Now The Gloves Are Off

Following up on yesterday's announcement that all federal permits have been granted for the proposed mega-yacht marina for Victoria's Inner Harbour, today the Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter warned the city in a statement that if the city blocked the marina by changing the zoning regulations, the city could be on the hook for $23,000,000.
His statement reads in part, “Council could choose to reduce the zoning and effectively deny the property owner from exercising established property rights. But such decisions have financial consequences that do not appear to have been taken into account.”
The interesting note here of course is that the developer is not the property owner of the water lots that the marina would sit in -- the owner would be the province. You and me, in other words. This is why the developer needs a lease approval from the government. How is the city on the hook to the developer if he is not the property owner?
Does the City not have the right to say about any project that notwithstanding that it may meet current zoning, the project is not the right project for the specific area and turn it down? What's the point if having a city council if it actually has no power to make land-use decisions?
Or is the CoC saying that if any proposal for the use of public lands is rejected, the rejectee has the right to sue? Isn't the province/city supposed to be the steward of our lands? Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD be done...
But as usual the voices of the people continue to be lost amid the shrill siren call of dollar bills and the rubbing of greedy hands.

Food Festivals

As the summer weather seems to have arrived so too have thoughts of visiting farmer's markets and attending food festivals. BC EAT Magazine arrived via email in a timely manner providing a long list of Food Festivals happening all over BC. Bookmark the page below 'cause EAT will be updating it regularly.



EAT's 2010 Food Festival Guide - EAT Magazine - Celebrating the Food and Drink of British Columbia

Quoting Alexandra Morton

I was pleased to be able to attend the salmon rally in Centennial Square on Saturday May 8, and see the march to the legislature.

Alexandra Morton sent a note describing her journey to many correspondants -- here's an excerpt from it:

Once again it is up to us.
The Get Out Migration was a powerful and wildly successful effort. People in every town we passed through and on the road volunteered their time and expertise and the result is emergence of the people of the salmon, people who are strong, independent and understand the contribution of salmon in our lives, our future and our economy. The First Nation voice set the tone and eloquence - uniting, legendary and welcoming. People of all ages walked side-by-side to ensure a future where our children can thrive. We shut down one lane of highway 17 and the police kindly let us walk without traffic lights along Quadra and Government Streets. The Parliament lawns reportedly hold 20,000 people and looking out over the sea of people less than 1/3 of the lawn was visible.
And yet BC's two biggest newspapers mention there were only ---- "nearly 1000 people". This is so wrong in so many ways.
("Sea of people marches to fight fish farms," The Times Colonist, 9th May)
There is no mention of our First Nation families and friends and the number of people was five to ten times lower than reality. You can see video blogs of the Get Out Migration at salmonaresacred.org
alexadramorton.ca
Alexandra Morton

Mega-Yacht Marina Clears All Federal Hurdles

This morning, Transport Canada issued a Navigable Waters permit for the mega-yacht marina proposed for Victoria's Inner Harbour. A Federal environmental permit was previously issued last month.
“This is an important step in the approval process that will soon bring one of the most modern, environmentally-friendly and beautiful marina projects in the world to Victoria’s middle harbour,” said Lachlan MacLean, general manager of marina Operations for the WAM Development Group.
However, the plan has been opposed by thousands of local residents (including kayaking groups). As one reader posted on CBC's coverage of today's development, "A facility such as this encourages an unsustainable, unjustifiable gluttonous consumption of fossil fuel that serves no purpose other than propping up yacht owner's ego. It supports a lifestyle that is no longer relevant." I couldn't have said it better.
CFAX has posted some local reactions:
-- proposed mega-yacht marina builder Bob Evans: "Our original goal was to get the construction done this year...2010...but it won't be completed probably until the summer of 2011 now, (because of) the long time it took. But again, I want to re-emphasize I am so grateful to everyone that has helped us along the process"
-- local MP Keith Martin: "I find that remarkable because the marina as far as I've seen fails on a couple of accounts. From an environmental perspective but importantly from a safety perspective. Stick a marina in the inner harbour, where it's proposed and the wave pattern changes, and how busy our inner harbour is I fear that we're going to have an accident, that there's going to be a fatal collision between planes, boats."
The project still requires provincial and civic approval. And as reported by CFAX, BC Forests Minister Pat Bell is waiting for guidance from the city before deciding whether to issue approval for the project, claiming that he's been getting mixed messages from the city, despite the fact that the mayor has been fairly adament in his displeasure with the proposal.
This is far from over, and lawyers will get rich.

How They Do It In Australia. Or So We're Told.

If Australia is Down Under, does that mean that North America is Up Over?
Anyway, according to the Fat Paddler, this is how they do Vertical Slide Entrances in Australia. It's a wonder there's any kayakers left alive down under!

Check out the Fat Paddler's blog -- always a great read! Thanks for the link, Sean!

The Kind of Day We Live For

Yesterday was the kind of day we live for.
We had spring in winter, then winter for the first part of spring. But now it looks like summer might finally be approaching as we had a paddling day under clear warm skies for the first time since I don't know when.


Before we began, Louise and Paula compared toe-nail colours. Louise was in teal and Paula in silver. My toe-nails were going commando.


Tracy joined us as well (she declined to mention what colour her toe-nails were), and the four of us put in at Cadboro Bay for a paddle out to Chatham and Discovery Islands. We were facing a mild flood tide that wasn't really going to amount to anything, a perfect day to explore this small off shore island group.


At Chatham, we noodled around and explored. We thought we saw Richard paddling ahead of us. He was supposed to join us for today's paddle, but by the time we were ready to launch there was no sign of him. (Were his toe-nails still wet? If that was the case, they must have dried eventually because he did make it out after us.)




Whoever it was, we never caught up to him.
We paddled between Chatham and Discovery, then decided to do what we call the Grand Tour and cross over to the Chain Islands.

Here, we saw a few seals. We gave them a wide clearance as it's seal birthing season.



From there we returned to Cadboro Bay for a happy landing...

...and a big cup of coffee.




Trip length: 12.73 km
YTD: 61.46
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

How Not to Seal Launch

See, the whole idea about seal launching is to actually make it as far as the water.
The video is embedded below:

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

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.

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.

So Paula, Dennis and Tracy launched for a quick paddle out to Flower Island and back...

.... 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.


The herons don't mind sharing the pond with ducks.




Then I started getting cold, so I went for coffee, too. Here's hoping there's better weather next weekend!

Finally

Or eventually. Sometimes it takes me a while to get things done (for various reasons). So, finally, my version of our September 30th, 2009 paddle in Cadboro Bay.

Mega-Yacht Marina Passes First Hurdle

The giant mega-yacht marina propsed for Victoria's Inner Harbour passed its first hurdle yesterday as a Transport Canada spokesman announced that "Transport Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have concluded that with the proposed mitigation measures, the project is not likely to result in significant adverse environmental effects and that the impact on navigation can be mitigated."
According to the Victoria Times-Colonist "the proposal has run into opposition from a range of groups, including paddlers, environmentalists, owners of high-end condos and others. A 7,000-name petition against the development was sent to various levels of governments. Marina critics argue the development would compromise safety, views, the environmental and attractiveness of the city’s harbour." There were over 400,000 movements in the harbour in 2007 and some worry that adding large mega-yachts trying to enter the proposed 2.63-hectare marina will congest an already small and complicated harbour.
With the environmental report out of the way, the next decision on the Navigable Waters Protection Act approval and the Fisheries Act authorization will be made shortly.
After that, the next step in the unpopular development will be whether the province decides to grant the developer a license to use the provincial water lots (and the provincial government does have a habit of forcing unpopular items down peoples' throats. See the HST.) The devloper will then have to seek a development permit from the city for the marina's on-shore facilities, which may prove to be a struggle as Victoria's mayor has already publicly spoken against this proposal.
Meanwhile, some opponents, such as Victoria MP Denise Savoie, are already talking legal action against the development. The Times-Colonist also reports:

"We are going to be looking at all our options, including legal," said [anti-marina] coalition member Diane Carr.
Carr is not surprised by the decision coming from Transport Canada, the lead federal agency examining the proposal. "But of course one always hopes for a result in the public interest," she said.
The process used to determine whether the marina belongs in the harbour has been a major issue for opponents, who say it is not transparent, comprehensive and did not take public concerns into account. "A poor process yields a poor result," Carr said.

Click here to help save Victoria's harbour.

Cadboro Bay To Willows Beach. And Back As Well.

Yesterday, we headed to Cadboro Bay beach for a quickie as Paula had some other plans for later in the day. Louise and I geared up...

...while as usual Paula hit the water first.


Not many pictures today as I forgot my waterproof camera at home, and just had my big camera that I was hauling in and out of my camera bag. And there just wasn't much out to take pictures of as most of the ocean critters seemed to be sleeping in on this cloudy Sunday morning.


We headed down towards Willows Beach and around Mary Tod Island.


Our course took us past the expensive mansions of the Uplands district of Oak Bay. Here we discovered the secret of how families were able to afford these multi-million dollar homes. They keep their children locked in cages in their back yards where they perform clandestine anti-gravity experiments on them.



Trip length: 8.89 km
YTD: 48.73
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

Pulsejet Kayak

Until about 24 minutes ago, I'd never heard of a pulsejet. Or ever thought of putting one on a kayak. Fortunately, New Zealand has crazy people who can think of insane things like this all on their own so that I don't have to -- all I need to do is just sit back and watch all the fun on YouTube.
It was built by Bruce Simpson, who also built his own home-made Cruise missile.
The video is embedded below in two parts. In Part Two, the pulsejet kayak races against an Olympic kayaker.

Mega-Yacht Marina Protest - Dénouement

We mentioned in our coverage of last week's protest rally against the mega-yacht marina proposed for Victoria Harbour that the developer, Bob Evans, kicked a reporter from local news weekly Monday Magazine out from a pro-marina press conference he held the day before the rally. We cheekily speculated that this action would no doubt prompt Monday to change the tone of its coverage.
Or, you know, not.
This week, Monday reports:

We arrived sans invitation, assuming—incorrectly it would seem—that a press conference would actually be open to the press, so while we don’t know much about what was said concerning the marina (presumably, that it is a really, really good idea), we did obtain a transcript of what Evans had to say about us after our ejection.
Among other things, Evans said, “I witnessed Monday Magazine criticizing most of the rest of the press because of the way they cover our project. I looked at the representative and thought, ‘I could buy him a bottle of gin or give him a trip around the planet or give him a house and it wouldn’t make any difference.’ No matter what we said today it would still come out negative. It didn’t matter whether he was here or not.”

Was Evans giving Monday a back-handed compliment by suggesting that Monday would stand by its priniples no matter how much he might try to bribe them? No, probably not. But it sure reads that way.

Splish Splash, Camera's Taking a Bath

Yesterday, Louise and I rolled our kayaks down the hill to the Gorge for a paddle with Paula and Marlene....

...but they were looking like no-shows, so we launched without them and headed towards Portage Inlet.


I was loaded up with camera gear, including a camera mounted high on my rear deck shooting interval shots. I set it to take a picture every ten seconds, and come back home with a few hundred dull pictures and a few interesting ones.


We saw some cormorants drying their wings in a tree.


We also watched this swan chasing geese away from his nesting mate. He's not actually doing any chasing in this shot, but this is what he looked like when he was, head lowered like a battering ram.

These geese were nesting just a few metres away from the swans. For some reason the swan left this couple alone.


We entered Craigflower Creek. We were facing an ebbing tide, but I was hoping to get up to the tunnel at the end of the creek, thinking that I might get some interesting shots with the deck cam. But it all depended on the water level. Too low, and we would not get around the fallen tree.

And that was the case. If the water level is high enough, you can sneak around this tree on the right. But no luck today.
So I began paddling backwards and the deck cam hit some branches...

...and off it came.

I heard a splash, looked down, and saw my home-made camera mount and my camera slowly sinking into the muddy waters. Before they disappeared out of sight, I reached down and grabbed it...

...and as I fished it out of the water it took my picture. I'm not sure why the mount failed, but I suspect it was loose and then got caught in a branch and torqued.

The Pentax Optio W60 -- take's a licking and keeps on clicking (although it would be nice if the batteries lasted longer).

We headed back and found that Paula and Marlene had indeed shown up and had their own paddling adventure.


Trip length: 10.13 km
YTD: 39.84
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

Attending the Rally On The Water

The rally against the Monster Yacht Marina was a blast!
Hopped on the #11 bus with Bernie carrying my Dragonfly inflatable. He also carried it from Douglas & Yates across the Johnson Street Bridge to our usual harbour launch site at Songhees. Easiest portage I've ever had, thanks to Bernie.
Weather cooperated splendidly, with little breeze and a nice bright overcast with only a little mist, no real rain after 9 am. SISKA paddlers got there early before everyone else, and set out some buoys to show the size and shape the Marina would take. I got there just after eleven am, and there were loudspeakers going mwa-mwah-mwa (picture bassoon music from the old Peanuts cartoon shows, eh?). I think that's when John got this great shot of me, in which I appear to be The Happiest Kayaker On The Water Today.

The turnout was great, with about 200 kayaks milling about the area where the Marina is proposed. Gee whillikers, that would be one honking big marina if it ever did get built!
If you check out the Times-Colonist's report on the rally, you can see a fine aerial photo of the gathering. See the two little kayaks beyond most of the boats, close to shore over towards the little dock? That's Mike Jackson in his black Tahe and me in the Dragonfly, at one of the marker buoys. With me to mark that perimeter spot, he headed out to move through the crowd, making sure that less-experienced paddlers were having no problems.
Meanwhile, there were a series of boaters coming over to me, each of whom expressed admiration for the little inflatable. Two of the harbour patrol boats and a little harbour ferry all snuck close, and the captains leaned out to get a good look. I told them all to go to Advanced Elements and learn about the boat and its big brothers.
The rally broke up like most demonstrations in Victoria... everybody looked at their watches, picked up their litter and headed away peaceably. By the time I got back to the Songhees park launch, there were Bernie, John and Louise, and Marlene. Great to have such a big crowd crew!

Yacht Marina Protest Rally

Yesterday, the marina developers held an invitation-only press conference to present their side of the story and head off the publicity from today's protest rally. But the press conference didn't go so well. After a number of business supporters spoke in favour of the project, citing the usual mantras that Victoria is doomed if the harbour doesn't remain a working harbour, and that the project will create jobs for the region, the first question was from a news editor from Monday magazine. Developer Bob Evans has not liked Monday's coverage of the marina debate and asked the Monday reporter to leave. He did, and at that point most of the other press reportedly walked out as well. (No doubt this will encourage Monday to follow the developer's line from now on in its coverage. Not.)
Evans declared during his presentation that "kayakers are not bad people." Well, that's a relief.

Today's protest rally against the marina went off a little better. About 500 people on land and about 200 kayakers in the water met at the 6.5 acre site of the proposed marina that will house about 60 so-called mega-yachts.
Here, some paddlers gather at Ocean River's dock to paddle around to the protest site.


They're hard to see, but there's 5 orange markers on the water. They represent the footprint of the marina. The developer wants to be given a huge swath of public space and turn it into a private marina for the super-rich, taking away a public resource and no longer allowing the public to have access to it. He wants to take away the beauty of the harbour that everyone can share so that a private few can enjoy it. And make some money while he's doing it, of course. The public, who are being asked to give away this resource, will, of course, gain nothing.


The harbour is small -- there's not a lot of room. In addition to float planes, harbour taxis, whale-watching boats, as well as scores of both powered and unpowered recreational craft, there's also three ferry lines, including the Coho below. Is there even room for more traffic the harbour? A lot of people think there isn't.


A large flotilla gathered at the site of the proposed marina....

...and listened to some local politicians and others speak out against the proposal. (Noticeably absent, as usual, was Gary Lunn, local federal MP and federal Minister of State for Sport. Funny, I guess he just doesn't want to be seen with a few hundred local amateur sportspeople. Let Gary know how you feel about that: 250-656-2320 locally, or 613-996-1119 in Ottawa.)

By the way, the yellow balloons represent the height off the water of the marina.

It was a large and well-behaved crowd, and if nothing else it was great for kayak-watching.




Click here for information on the campaign to help stop the marina. Local media covered the event here, here and here. Local online B Channel News also covered the event, and asked to use some of my pictures to boot. Their story is here.

And I shot some video that's embedded below: