Boom-boom

As we go into the Hallowe'en time and beyond, into the dark time of the year, you may notice some loud booming if you're out on the water west of Victoria. Don't panic! The Canadian military is doing some manoeuvres during the first week of November, west of Sooke near Sombrio Beach. They'll be test-firing artillery and many large weapons. So if you hear some unexplained booming when you're paddling at Albert Head or Sooke Basin, don't be alarmed.

And if the booming is more of a rumble from the south-east, it's probably the Growler taking off from the US military base on Whidbey Island, again. We've been hearing it lately around Cadboro Bay and Ten Mile Point, so they must be using the runway that points in our direction.

These noises are just another reminder that human-made noises carry much farther over water (and probably under water as well) than we expect. Certainly, I felt surrounded by a bubble of outboard motor noise when riding in a zodiac for Straitwatch, watching the whale-watching boats. But being in a kayak and hearing zodiacs go by showed me that the bubble of noise is big enough to fill not only the bowl of Cadboro Bay, but all of Oak Bay's big curve as well, echoing off the Chathams and the Chain islets. And that's with my half-deaf ears!
Let's hope that J, K and L pods of orcas are playing in the Gulf Islands instead of hanging out near Jordan River when the Canadian military is on manoeuvres this week. Boom-shaka-laka means something else these days...

Qajaq Boomerang

No, really! If Australia ever invades Greenland, this could become an Olympic sport!
Check out the video below:

New Orca Calf Spotted

Following up on Alison's interesting post yesterday about using dogs to track whale scat to determine the health of our local endangered orca pods, the Victoria Times-Colonist reported that L Pod has a new arrival, the first known calf for the mother, L82.
The orca calf mortality rate runs at about 50%, and one calf born earlier this year has already died, as have two older L Pod males, and K11, the 77 year-old matriarch of K Pod. The current number of orcas in J, K and L pods is 87. Historically, the number has been around 120 but decades of hunting and captures reduced that number to 71 in the early 1970s.

Sniffing out whale scat, on Radio 4

Came across this on the Radio 4 website: The Dog and the Whale - scientists training dogs to guide them to whale scat, as a source of information about whale health and wellbeing.

Tucker's [the sniffer dog's] work means the scientists can start to piece together an explanation for why a special population of killer whales in North America is at risk of extinction.

This community of orca lives between Vancouver Island and the mainland US Pacific coast. They number about 90 individuals and in recent years they have suffered some terrible times. Two years ago, about one in ten died. Several years earlier, 20% of them were lost.

The program should be available to listen until next Tuesday, 9 pm GMT.

Kayak Chaos

Ever wanted to kayak down a raging river without the inconvenience of lugging around all that equipment and getting wet?
I'm not sure how much of a substitute for the real thing this will be, but SimplyFun games has a board game out called Kayak Chaos. For 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up.
At least you shouldn't have to rinse out your neoprene when you're finished.

Pipe Dreams

While we're on the topic of water, a group of kayakers is currently kayaking the length of British Columbia's coast, from Kitimat through the Inside Passage down to Vancouver, in an effort to raise awareness in regards to Enbridge's plan to build an oil pipeline from Alberta's Tar Sands to the west coast, and the possible lifting of the 40 year-old moratorium against oil tanker traffic on the west coast. The three kayakers of the Pipedreams Project are currently approaching Port Neville on the mainland side of the Inside Passage. Follow them on their blog here.

Water

You’d think that water, the topic for Blog Action Day 2010, would be something easy for a kayaker to write about. After all, this is where most kayakers spend a lot of our time, sitting in water. Well, expect for those paddlers in the niche sports of hill kayaking or snow kayaking. Then again, even snow kayakers need water, albeit in a slightly cooler variation.
I’m blessed to live in a part of the world with ample fresh water lakes and a large annual rainfall, and as I sit back drinking my latté at my favourite coffee shop, I undoubtedly take my good fortune for granted.
Did I mention that it takes 240 litres of clean water to make my latté?
That’s 120 large pop bottles worth of water to make one cup of over-priced coffee.
But all this talk about water is making me thirsty. I’ll just grab my bottled water for a cool refresher. Ahhh. That hit the spot.
Did I mention that it takes nearly 16 litres of water to manufacture the plastic for the average bottle of water? How’s that for ironic.
And on average, Americans drink 200 bottles of water per person each year. That’s 3200 litres each, or 995,200,000,000 litres of water for the entire population just to manufacture the bottles they use to drink water. 86 percent of those bottles will never be recycled. 17 million barrels of oil is needed to make all those water bottles, and that’s getting close to a day and a half’s worth of US oil imports.
That 17 million barrels of oil would would be enough to power 1,000,000 cars for a year, not that that’s a particularly good idea either.
In Canada, the percapita water consumption rate is 2,049,000 litres per year. That’s not quite double the world average of 1,243,000 litres per year.
I think I need to rethink how I drink my water.

Switching to Glide

Today was a rare mid-week paddle as Louise, Paula and I met at Cadboro Bay Beach to kayak out to Chatham Island.


Although somewhat overcast and rainfall warnings out for various spots along the coast, we had totally calm conditions. A higher than normal tide had come in and was going to be hanging around for most of the day.
And oddly, even though it was cloudy and hazy, the conditions allowed us the rare treat of seeing all three mainland mountain ranges (The Cascades, The Olympics, and the Coast Range), and two volcanoes. Mount Baker was plainly visible as it often is...

...but towards the south-east we could barely make out the cone of Mount Rainier about 200 km away.
We paddled out along Ten Mile Point...

...and out towards Jemmy Jones Island...

...where this eagle watched over our journey.


As we crossed from Jemmy Jones to Chatham, a couple of Navy ships crossed our path, first the HMCS Cougar...

...followed a few minutes later by the HMCS Moose.

These are Orca-class patrol vessels generally used for training and support surveillance. (Destroy these pictures right away, just in case Homeland Security comes knocking.)

At Chatham, we cruised down a channel and quickly discovered where all the seals were hiding.

Even if there isn't much current out in the open water like today, there's always some between the islands that make up the Chatham/Discovery group. We just pulled out our paddles and glided by the seals resting on the small rock outcroppings.




After puttering around Chatham...

...we crossed to the Chain Islands....

...where we found more seals...


...then reluctantly headed back to shore.


Trip Length: 12.45 km
YTD: 220.08 km
More pictures are here.

Bringing New Meaning to the Term "Sit On Top"

Tree Appreciation Day Coming Up

Dear Kayak Yak:
I feel guilty for my carbon footprint. Kayaking puts me in touch with nature, but it's hard to get my boat to water without using a car. I tried growing a tree to offset my carbon footprint, but the tree isn't getting very big in its pot on my balcony. What can I do?
Tree Wannabe

Dear Tree Wannabe:
There are several alternatives that can help you.
One alternative to using a car is using a set of wheels and taking your kayak for a walk. Works for us at a couple of our usual launch places! Not a bad idea if the walk is through a quiet neighbourhood.
Another alternative is keeping your kayak (or one of your kayaks if you are lucky enough to have more than one) at or near the launch place. Works for me!
Want to plant a tree but don't have any room in your yard for it -- or even a yard? Come on out to Tree Appreciation Day and help Saanich Municipality plant native trees and shrubs in two parks.
One park is Cuthbert Holmes Park, where Colquitz Creek wanders before draining into Portage Inlet. If you look back through the blog, you'll see we have paddled right under the bridge where volunteers will be gathering, and right past one of the two areas to be restored in that park. The other park is Mount Douglas Park, and we've paddled along that park's open shoreline in Cordova Bay a couple of times -- once when Alison and I were on our way to Island View Beach. Both of the parks for planting are accessible by a short walk from a bus, and have ample parking.

Here's the notice that the municipality of Saanich posted on its website at http://www.saanich.ca/parkrec/parks/info/whatsnew.html Take a look:
Tree Appreciation DayThe 17th annual Tree Appreciation Day will be November 7, 2010 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm.
At Cuthbert Holmes Park (CHP), Saanich is partnering with the Gorge Tillicum Community Association (GTCA) and the Friends of Cuthbert Holmes Park to plant native trees and shrubs. The Friends of CHP along with GTCA in partnership with Saanich Parks have been actively removing invasive species within CHP over the past few years. These native trees and shrubs will help restore areas where the invasive species has been removed. We invite community and school groups to participate in this event. Groups will gather at the staging area as indicated in the attached map. Parking is available in Tillicum Mall by Silver City, at the rear of Pearkes Arena, and in the parking lot off admirals Road. And signs will direct you to the staging area.
Marian McCoy, Natural Areas Technician for Saanich Parks, along with members of the Friends of Cuthbert Holmes Park, invite you to participate in a interpretive walk through the restoration area.
At Mount Douglas Park, Saanich is partnering with the Friends of Mount Douglas Park (FOMD) to plant native trees along sections off the Whittaker, Norn and Irvine trails. Groups will gather in the parking lot at the base of Churchill Drive.
We will also be hosting a native tree and shrub planting event in Mount Douglas Park along the banks of Douglas Creek. Groups for this planting will gather in the main parking lot off Mount Douglas Parkway by the washroom building.
Please contact Saanich Parks if you have any questions regarding Tree Appreciation Events or visit http://www.saanich.ca/resident/parks for updates on Tree Appreciation Day.
Volunteers are asked to dress appropriately for any weather event as Tree Appreciation Day will proceed regardless of the weather.
A limited amount of shovels will be provided, volunteers are asked to bring along their own planting tools if possible.
Refreshments and light snacks will be provided.

This 'n' That

No, we didn't suddenly fall off the face of the earth and forget about kayaking. Mind you, we're having trouble remembering what those long and narrow red things are in the basement.
While the weather in September was often conducive to kayaking, it just wasn't so on days when we were available to get out. C'est la vie. But it looks looking like we and the weather may finally get together in a few days.
And we haven't forgotten about the blog either. Behind the scenes, we've been lining up some DVD and book reviews to run over the winter. Look for those to start appearing later in the fall.

Our favourite local kayak store, Ocean River, was recently profiled on a Seattle TV magazine show. Here's the vid:

Ocean River has their own YouTube channel -- check out all their videos here.

And finally, Happy Birthday to the late and great Dr. Winston O'Boogie.
The world misses you.
We surely do.

Squirt Boating

There's always something new. Well, new to me anyway. I first spotted this video over at Beach Pebbles.

It's called squirt boating, and uses a boat similar to a river kayak, but with a much smaller profile and volume. Plus the boat is mostly underwater -- in fact, some maneuvers, as in the video above involve the boat, and thus the paddler, being completely underwater. Cool stuff!
Here's another clip:

Ocean River Gear Grab

If it's the end of September, it must be the Ocean River Fall Gear Grab. Louise and I headed down just before the sale started....

...and found ourselves at the end of a long line of bargain hunters. We waded into the crowd but didn't find anything to buy ourselves as we are well stocked for kayak gear. Yeah, I know -- that's not something real kayakers usually say.

We did find Richard wandering through the crowd looking like he was asleep. This was because Richard had just woken up and was still asleep.

We decided that he desperately needed coffee so we headed off to a local coffee shop. But first we checked out the new Delta Ten.

Launching Pepiotel

So back about a week ago, Paula and I attended the launch of a new canoe here in Cadboro Bay. Over the summer, as we walked across the University of Victoria campus, we watched a cedar log appear beside the new First Nations building. Then one of those temporary garage structures (a framework and tarp thing), and finally a bunch of sawdust, shavings, and bits of wood. And, over the weeks, a new canoe. When we heard that the canoe, named Pepiotel, was going to be launched on "our" beach, and that the ceremony was open to the public, we made a point of showing up.
Pepiotel--in the local First Nations culture, canoes are treated as living individuals--was brought down to the water early in the morning on September 15th and lifted off the trailer and onto a couple of sawhorses, and then to a couple of beach logs.
    Pepiotel has an interesting shape; it's not the symmetric cigar shape I've come to expect of canoes. Rather, the canoe widens from the front to about 4/5ths of the way back, then abruptly narrows to the stern.




    It also reminded me of a dory shape, where a flat, shaped bottom has angled sides attached to it. The bow also had an interesting groove shaped into it, the purpose of which I never did find out.
    I thought it was interesting that the elders were brought in to cleanse the boat before its launch. I wouldn't have thought that a new boat had had time to develop any bad habits to cleanse from it, but perhaps the ritual was intended to suit the tree to its new status as horizontal boat rather than vertical tree. The ritual itself was interesting--we were told we could take pictures or footage, but that they preferred that there be no sound recording of the ceremony. The ceremony was quick--there was one elder on each side of the boat, chanting a prayer (I'm assuming it was a prayer) and patting the sides of the canoe, with one hand on the outside and one on the inside. They worked from the stern to the bow, and then repeated the action. A few speeches later, and the canoe was lifted into the water.
    Pepiotel, it was explained to us, was the name of the group of three stars on the front of the canoe. The condensed version of the story is that three duck hunters were transformed into stars and placed in the sky together. Now they appear together when it is time to hunt ducks. We never did hear why they were transformed....
    Pepiotel the canoe floated quite high in the water--as you would expect from a wide, flat-bottomed boat. The first crew hopped into the boat and were drummed away from shore and off around the bay.  Pepiotel wasn't the only human-powered boat in the bay; during the ceremony a poly sit-on-top/canoe/undecked kayak was launched, and a small zodiac-style inflatable was rowed in to shore. After the fist paddle, the opportunity to paddle Pepiotel was offered to anyone who wanted the chance--Paula, naturally, leapt at the opportunity . Her report was that the canoe had a low initial stability, but firmed up as it picked up speed. The high, flared sides would also increase its secondary stability.
    All in all, a fascinating morning. You can check out the video below.

Making believe it's June

Starting back into the regular Monday-Friday routine concentrates the mind. Forecast of 10-15 westerly knots (again) notwithstanding, it was paddle Sunday or not at all, and the day that I got made me regret all the similar days I passed up.

(But I am not gloating, really, only on this particular day, the east won.)

It was Parc de la Rivière again: Bixi to the Metro, Metro to Cartier station, STM 73 bus in the direction of Fabreville - Laval, bless them, puts the direction of travel on the buses, unlike Montreal. Arrive just after 9 am in noticeably slanted morning light at the Embarcations, and stake my claim on a Kayak de Mer, the doughty orange Kasko.

I'm ashamed to say that I've only paddled the Parc once this summer, back in mid June, the continually taunting weather reports having fed into my third-book-and-trilogy completion neurosis; I kept procrastinating, waiting for a day with no wind forecast. When I was out in June I was impressed by how low the water already was. It made me appreciate that last winter had been dry. Last year in the early summer I was able to paddle through trees (and get munched on by flies), and venture into the marsh; this year, even the turtle pull-outs were well up the bank, the marsh was impassible beyond a short, narrow channel, a number of shortcuts, like the one out of the lagoon in front of the launch site, were above the water level. I'm simply not used to the water going away and not coming back 6 hours or so later. I found myself thinking that the originator of the expression 'letting the grass grow under one's feet' as a measure of indolence had not observed river grass invading an exposed bank. There was no way of telling from the grasses alongside the river that that part was underwater a year ago. Today it was even more of the same. In a lot of places, if I'd tipped, I'd have been sucking mud, and if I'd banged my head on a rock, I might have been rediscovered like Lyuba, the baby mammoth in a million years or so. Although when I did wobble interestingly, it was because I was probing for the bottom with my paddle in what turned out to be a deep spot.

I took what has become my usual route, out the east end of the lagoon, and past Île Gagnon, where the water was extremely shallow, the bottom muddy and rocky, and I was conscious of tucking my tailbone up in anticipation of the grinding beneath. Up the south side of the river, under the Autoroute des Laurentides and the footbridge to Île Locas, checking out the completed swallows nests on the underside as I went - I'd watched the foundations being laid when I was out in June, beakful by beakful of dark river mud, trying to figure out whether one plan ruled construction or not. And then on to the marsh. This post was nearly entitled "500 geese, a dozen herons, and me." This panorama, taken from beside the lookout on the edge of the marsh, should give the idea (note, those speckles are geese).



I let myself drift very slowly through a gap between goose-gangs, and discovered a dredged channel leading into the marsh, which terminated abruptly in a wall of black mud and sticks. I don't think beavers were involved. If they were, no waterway is safe.

As last year, the great blue herons were out of their usual exclusive neighbourhood in the marsh, and scattered up and down the water's edge west of des Laurentides, each one apparently aspiring to solitude. They seemed touchier than usual, and though I wasn't trying to spook them, even when I swung over to the other side of the channel it didn't seem far enough. Though there was the one I came on as I rounded a bend; it froze, I froze, and we played statues as the wind pushed me gently past and away. I also spotted a number of kingfishers dashing between islands, and some small white-bellied shorebirds I could not identify. No swallows, scattered dragonflies, and whatever moved beneath the water's surface was safely hidden in mud. The water-lilies were looking tattered and tired, and there were scattered mats of purple river-plants.

Wind, yes, there was wind, intermittently. But there were spells of calm, allowing full appreciation of the flotillas of round cumuli proceeding overhead with perhaps just a little too much despatch to be stately. This panorama was taken at the furthest west extent of the Parc, at the tip of Île de Mai looking west. One day I shall go beyond ...



I rounded the tip and came down channel between Île de Mai and Laval, brazenly floating down the middle of the channel while munching on a roasted mushroom and chevre panini, something I'd never have dared do in the middle of summer. I paused to admire and take pictures of a weeping willow planted above a wall and draping down almost to the water. While I was doing that, the first power boat of the day passed by, sending the water sloshing and my kayak rocking. Then I swung back over to make a pit-stop on Île Chabon, muttering 'I must do more of this' as I floundered to dismount onto a steeply sloping beach. Two or three canoes had reached the lookout and the geese had scattered. Then I paddled back the way I had come through the channel towards the des Laurentides bridge. I was well into my fourth hour and a day rental, so I paddled around the north side of Île de Jiufs, but had decided to cut myself off at 5 hours and get the 2:30-something bus, so back into the lagoon, which was crowded with single and double kayaks and two person canoes, heading out to enjoy a gorgeous warm afternoon. Would that it had been June!

My fake GPS plot - just Alison 'taking a line for a walk' as we used to call it in kindergarten. Unfortunately, I can't recall where I got this image from, or I would have updated it to show the difference between then and now.

It's Raining Again

We kept a wary eye on the weather during the last week as the forecast outlook for our usual Sunday morning paddle was dubious at best. September is often sunny and warm in these parts, but as as the last few days of summer 2010 wind down, misty gloom and rain has been the order of the day. This morning was no exception, but instead of just the expected rain, we woke to fog and thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are a real rarity here, and today's thunderclaps brought with them squalls of torrential rain unlike any we have seen here in a while.

We went down to Cadboro Bay, our semi-regular launch spot, not to hit the water, but to pick up Paula for a coffee. That's when the floodgates opened and the water hit us! I've never heard rain so loud before. I was soaked in seconds while thunder boomed overhead. What a way to find that my supposed waterproof jacket isn't.

In the end, we probably should have stayed in like these two.

Will Disguising Your Kayak As An Orca Deter Shark Attacks?

White shark (Photo by Callaghan Fritz-Cope, Pelagic Shark Research Foundation)

Following up on yesterday's post which as an aside mentioned recent shark attacks on kayaks, today the California Outdoors Q and A blog posted an article about whether disguising your kayak hull to resemble an Orca (including towing a pair of "fins") will scare away great white sharks.
The short answer is probably not, but if the shark mistakes your tricked-out orca-kayak for a seal, look out! Read the full article here.

Kayak Balance Stool

Find yourself sitting at home wishing you were in your kayak in the waves? This might be the next best thing -- all you need is someone to stand nearby and throw the occasional bucket of salty water in your face!
It's a home-built kayak balacing stool (spotted on boing-boing, but it originates at Homegrown Evolution.) The author decided to build his own gym equipment after he took a few kayaking lessons which "showcased my inflexible hamstrings," and he hopes that a few minutes a day will increase his flexibilty beyond that of "a ginger-bread man." Easy to make, the blog entry includes easy to follow instructions (basically, nail three pieces of wood together), and sarcastic comments from his wife.
He's not the first person to think of this, of course. Here's another example from the website of the guy who was recently attacked in his kayak by a great white shark. And while we're on the topic of sharks, here's an article recounting that attck and another recent shark attack on a kayaker, and what can you do if a great white attacks you. (The short version? Nothing will help you. The shark will decide all by itself if it's going to eat you, and there's not much you can do to change its mind.)