Two Volcanoes, Three Ranges

It was a good paddle time on Sunday. I've been going flat out ever since, and had no time to post about it!
We went out kayaking in good ol' Cadboro Bay, same as a lot of times. But the different thing this time was being joined by Robyn and Mark from Gecko Paddler. Nice to have a larger group on the water, especially when we were hoping to cross Baynes Channel to visit the Chathams.
First off, when we launched we could see Mount Rainier dimly in the morning light. That was one volcano, showing up silhouetted against the sky at one end of the Olympic Mountains. It's not part of the Olympics, it's miles away south at the end of Puget Sound, but that cone does stick up a good ways.
We had a terrific show from an otter on the shore. He could see us drifting past in our boats, but decided not to worry about us. John and Mark drifted closer with their cameras, and got some marvelous photos. First the otter posed and primped, with his lovely tail draped over the log. Then he rolled on his back and scratched his shoulders against the rough log. Adorable little paws waved.
Once we were out past Flower Island, we could see Mount Baker bright with all its snow. That was the second volcano. And even some of the Cascade range was showing past the San Juan Islands.
The cold morning wasn't bothering us. Robyn and Louise were well-bundled up. With John's toque on under her hat, Louise kept the chill off nicely. But the breeze was stronger than expected for mid-morning. About two hours earlier than forecast, the breeze was picking up strength. We got part of the way across to Jemmy Jones Island before deciding not to do the crossing to Chatham.
Instead, we noodled along the shoreline to Cadboro Point. It was coming up on the end of the flood, so the freight train was slowing. There were no standing waves around the navigation light. We noodled around the rocks for a while, enjoying how the north breeze pushed in between the rocks and raised a few waves against the last of the flood current (less than 1 knot, so it was easy to cross.)
And there we could see just a bit of the Coast Mountain Range. So it was officially a two volcano day, and a three mountain range day. Not bad for a quiet paddle in home waters!
On the way back, I had to scoot ahead. The afternoon was booked for me, volunteering at the Elk/Beaver Lake Nature Centre. No time to write a post about the clear, cold air on this morning, or describe the Harlequin ducks Louise pointed out. Bright ducks, and chatty oystercatchers -- what good company we had on the water.
All week, I've been working on an assignment for a class in writing Literary Web Sites. Discovered each day that I was saving my work wrong. Each day, saved it a new way and was still wrong. Got help from the professor and still found new ways to save my work wrong. Finally a classmate showed me how to open and close the files properly in Dreamweaver. (give me simple blogspot wysiwyg anyday!) And now, I'm off to finish my assignment with all sorts of hot links and optimised images. It's not kayaking, but it's still fun.