January 27th - Rodeo Beach to Bonita Point (#10)

My second day's class was "advanced rock garden play" and we launched into some surf off Rodeo Beach under the leadership of Paul Kuthie with David Santanello and Roger Smith. We had a great day exploring under and around Bird Island as well as amongst the rocks and reefs out to Bonita Point Light. We went through tunnels, and slots as well as over various pour-overs and had a blast! I need to do more of this! :)

The main symposium site

click to enlarge

8 km, YTD 105 km

January 26th - Marin Headlands rock gardens (#9)

At the Paddle Golden Gate Symposium, my first class was an excellent session on rock garden skills and safety run by Bill Vonnegut. After a series of exercises on strokes and rescues, we made our way past the Golden Gate bridge to play in the rocky shores of the Marin headlands. I had a blast practicing playing in front of steep cliffs, pour overs and slots and learned a lot about what spots are safe (relatively!) and to look out for big swells that might surprise.

Shot by Tom of the group passing under the bridge

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9 km, YTD 97 km

January 16th - Discovery Island and Orcas (#8)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a "regular" morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were nice, not much current and not too much wind. I had misplaced my sunglasses so I had to squint quite a bit against the low winter sun! The tide was high and I had not been into the inlet in east Chatham Island for some time, so we made a short detour to check on the prickly pear cactus on the islet. They seem to be doing well (and are a tad smaller than the Galapagos ones!). There was a nice group of male Steller sea lions at Seabird Point as well as a few seals along the way. We saw Cheryl in her boat and went over to chat with her for a bit about the wolf. She has had some good sightings recently. On our way back across Baynes Channel we were treated to a nice display by a small pod of orcas. You can see the "blip" in my track where we stopped to watch them. They looked like they were feeding and at one point one of them did a spyhop!

click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 88 km

January 14th - Cadboro and Oak Bays (#7)

Rob and I went for a morning paddle. Our original intent was to head out and around the islands but it was quite windy (Discovery was 15-20 kt  from the north all morning), so we decided to turn around at Cadboro Point when we encountered lumpy water and tour Cadboro and Oak Bays. We made it around Mary Tod (Jimmy Chicken!) islet and Oak Bay Marina and headed back. Lots of birds around including bufflehead, hooded and common mergansers, scaup and harlequin ducks and the highlight for me was a group of ancient murrelets!

click to enlarge

12 km, YTD 72 km

January 13th - Cadboro Bay (#6)

I led a group of 14 SISKA paddlers on the first club paddle of the year. Our original plan was to paddle from Cadboro Bay around to Telegraph Cove on the north side of ten mile point, but there was a bit too much wind and lumpy water when we got past ten mile point, so I decided to turn around and head over to Willows beach where we stopped for lunch. Though the day was cool and drizzly, we had a good paddle, followed by coffee at Olive Olio's! We saw a nice collection of birds, including oystercatchers, common and hooded mergansers, kingfishers, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, bald eagle, great blue heron, as well as bufflehead and harlequin ducks. (I am sure I have missed some!) A nice way to start the club's paddling year!

click to embiggen!

13 km, YTD 60 km.

January 10th - Cadboro Point Current clinic (#5)

I joined Jennie and Edgar in leading an introductory/intermediate clinic on paddling in currents. After a brief chat on shore we made our way out to Cadboro Point where the ebb current was starting to build. The participants learned how to edge their kayaks, ferry across a channel into the current and made good progress. Many were playing in the small overfalls by the end of the session. We saw buffleheads, scaups, mergansers and a group of river otters while out on the water. We also ran into Dan and Paulo who were just returning from paddling around Discovery.

click to embiggen!

9 km, YTD 47 km

January 6 - Discovery Island (#4)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a morning paddle around the Islands. There was a bit of wind and current and we ran into a group doing a rescues course that day! We saw a large male California sea lion by Cadboro Point and then several more Steller's sea lions by Seabird Point light. We had to work hard coming back and our progress was slow through the frequently lumpy water. I think the moving average for the entire trip was only 5.6 kph!

click to enlarge

15 km, YTD 38 km

PS, I actually forgot about doing this post until I was reminded! I had downloaded the track, and then must have been distracted! :)

January 3&4 - Surge Narrows (#2&3)

I joined Alan and Craig for two days of paddling the wave at Surge Narrows. On the first day I paddled a borrowed Sterling Progression which did not suit me very well, so I had a pretty slow day of paddling. On the second day I paddled my familiar Hammer  and paddled until I was tired! :)
The GPS battery ran out on day 1, so the track is an estimate after I arrived at the wave. It is amazing to watch and listen as the wave develops and the current sped rises to around 7 knots!

Day 1 - click to enlarge

day 2 - click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 23 km

January 1st 2018 - Discovery Island (#1)

Dan and I went out for a late morning trip out and around the islands to start the New Year off. It was a bit windy to start and our paddle across the top end of Chatham was exciting, but both wind and current decreased as the paddle went on. We ran into Cheryl in Rudlin Bay and made a brief stop near Commodore Point. We were given the "evil eye" by a couple of bull California sea lions, but they stayed at least 5 metres away from us!

click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 16 km

December 31st - the paddling year in review

Well, I didn't make it out on the 31st - it was a tad cold and windy, but I did have a great year of paddling.
I didn't make either my distance or paddle number goals, but I had a lot of fun travelling instead.
The year total of 86 paddles and 728 km was an average number of paddles but the lowest distance of the 12 years of my blog. The km per paddle for the past three years has been pretty constant at 8.5

Year #	Year	# paddles	km total	km per paddle
1	2006	77	1273	16.50
2	2007	66	1098	16.60
3	2008	75	1080	14.40
4	2009	116	1381	11.90
5	2010	124	1214	9.80
6	2011	105	1217	11.60
7	2012	87	1001	11.50
8	2013	92	1063	11.60
9	2014	98	911	9.30
10	2015	120	1025	8.50
11	2016	129	1076	8.30
12	2017	86	728	8.47
	Totals	1175	13067

Looking forward to another good year of paddling in 2018!

December 25th - Jemmy Jones (#86)

I went for a midday paddle around Cadboro Bay after a nice morning walk on the beach with the girls. Though the temperature was not warm 3C, there was no wind, so it seemed quite reasonable!
I met Jeff, another Greenland paddler out near Staines Islet and had a bit of a chat. By the time I got home, the snow was almost melted!

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ready to take the surf ski out - click to enlarge

6 km, YTD 728 km

(PS, it does not look as if I will make my 100 paddle, 1000 km goal this year! Too much time spent having fun doing other things!)

December 19th - Chatham Island (#85)

The day after my return heme from Ecuador, i went out for a morning paddle with Dan. It was pretty windy with a stiff northerly breeze and an ebbing current. You can see that we made good progress on the outward journey, but the return trip was a slog! Probably one of the hardest paddles I have done in a long time! The wind was pretty steady in the 20 knot range with gusts up to 30! Quite a few marbled murrelets around! You can see from the RVYC wind data that the wind was pretty strong while we were out (9 to 11:30)! Our return track was pretty slow - at times it seemed like we were barely making progress!

the route - click to enlarge

today's wind graph - click to enlarge

12 km, YTD 722 km

December 13th - Buccaneer Cove, Galapagos (#84)

I went for a kayak near Buccaneer Cove. It was quite choppy and windy but still fun! Good views of magnificent frigatebirds and Nazca Boobies.

the route

zoomed out to show James Bay

2km, YTD 710 km

December 12th - Tagus Cove, Galapagos (#83)

While on board the National Geographic Endeavour II, I managed to get out for a session on a paddle board in Tagus Cove. It was my first time SUPing in Galapagos and I enjoyed the perspective - I saw plenty of green sea turtles as well as a couple of flightlesss cormorants and Galapagos penguins!

zoomed out to see the crater

the track in Tagus Cove

2km, YTD 708 km

November 25th - Tortuga Bay, Galapagos (#82)

I hiked out to Tortuga Bay and rented one of the sit-on-top kayaks that they have there for $10. I had a fun time there seeing plenty of reef sharks, green sea turtles, mangroves, birds and more! Before the paddle I had the opportunity to go snorkeling as well. A magical spot to visit. I went there 13 time during my 3 weeks in Galapagos!

the route in the bay

The bay in relation to Puerto Ayora, showing the trail

3 km, YTD 706 km