We knew that there were some wind warnings up, and this made us a little apprehensive of what we might face. But we wanted to try Cowichan Bay, about an hour north of Victoria, so we decided to go anyway and if the weather was good, we'd paddle. If not, we'd still have a fun day having lunch out and hitting the tourist traps.
But when we got there, the sun was out, the wind was calm, and the water flat.
Sure there was the odd cloud or two...
...but if the jellyfish weren't worried, why should we be?
So we got ourselves loaded up and hit the calm water. It was Lousie, Paula and myself in singles, while Bernie rented a double with his friend Richard.
There's no beach; all the waterfront buildings here are on pilings.
Look how flat that water is.
And away we go! And no sooner do we get literally thirty feet from shore, the wind came up and suddenly we were in heavy, heavy chop!
We weren't going to cross the bay today (that had been our plan)...
...so we instead we paddled along the shore into the wind.
It was a good chance to practice in bad weather.
Amazingly, it didn't rain on us...
...although we were surrounded by it.
We headed back...
...and naturally the weather cleared up by the time we got back to shore.
Once ashore, we found some other boats that had decided to stay out of the water, This is a Triak, a small sail boat/kayak. It can be yours for about $5000 US.
Here's a homemade kayak. The builder decided to add his own built-in sponsons on the side, This creates a look which someone else on the pier described as "the worst-looking kayak in the world."
And here is an old First Nations canoe. It looks like it would been very fast, but you'd need to have good balance to not tip it.
My pictures are here.
