March 22nd- Lake Mead - Battleship rock (#21)

In the middle of our 7000+ km road trip we decided to take a "day off" and we spent two nights in Callville Bay Campground. I went for an afternoon paddle out along the shore of Lake Mead (to avoid paddling withdrawal symptoms!). The wind was quite strong throughout the paddle, mostly around 10 knots, but at times probably 25 knots. It was neat to paddle a desert shoreline, and freshwater for a change. The lake level is over 100 feet lower than its max level in July 2000! It was impressive to see how much difference that would make to the shoreline.
I have a temporary link to the GPSVisualizer site that shows good detaiul of the shore: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/display/20160403133453-32227-map.html
I had to work hard against the wind on the way out and then had the NW wind at my back for most of the trip back. At times I was almost surfing, but paddling back into Callville bay was hard work!
I would enjoy paddling Lake Mead again. I think there are lots of places that one could camp. St this time of year there are hardly any boaters around. I saw one other boat during my entire trip!

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13 km, YTD 235

March 11th - Jemmy Jones (#20)

I went for a quick solo paddle before work. It was a nice morning after a couple of blustery ones! The two SALTS boats were anchored in the bay and I paddled by them. It was their first trip of the year!
A sailboat, Odin, had come ashore in yesterday's blow and was high and dry on the beach. It will be difficult to get it off. There was some lumpy water out by Cadboro point, but it was just a little choppy where I was paddling. I also saw several Canada geese getting aggressive with others... I guess it is the breeding season!
6 km, YTD

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March 3rd - Staines Islet (#19)

I went for a quick after work pedal in the hobie i12s. Conditions were wonderful and I experimented with seat positions and pedal settings . It seemed to work pretty well by the end! I was able to maintain a 6 kph average over the trip.

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3 km, YTD 216 km

March 2nd - Discovery Island (#18)

Dan and I set out for an early morning paddle around the islands. We met up with Paulo at Cadboro point and had a nice paddle around the islands. The water was a bit lumpy in Baynes on both the outgoing and return trips, but fun all the same. We saw a Coastguard helicopter ferrying bags of stuff back from discovery light to the base downtown - not sure what they were moving... The wolf was just around the corner from Commodore point and it was nice to see him again. We also saw lots of bird species as well as a Steller Sealion and several harbour seals. It was nice to fit the paddle in before lunch!

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15 km, YTD 213 km

February 27th - Chatham Island (#16)

Dennis and I went for an afternoon paddle around Chatham. Conditions were calm with a building flood that did not affect us much.  Lots of birds and sailboats - even though there was little wind!

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11 km, YTD 193 km

February 25th - Discovery Island (#15)

Dan and I went for my 8th paddle around Discovery this year! It was a beautiful morning with a strong ebb at the start. I decided to take the TRAK as I wanted to check it out before Monica's and my upcoming trip. We got a good push down Baynes Channel with the ebb and it slowed us down a bit on the way back. Looks like they are doing some work on Strongtide Islet at the radio towers... not sure what.

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15 km, YTD 182 km

February 20th - Oak Bay (#14)

I led a SISKA relaxed paddle to Oak Bay and back in the morning. Monica joined me and there were four others: Al, Catherine, Michael and Debbie. The winds were a little higher that I would like for a relaxed paddle (around 10 knots), but not so much as to need to cancel or change. The sun was out and there were lots of seabirds about.

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10 km, YTD 167 km

February 14th - Discovery (#13)

Dan, Rob, Dennis and I went for a paddle around Discovery. The forecast was for increasing winds, but they slackened to calm while we were paddling. The current was supposed to be a building ebb, but it did not seem to bad on the way back. I saw M/V Swell motoring by and hailed them on the radio for a bit - I spent 4 weeks working aboard it as naturalist last summer and plan to do the same next.

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15 km, YTD 157 km

February 13th - Cadboro Bay (#12)

I took the inflatable hobie i12s out for a spin around the bay. The mirage drive is neat and I can see that it will be good for fishing as your hands can be free. In spite of cycling regularly, I discovered that the pedal drive uses different muscles, so I will have to work up to longer trips! It seems like I can get it to cruise along at just under 6 kph pretty comfortably.Very stable and smooth ride.

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4km, YTD 142 km

February 11th - Discovery Island (#11)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. It was a bit rainy and cool and windy but a nice paddle overall.We saw a couple of sea lions and lots of seabirds. You can see how how we were slowed down on the way back into the bay.

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15 km, YTD 138 km

February 9th - Discovery island (#10)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a morning paddle around our favourite islands. Conditions were very nice with a fairly good ebb to begin with. You can see from the speed plot that I had to work hard to get past Strongtide Islet and had a good push from Alpha Islet to Seabird point. We stopped for a break in Rudlin Bay and enjoyed the sun. It could have been a summer's day! Looks like we did a nice straight line from Commodore Point back to the beach in Cadboro Bay! We saw many birds along the way as well as a pair of eagles sitting on Jemmy Jones islet. We were also tailed by a group of seals on our paddle back across Baynes Channel.

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15 km, YTD 123 km

February 6th - surge Narrows (#9)

I joined Alan, Brad, Walter, Gerhardt and Michael for a day's paddle at Surge Narrows. The wave was very friendly. Big enough to be fun but not too big. Much of the time it was wide enough for two of us. I got to try Michael's Sterling Reflection for a few runs. It performed nicely! This was a great day on the wave!

Alan's video edit from the trip. I am in the green reflection at the start.

Surge Narrows Surfing Feb 6 2016 from alyak on Vimeo.

The track - click to enlarge

zoomed into the wave area - click to enlarge

5 km, YTD 108 km 

February 1st - Discovery Island (#8)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle around the islands. Conditions were nice with not much wind or current and a relatively low tide (there were rocks in places we did not expect them!). As we neared Commodore point on Discovery, Dan spied an Orca fin and we stopped and watch as a group of 4 orcas (Biggs?) swam by about 500m to the south of us. They were "on a mission" as it was not long before they were well to the east of us past Seabird point. Shortly after this we spotted Cheryl in her boat anchored off the north side of Discovery. She was watching the wolf with her family and we stayed and watched him with them for some time. A great afternoon on the water with some big wildlife highlights.

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15 km, YTD 103 km

January 28th - Oak Bay Marina (#7)

I went for an afternoon solo paddle.  There was a bit of a SW breeze so i decided to hug the Cadboro-Oak Bay shore and paddle to the marina. As I got to about the 2 km mark, it started to rain quite hard and the wind became much stronger (making it hard to paddle around Cattle Point! The gusts at RVYC were up to 50 kph...). By the time I had made it to the Oak Bay tea house the rain had stopped and the dark sky had disappeared to be replaced by a blue one. There is a seal at Oak bay Marina that claps its flippers for fish! I was also trying to see if the pebble smartwatch did a decent job of recording paddle strokes. My initial observation is that it is not reliably indicating strokes... More testing to come. I also paddled without gloves for the first time in a month or so. It did not seem that cold!

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9 km, YTD 88 km

January 24th - Discovery Island (#6)

Rob and I went for a morning paddle around Discovery. We were on the water at 0830 and back just after 11. We paused briefly around boathouse bay to chat with Olivier and then again on the north side of Discovery for snacks and water. We also poked into "heron cove" and played a bit in the "sluice" before paddling back across Baynes. The clear sky gradually clouded over and the wind started to pick up a little when we returned. We had nice calm conditions and the currents were no problem either. Lots of seals and seabirds!

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15 km, YTD 79 km