Sunday, May 02, 2010

If It's a Paddling Day, It Must Be Windy and Rainy

Caddy Pano 1
It was one of those kind of mornings. The kind of morning when the various and sundry weather prognosticators reached little consensus. The Weather Network said winds were light in Juan de Fuca Strait, while Environment Canada was posting gale warnings. The one thing they all agreed on was that wind and rain was coming. The only question was when.
"When" appeared to be "now" as Louise and I considered whether to haul the kayaks over to Cadboro Bay and meet Paula for the launch. Across town from our destination, we were being pelted by rain and a stiff breeze. We decided that coffee was the order of the day, and, forgoing the kayaks, drove across town.

At Cadboro Bay, we discovered that the weather here was better but only marginally so.
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Paula had her kayak ready to go and she was joined by two associate members of our little informal paddling group, Dennis and Tracy. Despite the fact that we've paddled with both of them separately numerous times, we could recall only one previous time that we'd kayaked with both of them together.
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So Paula, Dennis and Tracy launched for a quick paddle out to Flower Island and back...
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.... while Bernie and Louise decided that discretion was in order and headed to the coffee shop to escape the stiff breeze. (I know, I know. Bernie -- discretion? Who knew?)
I wandered over to nearby Mystic Pond and checked out the heron rookery.
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The herons don't mind sharing the pond with ducks.
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Then I started getting cold, so I went for coffee, too. Here's hoping there's better weather next weekend!

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