Sunday, October 27, 2013

October 27th - Discovery Island (#77)

George, Dan and I paddled out to Cadboro Point to meet Olivier at the light. We then went for a nice paddle around the islands. There were some nice wind waves on the north side of Chatham to start, but the wind then dropped. Basically, a beautiful sunny Sunday paddle! I almost dozed off in the sun on the lunch beach...
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15 km, YTD 896 km

Saturday, October 26, 2013

October 26th - Cowichan River (#76)

I went with Pete and George (and 4 students) to the Cowichan River where we met up with Tieran of Kindred Spirit Kayak. We played on the river around the Mayo Road bridge while we got the kids ready for running a section of rapid by letting them practice eddy turns. Eventually we got to the point where we were able to take them down the section from Skutz falls to the bridge. All the kids managed it without capsizing! For me, it was the first time on the river in a couple of years - good to get back!
The GPS track is a bit shaky - I think it had problems getting a clear signal in the canyon. I ran the section 4 times and had fun playing in the eddies and even got to surf a little bit!
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2 km, YTD 881 km

Monday, October 14, 2013

October 10th - Trial Island (#75)

Paulo, George and I went for a short paddle around Trial Island. Conditions were superb - what an amazing October! It looks like we may have another week of sunshine ahead as well! We saw that there were some guys rebuilding the radio antennas on trial. They were just taking down the last old one. Now I am curious as to what kind or radio they are for...
We stopped for a snack at the beach by the golf course and picked up a fair bit of garbage from a recent party. It looks like they had a fire that got out of control too...
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7 km, YTD 879 km

Saturday, October 12, 2013

October 12th - Cadboro Bay (#74)

I went out for a quick afternoon paddle around the bay. Conditions were magnificent (looks like we have two weeks of sunshine ahead!). I managed to keep up a good pace (4 kt average) and the full paddle took just under an hour - managed to keep it in the blue pretty much throughout. Not too many other boats around in spite of the fabulous conditions for Thanksgiving weekend.
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7 km, YTD 872 km

Sunday, October 06, 2013

October 6th - Sidney Spit Beach cleanup (#73)

I led a group of 14 other SISKA members on a paddle to Sidney Spit to clean up the beach. This is the 5th time/year we have done it as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup! We set out on a beautiful sunny day with great conditions at launch time and in the forecast. The weather was summerlike throughout the day! A nice change form the planned day of Sept 22 when I cancelled it! The beach was cleaner than in previous years. We had a relaxing lunch before we started cleaning and then we took a "siesta" before heading back. We finished up with a short debrief at the Rumrunner.
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10 km, YTD 865 km