sunday morning paddle. My GPS did not work today, so the track is created manually on a chart from memory…
Beautiful condfitions and a very nice paddle! No significant current, wind or waves!
12 km, 6.5 NM, YTD 954 km.
Finally managed to get out on the water again! I went out after school on Friday afternoon to join the grade 10 kayak group that was camping on Portland Island. I spent the night with them, paddled twice around the island on Saturday morning and then went back. conditions were great and it was fun to visit with the group.
22.5 km, 12 NM, YTD 942 
George has put together a 2minute trailer for our 2006 trip on youtube:
Gives a nice taste of last year’s trip…
Bill, Paolo and I set out from Wier’s beach near William head and followed the coastline around William Head, Pedder Bay, inside Bentinck Island, Christopher Point, Whirl bay and eventually to a beach by Large Bedford Island. Conditions were nice and we avoided the wind and any flood current by hugging the shore and pokinmg around islets. After lunch the wind had built a bit and the current was flooding strongly. I put up the PA sail and we cruised quickly from the Bedfords to Pedder Bay by way of Race Pasage. Once in Pedder Bay, the wind was at our side and there seemed to be a current eddy pushing us out, so it was slow going from there back to the beach. A very nice day, sunny, breezy but not too much. The winds at Race rocks rose gradually from 15 knots at 10 AM when we started to 25 at 3 PM when we finished.
23.5 km, 13 NM, YTD 919 km 
Here are some images from the week…
Some Video clips:
I am posting a “week in review” post with tracks since I sent all the daily posts by e-mail from my pocket PC. I’ll follow with some pictures.
The tracks for the whole week…
100 km for the week, 54 NM, YTD: 895 km
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