Friday, September 06, 2013

Paddling with the neighbours

It's great to get out at various times of day in my kayak. I love how different the same bay looks at different times of day, or when the weather changes. Even high tide is a nice difference after weeks of usually paddling at a lower tide! I was able to scoot around the little rock garden through passages that have been too shallow most of the last month or two when I've been by... and my little inflatable bottomed out on one rock, making me teeter and come closer to tipping over by accident than I've ever been.
This time paddling was after the biggest thunder and lightning storm in recent memory! The ocean was smooth and still, and the storm drain was pumping a big stream of fresh run-off into Cadboro Bay as I paddled out from the beach.
The neighbours were a seal exploring the beach, and schools of little fish disturbing the smooth surface, and a pair of kingfishers. All the ducks were walking over the grassy field in the park, looking for earthworms and bugs in the rainwater puddles, I guess. But there were extra neighbours, too.
For wildlife neighbours, there was a series of red jellyfish moving gently in the ripples. These are lion's mane jellyfish, and they have a sting like a wasp! There's a warning about them in the local newspaper the Times-Colonist's website.
For human neighbours, I got to see a visitor out with a Trayak, catching the faintest of breezes with its sail. And the owner of the motorboat Panga was out to check his crab traps. Once again, I realized that a boat's motor can fill the entire bay and make it ring like a bell. Sometimes it's nice anyway, to see the boats being put to use and the crab traps emptied.
Up in the sky, there was a rainbow on one side, and a sundog on the other, as the setting sun turned the last of the clouds golden. Not a bad time for a late-afternoon/early-evening paddle!

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