November 1st - Discovery - Orca and Humpback (#81)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a morning paddle out to the islands. great conditions with wonderful wildlife today. Crossing Baynes Channel we spotted and watched a male orca for a few minutes and then as we rounded the top end of Chatham Island, we spotted a humpback which basically preceded us all the way down the east side of the islands. Nice to see two types of whales on one trip!
Lots of birds out as well including marbled murrelets and surf scoters.

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15 km, YTD 701 km

October 29th - Jemmy Jones (#80)

I went for a late morning row out to Jemmy Jones using the oarboard  SUP combo. The system worked pretty well and I think I have just a few adjustments to make to make it excellent. It is definitely a workout rowing the SUP! Again, another lovely clear day with nice views of Mt.Baker.
I also checked out my new slip at RVYC... I will be keeping Natural C-lection there once I have the bottom painted. Again, a little slower against the northerly wind...

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6 km, YTD 686 km

October 27 - Discovery Island (#79)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the Islands.  Conditions were nice with good views of Mt Baker as well as a good number of birds, sea lions and seals. No one else on the water! You can see that the northerly wind slowed us a bit on the way back... or we were tired!

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15 km, YTD 680 km

October 24th - Ten Mile Point (#78)

I went for a quick before dinner paddle as it was a beautiful calm evening. I could see both Mt Rainier and Mt Baker on my paddle due to the clear, clean air. I also saw a couple of groups of river otters - one around Ten Mile Point and the other by Cadboro Point..Average speed over the paddle was 8.2 kph (4.4 kt) - the surf ski is a fast boat!

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6 km, YTD 665 km

October 22nd - Cattle Point (#77)

I went for a quick morning paddle on the surfski to take advantage of a weather window. There was a bit of a S/SW breeze which slowed me down on the outward journey, but sped me up on the return. There was a large flock of American wigeon near the beach when I launched, but not much else on the water today. On my way back, I saw a nice rainbow across Cadboro Bay. It was complete at times and the secondary bow was visible on both sides!

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5 km, YTD 659 km

October 18th - Rapid lake (#76)

I went for an afternoon paddle in Rapid lake, Whitney, after  a great bike ride in the morning and wonderful hikes the day before. I was able to spend two full days exploring Algonquin Park near Hwy 60 - wonderful area! Lovely fall colours and no crowds! I think many of the birds have flown south, but I did see a great blue heron and a couple of common mergansers. I stopped for a rest on a gneiss rock in the sunshine!

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7 km, YTD 654 km

October 14th - Mill Lake (Parry sound ON) (#75)

Claire and I went for a nice paddle into Mill Lake from Harmony Outdoor Inn and Ontario Sea Kayak Centre run by James and Dympna. I was visiting Claire in Toronto and decided to take her out of town, we had nice conditions and good weather as we paddled a double.  Not too many people on the water at this time of year. We saw lots of Muskoka chairs on docks! Unfortunately I forgot my GPS, so the track is estimated... It was great fun to paddle with Claire in between her knitting! :)

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15 km, YTD 647 km

October 12 - Cadboro Bay (#74)

I went for a quick morning paddle out to collect the crab traps that I had left out. There was one nice keeper in one of the traps... :)
There was a pacific loon in the bay which was nice to see.

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3km, TYD 632 km

October 9th - Discovery Island (#73)

Dan and I went for a nice morning paddle out to the islands. Conditions were good with not too much current. We saw sea lions and seals and managed to pick up some crabs from my traps on the way back!

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15 km, YTD 629 km

October 7th - Ten Mile Point (#72)

I went for another morning paddle, but this time I went in the opposite direction to Ten Mile Point. Conditions were pretty good, though there was a pretty stiff headwind from Cadboro Point to Jemmy Jones! I saw a few Canada geese, cormorants, marbled murrelets and a beautiful male harlequin duck!

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I was using the kayak activity on my Garmin Vivoactive HR watch and this is a link to the page for that activity. Shows some interesting stats... https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2061856489

8 km, YTD 614 km

October 6th - Cattle Point (#71)

I went for a quick morning paddle out to Cattle Point and back. There was a fairly stiff breeze from the S, which made for a slower outward and a faster return trip! Starting to see the winter birds around. there was a good flock of American wigeon at the beach when I started.

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5 km, YTD 606 km

September 29th - Cameron Cove (#70)

While I was on a Maple Leaf Adventures Great Bear Rainforest trip from Bella Bella to Kitimat, we managed to squeeze in a short paddle on one of the nice calm days. Cameron Cove was a great spot for a paddle and can be a place to see wolves and bears as well as many birds. As I was returning to the MV Swell, I spotted whale spouts outside the cove which eventually led us to a magnificent display of bubble net feeding!

Cameron Cove - click to enlarge

click to enlarge - zoomed out to see the location

5 km, YTD 601 km

September 23rd - Gorge (#69)

I went for a morning SUP paddle in the Gorge. Nice conditions. Lots of snail(?) eggs on the eelgrass. Plenty of Canada geese around. Lots of airplanes in the harbour. GPS battery did not work so track is manually created!

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12 km, YTD 596 km.

September 4th - Caboro Bay (#68)

I went for a morning paddle around the bay. Another beautiful one. I could see the forest fire smoke starting to come in. Visibility is getting less. Ran into Don who was out for a nice paddle with a friend. Since this was a morning paddle, the tide heights were very different from the past few afternoons. Very little current. The channel at Cadboro Point was dry, so I did not go around! There was a tug with a log book just getting going in Oak Bay.

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8 km, YTD 584 km

September 3rd - Cadboro bay (#67)

I went for another afternoon spin on the surf ski. It is a nice way to do a quick paddle around the bay. I stopped to chat with friends a couple of times and also to take some weed of my mooring buoy! Mt Rainier was no longer visible today due to haze.

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7 km, YTD 576 km