January 29th - Discovery Island (#5)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands - my last chance for a few weeks, as I am of on a trip again soon. Conditions were nice and sunny with a reasonable ebb current and a fairly strong northerly wind (10-15 kt). We saw lots of birds (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S52184390) including 26 bald eagles around Discovery!
We decided to go counter clockwise this time. The track to Commodore point on Discovery was pretty straight! You can see that the outward journey was a lot faster than the return! We managed to swing north and not get carried too far downstream by the ebb current in Baynes.

click to embiggen!

15 km, YTD 46 km

January 26th - Discovery Island (#4)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. Conditions were great - sunny and calm -  though with a strong ebb current. We saw lots of birds including 22 bald eagles on Discovery island - most around Rudlin Bay. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S52068414
The ebb current carried us downstream as we returned across Baynes channel!

click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 31 km

January 24th - Port Renfrew (#3)

I was up at the cottages in Renfrew doing some maintenance and managed to get out for a nice play in the surf by the San Juan rivermouth. The waves were not too big but still gave me some great rides! The Hammer is fun in surf! :)
There were some nice birds around as well including surf scoter, pacific loon, common merganser, bald eagle and more.

click to enlarge

5 km, YTD 15 km

January 20 - Cadboro Bay (#2)

I made it out for a solo paddle on Sunday morning the day after returning from my Galapagos and Antarctic experience. Great to be out on home waters. Buffleheads, hooded mergansers, bald eagles, pelagic cormorants, common mergansers, Canada goose, and more.

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8 km, YTD 10 km

January 3rd - Devil Island, Antarctica (#1)

I managed to get out for a short paddle at Devil Island in the Weddell Sea off the eastern tip of the Antarctic peninsula and realize a dream of paddling in the Antarctic. I have now been able to paddle in both the Arctic and the Antarctic within the span of a year! It was great to paddle amongst icebergs and penguins!

click to enlarge the paddling area

showing the location in the Weddell Sea

2 km, YTD 2 km

December 12th - Espumilla beach James Bay (#72)

I was able to get out for another paddle early in the morning and paddled between Espumilla beach and Cerro Cowan. I saw a few hammerhead sharks while paddling! :)

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3 km. YTD 556 km

I guess I did not make the 100 paddles or 1000 km goal this year due to having too much fun on trips around the world... Next year's goal will be revised down to 50 paddles and 500 km!

December 11th - Tagus cove (#s 70&71)

I managed to get out for a kayak and a SUP paddle while on board National Geographic Endeavour II as a guest lecturer. It was nice to be out paddling amongst Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants and green sea turtles!

the kayak trip 3 km

the SUP trip 2 km

5 km, YTD 553 km

December 3rd - Cadboro Bay (#69)

I took the surf ski out for a quick afternoon paddle. There was a brisk northerly wind, but the sky was clear and the visibility was great. I could see Mt Baker as well as Mt Rainier (the latter was spectacular at sunset!). I ran into several harbour seals as well as a typical assortment of a dozen birds: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50409122 .

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7 km, YTD 548 km

December 1st - cadboro Bay (#69)

I led a SISKA "President's paddle" this morning before the club Christmas party. Eleven of us ventured out on the first of December and faced very gentle conditions for this time of year. Winds were less than 10 knots from the north and we made our way out and around Jemmy Jones Island. Idid not see as many birds out as yesterday (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50354058) but we had nice views of buffleheads, hooded mergansers and black turnstones.

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6km, YTD 541 km

November 30th - Discovery and Chatham islands (#67

I went for a late morning/luchtime paddle with Dan around the islands. The tide was especially high (high enough to cover the white lichens in some places), so we explored a few places that we usually don't go. We saw harbor seals and a Steller sea lion as well as at least 16 kinds of seabirds. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50329819 . The prickly pear cacti on "cactus islet" seem do be doing well in spite of some of them being occasionally covered by the tide
While paddling through the northern part of Chatham we found an aluminum flare canister that had been used by the military. It has now been reported to the military so they can clean it up.

click to embiggen!

16 km, YTD 535 km

November 23rd - Golden Gardens Park, Seattle (#66)

I joined Setsuko, David and Marc for a Greenland rolling/paddling session at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. We did a bunch of rolls and had fun experimenting with a Greenland paddle. The park is right beside Shilshole Bay marina.

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3 km, YTD 519 km

November 12th - Chatham Island (#65)

A quick morning paddle with Olivier who was over from Salt Spring Island out to the islands. It was a bit windier than we expected, so much harder work that planned - especially on the return leg! :)
I managed to get a little surfing in by the sluice by Vantreight!

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11 km, YTD 516 km

November 11th - Cadboro Bay (#

I went for an afternoon birding paddle around the bay - this time I brought my good binoculars - what a difference! Other than the usual suspects, I saw a white winged scoter (immature) and a rhinoceros auklet that were new for this week. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49871145

The air was pretty clear and I could see both Mt Baker AND Mt Rainier (215 km away!)

click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 505 km
(made my revised annual goal! 😊 )

November 10th - Chatham Island (#63)

I went for a late morning paddle out to Chatham Island. I was focusing on birds again this time and got some different species than other days- western grebe and ancient murrelet - and a total of 18. Out at Cadboro Point I ran into David K and we paddled together, catching up, to the south end of Chatham. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49837989

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10 km, YTD 498 km
(I think the 500 km goal is within reach! :) )

November 9th - Cadboro Bay (#62)

I went for an afternoon paddle and focused on birds again. (I did see a few harbour seals!) It was a beautiful flat calm afternoon and I saw most of the usual suspects...
You should be able to view my bird checklist on ebird:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49814035

click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 488 km