Sunday, November 4th was a bright morning. When Alison picked me up at Island View Beach at 8:30am, we could see a ring of clouds that boded well for a day of good weather. If we hadn't already set on our plan to paddle from Cadboro Bay around to Island View, this would have been a good day to go to Darcy Island! Probably wouldn't even have been any of the waves that jostled Bernie on his last trip there.
Alison and I left my dad's pickup truck at Island View and drove to Cadboro Bay. I walked from Gyro Park's parking lot all of the few hundred yards to the Beach House, and asked Bernie to carry my Eliza down to the water. After wriggling into my wetsuit, I carried my gear down to the beach, prompting smart-aleck comments about "Carrying it all in one load" from the man who a) carries kayaks solo and b) loads his yellow Chesapeake with four person-loads of camping gear.
The weather was great as we launched between 9am and 9:30, and stayed good all day even as clouds slowly blew in from the south. Alison and I had to hug the shore while leaving Cadboro Bay, to avoid the clouds of small sailboats. Going round Cadboro Point and Ten Mile Point, we were going with the mild current. We even saw our only standing waves of the trip, in a channel by the lighthouse: a series of waves only six inches high. Out in Baynes channel, the freight train was running between the lighthouse and Strongtide Island. Not a good time to make a crossing to Chatham, not till slack around noon. But where we were paddling was as glassy calm as inside Cadboro Bay. Small rollers surfed us northward, but they were only two or three inches high.
The point is longer than Alison figured, and she was surprised to see how far it was to Telegraph Cove. Passing heaps of mansions is always interesting, and rocky cliffs also. The helicopter kept by one fabulously wealthy household was nowhere in sight that day. After Telegraph Cove, we cut across the opening of Finnerty and Arbutus Coves, seeing an eagle on the rocks, then rounded Paul's Terrace with it's cluster of new houses, and rounded Gordon Head. At Gordon Rock we saw a seal, possibly the baby that had wanted Louise to take it home for a pet. He looked fine, Louise!
Margaret's Bay was a nice sheltered spot for a bit of lunch and a stretch. The sun was already behind the trees... that's something about this beach and Mount Douglas Park beach, always cool in the shade.
Launching again, Alison borrowed my paddle gloves, but warmed up quickly once we were out in the sun. The water was still glassy calm, so we cut across Cordova Bay, from Cormorant Point almost to the sand bluffs. I checked on the chart, and we were well over a mile off-shore, almost at Little Zero Rock and more than half-way to Zero Rock. The mild current was still assisting us.
Eventually we realized we weren't going to James Island, and changed our angle of approach so we'd come closer to shore near the sand bluffs. Going through the scanty kelp there, we saw that the current had turned and was now drifting against us. Well, we THOUGHT the water had gotten thicker! Still, we were in no rush and just kept paddling with a slower net speed than earlier.
It was a terrific day to be out in a kayak. As long as we were in the sun, we were plenty warm. And the air was cool enough to make wearing proper cool weather gear comfortable.
Just as the sand bluffs seemed to go on forever and Island View beach must have been retreating up to Sidney and so on, Alison said, "Something's sounding." She pointed over towards Darcy, and then I saw what she did.
Two dorsal fins. And two long, black backs.
Several times, these two travellers came up, blew out noisy breaths, and ducked under the water. You know how a seal sounds like a tenor, and a sea lion sounds like a baritone, when they whuff their breath at us? These were bass singers in the ocean choir. Big lungs.
We only saw black backs, no tell-tale white markings of an orca. So we're willing to concede that these may have been Dall's porpoises, closer to us than they looked. But we think they were two orcas. Maybe. I may have to re-assess harbour seals as sopranos in that ocean choir.
Funny how paddling after that was once again such a cheerful experience, even against a very mild current. We listened to a loon's wild calls, and Alison enjoyed the echoes off the sand bluffs, and eventually we got to Island View at 3pm.
So Alison had her 4 hour paddle, which she wants more frequently in training for our planned Red Deer River trip. And I got to see big porpoises at least, if not whales. All in all, a fabulous day.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
The Wind on the Willows
We couldn't get the gang together for a large paddle this weekend. Alison and Paula had a glorious day on the water yesterday for a long paddle from Cadboro Bay to Island View Beach. They said the water was a sheet of glass. Alison took lots of pictures and put up a paddle report here.
Louise and I were able to paddle today and we headed to Willows Beach.
While we still had a beautiful day....
...we didn't get the flat water that Alison and Paula had yesterday.
I'd hope to go out to some of the islands, maybe the Chain group, and try out my new camera on the birds and seals out there. But it was not to be as the wind was up and Louise's stomach was doing the heebie-jeebies. (That is a real technical medical term, by the way.)
So we stuck close to shore and we paddled towards Cadboro Bay. Here a cormorant keeps watch over us.
Even close to shore, the winds were kicking up some waves....
...but on the way back, the wind died off for a few minutes and we enjoyed some of the calm water that we missed yesterday.
Like these fellows, we enjoyed a fine couple of hours on the water.
John's photos are here.
Louise and I were able to paddle today and we headed to Willows Beach.
While we still had a beautiful day....
...we didn't get the flat water that Alison and Paula had yesterday.
I'd hope to go out to some of the islands, maybe the Chain group, and try out my new camera on the birds and seals out there. But it was not to be as the wind was up and Louise's stomach was doing the heebie-jeebies. (That is a real technical medical term, by the way.)
So we stuck close to shore and we paddled towards Cadboro Bay. Here a cormorant keeps watch over us.
Even close to shore, the winds were kicking up some waves....
...but on the way back, the wind died off for a few minutes and we enjoyed some of the calm water that we missed yesterday.
Like these fellows, we enjoyed a fine couple of hours on the water.
John's photos are here.
32.61 metres in a 2.6 metre boat
Seriously, a trip over Alexandra Falls on Hay River in the NWT in a Nomad 8.5. Check the story out here. The news release is dated 2007-09-21 and the successful completion will be released in an upcoming video. Wow. 107 feet, 8.5 foot boat. Crazy-ass motherfuckers....
And thanks to Richard H for this photo of Alexandra Falls. Kind of puts the whole thing into perspective, you know?
And thanks to Richard H for this photo of Alexandra Falls. Kind of puts the whole thing into perspective, you know?
Powered by ScribeFire.
Friday, November 02, 2007
A New Record for Paddling Around Vancouver Island
According to an article in the latest issue of Adventure Kayak, Keirron Tastagh and Jeff Norville have set a record for paddling around Vancouver Island.
They set off from Orca's Island in Washington State and paddled the 1,200 km around Vancouver Island counterclockwise in just under 20 days. They were hoping to do it in two weeks, but they still managed to beat the old record by a week.
According to the article, "a lack of planning got them hung out to dry in the strong and squirrelly currents on Vancouver Island's east coast. And the challenges of paddling on the west coast of the island included hairy nighttime surf landings, one of which damaged the skeg box and caused their boat to paddle in circles." They managed to jury-rig a take-apart paddle as an "outrigger skeg."
They set off from Orca's Island in Washington State and paddled the 1,200 km around Vancouver Island counterclockwise in just under 20 days. They were hoping to do it in two weeks, but they still managed to beat the old record by a week.
According to the article, "a lack of planning got them hung out to dry in the strong and squirrelly currents on Vancouver Island's east coast. And the challenges of paddling on the west coast of the island included hairy nighttime surf landings, one of which damaged the skeg box and caused their boat to paddle in circles." They managed to jury-rig a take-apart paddle as an "outrigger skeg."
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Like Water Off a Buck's Back
A cloudy but mild (for late October) morning greets us on the shore of Esquimalt Lagoon.
It's just Louise, Paula and myself. We're not planning to paddle the lagoon today, but we're launching from here to explore a spot that we've never paddled before, Esquimalt Harbour. We had the choice of launching in the lagoon and heading out of it, or just launching directly into the ocean. We decided on the ocean launch because there was a bit of a current coming into the lagoon, and why should we fight against it? On our return, we thought we might ride the current in.
But that's later. First we head out into the morning sun, er, cloud.
We noticed that there were some sandbars offshore creating some breaking waves. Nothing too big, but we thought we'd head out around them to be safe.
To get into the Harbour, first we had to swing around the historic Fort Rodd Hill lighthouse. It's part of a base built in the late 19th century to defend Victoria and is now a national historic site.
What's that on the rocks? Could that be...?
Yes, it is. Ol' eagle-eyes has done gone and spotted hisself an eagle.
Now we're in the Harbour proper. In the background is Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, one of the large naval bases here on the south end of Vancouver Island. There's also the Esquimalt shipyards here, and yes, that is a BC Ferry that's getting some repair work done on it. There's also some naval facilities on the other side of the harbour so we are in fact paddling between two naval bases. I took a lot of pictures today; I wonder how many were taken of us.
Anyway, we continued on. After we passed the base, we crossed over to the right side. Louise was looking for a park she sometimes walked in along here....
...but Paula suddenly saw something and pointed. "What's that swimming in the water?" she called.
We looked over and there was something swimming. Our first thought, of course, was that it was a duck or a seagull, but it was moving too fast. Our brains were trying were trying to match shapes we were familiar with to this totally unfamiliar shape. Dog? Cat? Ocelot? Hippopotamus? Finally, it became a recognizable shape. "Deer!" I shouted.
It was a deer, alright. A big buck with a big rack.
If you've ever wanted to see a big buck shake himself dry after a swim, here's your chance.
I'm no good for estimating the size of this guy, but he was big. And fast. If we had been racing in the water, him swimming and me in my kayak, I'd be hard-pressed to think that I might win.
Just when you start thinking that this kayaking business is getting ho-hum...oh yeah, more seals and eagles...like, I'm so booored of that scene....nature gives you another gift.
We carried on and found these old buildings on an island at the end of the harbour.
At first glance I thought that they might be old boat houses, but clearly they're not. But they have some sort of cranes in the top, presumably some sort of loading equipment.
[Addendum: Long-time reader Scott The Hoople believes that these building may be old munitions warehouses.]
We turned around at the top of the island and found some geese. They didn't seem at all frightened of us. As you can see, Paula paddled right by them. In fact, a lot of the waterfowl were pretty fearless today. Earlier, a seagull had come down and landed right beside me. He swam along with us for a while before he got bored and left. Later, as we neared the end of the paddle, a small bird like a kingfisher suddenly popped up out of the water right in front of Paula's pink kayak. He dove right away, otherwise Paula might have run it over. We both started laughing, although Paula was apologizing to it even though it was long gone. I was thinking that the bird would have quite a story to tell when it got home.
"Hey man! I almost got swallowed by a pink whale today!" it would say.
"What are you talking about?" its mother would say. "There's no such thing as a pink whale!"
"But I saw it! I did!"
"There's no such thing as a pink whale! You young birds and your crazy stories! You wait until your father gets home with some salmon fins! He'll spank you so hard that you'll wish you were back in the egg!!"
But I digress. Back to the geese.
They let me get close, too.
We found another old building on the island.
We headed back. We approached the lighthouse again as we headed to the open sea.
But once again, Paula spotted something on the causeway...
....another deer.
We swung around the lighthouse and Paula decided to run the current into the lagoon. She headed for the sandbars where the waves were breaking. She caught one, surfed it for a bit, then followed the current into the lagoon.
Louise and I watched her go. Louise was ahead of me and I called out and asked her if she was going to do the same thing. "I'm not sure," she shouted back. I saw that she was drifting into the area where the sandbars were. "Make up your mind quickly," I shouted back, "or the waves will make it for you." And no sooner had I finished than a wave came up and broke behind her, carrying her towards the shore.
She was heading in whether she wanted to or not!
But all's well that ends well. And we put into the beach after another fine paddle.
John's photos are here.
It's just Louise, Paula and myself. We're not planning to paddle the lagoon today, but we're launching from here to explore a spot that we've never paddled before, Esquimalt Harbour. We had the choice of launching in the lagoon and heading out of it, or just launching directly into the ocean. We decided on the ocean launch because there was a bit of a current coming into the lagoon, and why should we fight against it? On our return, we thought we might ride the current in.
But that's later. First we head out into the morning sun, er, cloud.
We noticed that there were some sandbars offshore creating some breaking waves. Nothing too big, but we thought we'd head out around them to be safe.
To get into the Harbour, first we had to swing around the historic Fort Rodd Hill lighthouse. It's part of a base built in the late 19th century to defend Victoria and is now a national historic site.
What's that on the rocks? Could that be...?
Yes, it is. Ol' eagle-eyes has done gone and spotted hisself an eagle.
Now we're in the Harbour proper. In the background is Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, one of the large naval bases here on the south end of Vancouver Island. There's also the Esquimalt shipyards here, and yes, that is a BC Ferry that's getting some repair work done on it. There's also some naval facilities on the other side of the harbour so we are in fact paddling between two naval bases. I took a lot of pictures today; I wonder how many were taken of us.
Anyway, we continued on. After we passed the base, we crossed over to the right side. Louise was looking for a park she sometimes walked in along here....
...but Paula suddenly saw something and pointed. "What's that swimming in the water?" she called.
We looked over and there was something swimming. Our first thought, of course, was that it was a duck or a seagull, but it was moving too fast. Our brains were trying were trying to match shapes we were familiar with to this totally unfamiliar shape. Dog? Cat? Ocelot? Hippopotamus? Finally, it became a recognizable shape. "Deer!" I shouted.
It was a deer, alright. A big buck with a big rack.
If you've ever wanted to see a big buck shake himself dry after a swim, here's your chance.
I'm no good for estimating the size of this guy, but he was big. And fast. If we had been racing in the water, him swimming and me in my kayak, I'd be hard-pressed to think that I might win.
Just when you start thinking that this kayaking business is getting ho-hum...oh yeah, more seals and eagles...like, I'm so booored of that scene....nature gives you another gift.
We carried on and found these old buildings on an island at the end of the harbour.
At first glance I thought that they might be old boat houses, but clearly they're not. But they have some sort of cranes in the top, presumably some sort of loading equipment.
[Addendum: Long-time reader Scott The Hoople believes that these building may be old munitions warehouses.]
We turned around at the top of the island and found some geese. They didn't seem at all frightened of us. As you can see, Paula paddled right by them. In fact, a lot of the waterfowl were pretty fearless today. Earlier, a seagull had come down and landed right beside me. He swam along with us for a while before he got bored and left. Later, as we neared the end of the paddle, a small bird like a kingfisher suddenly popped up out of the water right in front of Paula's pink kayak. He dove right away, otherwise Paula might have run it over. We both started laughing, although Paula was apologizing to it even though it was long gone. I was thinking that the bird would have quite a story to tell when it got home.
"Hey man! I almost got swallowed by a pink whale today!" it would say.
"What are you talking about?" its mother would say. "There's no such thing as a pink whale!"
"But I saw it! I did!"
"There's no such thing as a pink whale! You young birds and your crazy stories! You wait until your father gets home with some salmon fins! He'll spank you so hard that you'll wish you were back in the egg!!"
But I digress. Back to the geese.
They let me get close, too.
We found another old building on the island.
We headed back. We approached the lighthouse again as we headed to the open sea.
But once again, Paula spotted something on the causeway...
....another deer.
We swung around the lighthouse and Paula decided to run the current into the lagoon. She headed for the sandbars where the waves were breaking. She caught one, surfed it for a bit, then followed the current into the lagoon.
Louise and I watched her go. Louise was ahead of me and I called out and asked her if she was going to do the same thing. "I'm not sure," she shouted back. I saw that she was drifting into the area where the sandbars were. "Make up your mind quickly," I shouted back, "or the waves will make it for you." And no sooner had I finished than a wave came up and broke behind her, carrying her towards the shore.
She was heading in whether she wanted to or not!
But all's well that ends well. And we put into the beach after another fine paddle.
John's photos are here.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Pseudo Paddle
There was no paddle this weekend, as most of us were partying down at VCon 32. Heck, the weather was so rainy that we wouldn't have paddled even if we were around.
Some of us have always wanted to go on a nighttime paddle. Here's what it might look like using a night scope camera.
Some of us have always wanted to go on a nighttime paddle. Here's what it might look like using a night scope camera.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Life, In Abundance
A beautiful morning greets us as we put in at Albert Head Lagoon Park. It's sunny, an increasingly rare thing these days. Last year we didn't even get in the water at all in November, so we're going to enjoy these days when we get them.
Albert Head Lagoon is the small body of water to the right, while Albert Head itself is the piece of land jutting off to the left. We'll be launching into the mist to go around Albert Head and to the entrance to Witty's Lagoon and hopefully into Witty's itself.
It was just Paula, Alison, Louise and myself today. In this picture, Alison has just helped Paula recover after Paula almost dumped herself in the water before she even left the beach. She was totally embarrassed by it, and I promised not to mention it in the blog.
But recover she did, and we headed out into a sunny day.
Almost right away, we ended up beside a family of otters enjoying a morning swim. They swam parallel to us for a while, then put ashore. I got a picture of them, not a great one mind you, but you can see them anyway. They'd be the brown lumps on the rocks at the bottom of the frame.
Louise set the pace as we headed around the point.
As we paddled around the point, we saw a sea lion lazing on the rock. In one way, it wasn't very exciting as he wasn't doing very much except lying there, but it was still very cool to see. We gave him plenty of room. A cranky sea lion charging at us could have ruined a nice paddle.
We carried on and a little further we saw a heron and an eagle in a fight. I thought at first that the eagle was harassing the heron, but as I watched the eagle fly back into a tree, I started thinking that it might be the other way around. The eagle may have been warning the heron off because, as you can see in this photo, the eagle and its mate were hovering around their nest. Perhaps there were some little eagles around and they didn't want the heron to get any ideas.
>
We made it to the entrance to Witty's Lagoon. We had timed our arrival to coincide with a high tide as this was the only time we could paddle into the lagoon. We were a little ahead of the high tide, but it close enough to give it a try.
Down the channel we went (here's a tip: stick to the right).
And we made it in. It was still very shallow and we were grounding all over the place. I had a devil of a time getting out....
...but it was a very quiet and peaceful place.
We decided not to stay long. Our sunshine had been replaced by clouds. We knew that the weather was going to change with rain due in the evening, so after a quick stop for a stretch, we headed for home.
Just outside Witty's Lagoon there is a small cove with a lot of islets and rocks. Last year they were covered with seals, but this year there was hardly a one. But it looks like there's something in that tree....
...yep, that be an eagle.
I was so busy checking out the eagle that I didn't notice that someone else was checking me out. A seal was circling my boat not more than a dozen feet away (that's 365 cm for those of you who are Imperial-measurement-challenged). I put my camera away and looked up and saw this guy swimming by. "Aw, hi guy, you sure are cute," I said as he went by. Then I said, "Holy $%#&! My camera!" I fumbled for my camera, but I was too late, he was already behind me. So I did something that usually never works -- I pointed my camera blindly over my shoulder hoping I might catch him. But this time it worked, and I got him.
The pair of eagles that we had seen earlier were gone, but this heron was out fishing in the seaweed at the same spot so I wonder if he was the same one who was annoying them.
We took the shortcut home, going through a small channel that cuts off the end of the point.
We did find some seals out on the rocks.
As we neared the put-in back at Albert Head, we decided to see if we could make it into Albert Head Lagoon. Stephanie had tried it the first time we came here and she got part-way in. Maybe we would have more luck.
It was a nice little paddle down the channel....
...that at times seemed like an obstacle course....
...but we soon grounded out again and had to turn back.
But we had a great paddle on a beautiful day.
John's pictures are here.
Albert Head Lagoon is the small body of water to the right, while Albert Head itself is the piece of land jutting off to the left. We'll be launching into the mist to go around Albert Head and to the entrance to Witty's Lagoon and hopefully into Witty's itself.
It was just Paula, Alison, Louise and myself today. In this picture, Alison has just helped Paula recover after Paula almost dumped herself in the water before she even left the beach. She was totally embarrassed by it, and I promised not to mention it in the blog.
But recover she did, and we headed out into a sunny day.
Almost right away, we ended up beside a family of otters enjoying a morning swim. They swam parallel to us for a while, then put ashore. I got a picture of them, not a great one mind you, but you can see them anyway. They'd be the brown lumps on the rocks at the bottom of the frame.
Louise set the pace as we headed around the point.
As we paddled around the point, we saw a sea lion lazing on the rock. In one way, it wasn't very exciting as he wasn't doing very much except lying there, but it was still very cool to see. We gave him plenty of room. A cranky sea lion charging at us could have ruined a nice paddle.
We carried on and a little further we saw a heron and an eagle in a fight. I thought at first that the eagle was harassing the heron, but as I watched the eagle fly back into a tree, I started thinking that it might be the other way around. The eagle may have been warning the heron off because, as you can see in this photo, the eagle and its mate were hovering around their nest. Perhaps there were some little eagles around and they didn't want the heron to get any ideas.
>We made it to the entrance to Witty's Lagoon. We had timed our arrival to coincide with a high tide as this was the only time we could paddle into the lagoon. We were a little ahead of the high tide, but it close enough to give it a try.
Down the channel we went (here's a tip: stick to the right).
And we made it in. It was still very shallow and we were grounding all over the place. I had a devil of a time getting out....
...but it was a very quiet and peaceful place.
We decided not to stay long. Our sunshine had been replaced by clouds. We knew that the weather was going to change with rain due in the evening, so after a quick stop for a stretch, we headed for home.
Just outside Witty's Lagoon there is a small cove with a lot of islets and rocks. Last year they were covered with seals, but this year there was hardly a one. But it looks like there's something in that tree....
...yep, that be an eagle.
I was so busy checking out the eagle that I didn't notice that someone else was checking me out. A seal was circling my boat not more than a dozen feet away (that's 365 cm for those of you who are Imperial-measurement-challenged). I put my camera away and looked up and saw this guy swimming by. "Aw, hi guy, you sure are cute," I said as he went by. Then I said, "Holy $%#&! My camera!" I fumbled for my camera, but I was too late, he was already behind me. So I did something that usually never works -- I pointed my camera blindly over my shoulder hoping I might catch him. But this time it worked, and I got him.
The pair of eagles that we had seen earlier were gone, but this heron was out fishing in the seaweed at the same spot so I wonder if he was the same one who was annoying them.
We took the shortcut home, going through a small channel that cuts off the end of the point.
We did find some seals out on the rocks.
As we neared the put-in back at Albert Head, we decided to see if we could make it into Albert Head Lagoon. Stephanie had tried it the first time we came here and she got part-way in. Maybe we would have more luck.
It was a nice little paddle down the channel....
...that at times seemed like an obstacle course....
...but we soon grounded out again and had to turn back.
But we had a great paddle on a beautiful day.
John's pictures are here.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)