Portland Island

Sunny. Very warm. Slight breeze. Totally flat calm. Gentle currents that ran with us instead of against us. Ferries that were exactly where we wanted them to be when we needed them to be (probably because we weren't actually trying to catch one). You could not ask for a better day. Well, I suppose you could ask, but that would be greedy.


Louise, Tracy, Paula and myself got together yesterday to kayak from Sidney to Portland Island. And not even the latest heat wave was going to stop us!
We meandered up the various channels and islands towards our first crossing at Coal Island...


...spotting this heron along the way.


From Coal Island, we crossed to Pym and into the open waters of the Gulf Islands, after making sure there were no ferries about. There's a lot of pleasure boat traffic in this area, so kayakers must keep their eyes peeled for small craft as well as massive ferries.

From Pym, we crossed to Portland and put in for a break at Shell Beach.


The mystery of Louise's recent bouts of nausea of the water may have been solved. She recently purchased some new contact lenses, and we grew suspicious that they were contributing to her motion sickness. Today she wore an old pair of glasses and she didn't suffer from any symptoms. Mind you, it was an utterly flat calm, but we're hopeful we may have found the cause of her problem. We left Portland for the return paddle...

..ever mindful that we are out playing in the big traffic.



Two swans welcomed us back to the sheltered waters near our pull-out.


Did we have a good time? I'd say yes!


Trip Length: 14.55 km
YTD: 162.39 km
More pictures are here.