Unlike the rest of the duck-watching crew, I did actually get out on the water Sunday. It was only in my small inflatable, and only for an hour, but it was still good. And cold. Not as cold as some days I've been out... didn't wear a paddle jacket over my shortie wetsuit, just a merino wool sweater. (Mmmm! wool sweaters are great. I picked up a couple at a thrift store four years ago, and they still work great when paddling. Not a great fashion statement, but then, neither is the wetsuit.)
I wasn't the only kayaker at Gyro Park, either -- Gordon was launching at the same time. He's the guy who writes the Victoria Kayaker blog. We chatted for a while and then I hopped into the Dragonfly and scooted away. It took a bit longer for him to get his Romany kayak loaded and ready to cross over to Discovery Island. He was headed over to meet some friends who camped out there this weekend.
The friends I saw while kayaking weren't kayakers. They were ducks! I saw a sharp-looking merganser and some buffleheads. I wanted to stay out longer than I did, and I'd even feathered my paddle to make paddling in a breeze a bit easier. But at Stein Island a bunch of small ducks let me know that I'd gone far enough for one day, and they Didn't Want Me Here, NOW. I took the hint.
Later after a marvellous bowl of hot cocolate at Olive Olio's, when we walked over to Mystic Pond to do some duck-watching, we saw an extra car parked at Mike Jackson's place, and guessed that he was one of the campers. Turned out we were right! He wrote about it on his blog.
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