Thursday April 17th - Swartz Bay to Portland Island
Beautiful and calm when I left Piers Wharf at 8:30am. Winds picked up around 2pm.
***Whoops*** Left my watch at home.
Friday April 18th - Shell Beach, Portland Island
Slept through entire day - result of last minute packing Wednesday night. Didn't sleep properly and it took it's toll... It's about 6-7pm now, woke to the sun going down. Doh!
Getting nailed with heavy winds from SW. Yesterday winds from SE. Decided to hunker down here for another night and get an early start tomorrow. From now on I'd figure to use 2 1/2 to 3 Litres of water per day. Another one Litre if exerting heavily.
Shell Beach has a very nice campsite but exposed to afternoon Southerly winds. No water on Portland Island? Sign says that it's there though... I'll look for it next time out.
Saturday April 19th - Portland Island to Pender Island
Launched around 7:30am, paddled from Shell Beach on Portland to Moresby Island, crossing at Arbutus Point to NW point of Moresby. LOTS of seals off this point on Moresby. Followed coast to NE Point of Moresby and crossed at approx. a 60 degree heading NE to Entrance of Bedwell Harbour between the Penders. It was a long slog across Swanson Channel, diagonal, nose into the wind. Arrived Beaumont Park at approx. 12:00pm. Pretty steep exertion, but I'm not strong in upper body yet.
Trangia Stoves seem to be the hot ticket for kayakers. Burns alcohol fuel. No water at Beaumont Park but probably available at Poet's Cove Resort. Got off the water just as snow started falling. Amazing! Amongst the many WCP'rs I met Robin who came in during the worst of the snow. He'd paddled all the way from Ten Mile Point direct. Rough weather, rough crossing... gotta give the guy credit!
Bedwell Harbour is calm and gives NO indication of weather and conditions in the Straits and Channels surrounding it and the Penders.
WCP'rs are... a motley assortment of characters... LOL
*Plan for 5 litres of water per day of active paddling. Nalgene bags from Capitol Iron $15. Can be used for water or dry goods. 1/2 bottle of white gas cooked:
- 1 can black beans
- 1 kraft dinner
- 1 oatmeal (quick oats)
- 2 cups of tea
- plus melted enough snow to produce 2 litres of water
1 litre of white gas/day is plenty - probably less.
Kayaking definitely qualifies as sport as much as lifestyle or recreation. Fairly heavy exertion, totally upper-body. Elbows take some beating but I need to work on my technique. Paddle held flat with wide sweeps vs. full arm action, deep strokes. Seems like the hub of the paddle held centered at all times works nicely and balances out. Not sure if it's my technique but the kayak (CD Squall in poly) has an odd tendency to turn to the right all the time. Rudder corrects for this but seems to cause drag.
I might want to take some White-water courses to learn techniques... Dry suits have definite advantages over climbing into wet neoprene - cold and clammy :O(
apparently the proprietary materials don't breathe as well and can get hot compared to Gore-tex.
-Weather at Bedwell- Clouds coming in from West. Cool, almost full-moon. Day was incredibly nasty! Wind! Snow! Hail! Evening looks better.
Should definitely get on the fishing setup... fresh fish would be awesome...
Though wool and cotton are comfy, they're just too bulky for paddling and packing. looks like Polar-Fleece is the best (cheapest) option. Definitely need some synthetic long underwear for under wetsuit and camp wear. Polar-Fleece next to skin, under wet-suit works really well for general use, and it seems to breathe nicely.
Sunday April 20th - Beaumont Marine Park to Sidney
Left Beaumont on low tide at approx. 9:30am. Arrived Sidney beach around 3:00pm. Point to point from Eastern tip of North Pender to Eastern tip of Moresby, then curved towards Arbutus Point with the swells at my back. Lunch break on a tiny little beach, only exposed on low tide, directly behing Point. :O) NICE!
Instead of cruising between the two islands I paddled through on the way out, I chose to swing South and past Coal Island via John Passage. Light westerly current in passage and a strong current at the South entrance of it. Next stop Sidney Beach, and a celebratory mug of beer at the Pub right over top of the beach.
Time on water - 22 hours
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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