Pocession Point on Juan de Fuca Strait

Freya Hoffmeister makes Landfall in Victoria BC

On a damp Friday evening when the whole of Canada was tuned into the Olympic Winter Games opening in Vancouver, a group of kayaking die-hard's gathered in Victoria to greet and listen to Freya Hoffmeister recount her epic journey around Australia.

Well excuse me for not jumping on the kayak band wagon, but I cannot help but think that Freya's presentation in Victoria was kind of well flat.

Granted I was at the back, where the sound was not that great, but I earnestly strained to hear something that would convey the excitement and epic nature of her trip around Oz. I think her cold or sore voice may have gotten the better of her - she seemed tired.

Sure there were moments in her presentation, but not nearly enough of them. The south coast of Australia, shark nudges to name a few. But mostly it seemed to be one day of drudgery after another. Certainly there was not enough offered up to help a person plumb the depths of one of kayaking's most remarkable characters. I came away knowing little more about Freya then was shared in her blog. Maybe that's a down side to blogging. Could blogs reveal to much or maybe they indulge us to much?

During my checkered kayaking career I've had the opportunity to paddle and share a drink with two of the most prominent women in the sport Shawna Franklin and Justin Curgenven, and now Freya. I'll take Shawna and Justin any day. Maybe it's the way they laugh and smile or see a world of colours and not just black. Perhaps they lack an obsessively driven nature or what might be a smouldering intensity of Freya.

Or maybe it's just me. I'm a parent and the most important thing in my life is my son and family. Since Freya's trip began I've been trying to understand how a parent can essentially put kayaking ahead of one's family. Freya's son is 14 years old and for half of his life she has accomplished some of the most spectacular solo trips in the world - Iceland, New Zealand and now Oz to name but a few.

Though out my son's formative years I was privilege to be a stay at home parent. During that time we shared a journey of discovery that I would not trade for all the islands and all the oceans in the world. I cannot help but think that in 30 years the colour will have faded on Freya's photos and there will little left but dusty memories. Whereas, I'll have the a living bond, love and strength of a remarkable person.

I know nothing of her family circumstances but I fear that she's missed out on lifes greatest journey. Perhaps I'm wrong, there is after all no one right way to raise a family, maybe the course she's steered will have been the right one. One thing is certain I knew little more about Freya upon leaving then I did before arriving.

Perhaps her story is like Homer's Ulysses, just too big for one sitting or one quick power point show. Maybe the book will be the ticket.

South Georgia Adventure in Jeoprady

Late last week an accident on the support vessel Northanger has put Hayley Shephards attempt to become the first to solo kayak around South Georgia in jeopardy.

The co owner and skipper of the Northanger severed part of his right index finger while underway in Drake Passage.

After being hove to, due to the storm, for three days the vessel diverted to Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands. Short an able bodied sailor the support vessel may not be able to sail to South Georgia. Without the support vessel Hayley's circumnavigation is in serious trouble.

Saturday will be the critical day, if a replacement sailor cannot be found by then the trip will likely be canceled. Waiting longer stretches the favourable weather window just too far.

As an alternative Hayley is considering the possibility of an attempt to circumnavigate the Falkland Islands. She'd be the first female to undertake the endeavour.

To read more follow these links.

http://hayleyshephard.blogspot.com/

betsyguide.blogspot.com/

Hayley Shephard off to South Georgia

I said a difficult farewell to Hayley Shephard and Beth-Anne Masselink at Victoria International last Friday. Hayley is off to attempt a solo circumnavigation of South Georgia Island. Beth-Anne is her backup rescue kayaker who will launch from the support vessel and come to Hayley's aid should it be needed.

The circumnavigation of South Georgia is perhaps the most difficult paddle in the world. Although it's not long by many expedition standards there are no days when you are not at extreme risk. It's 400 miles of deadly risk.

Saying good bye to someone who you may never see again is troubling. All sorts of conflicting thoughts run through your head. I took some comfort in knowing that well known and trusted west coast quide Beth-Anne Masselink would at least be near by.

The island lies at 54 15 S and 36 45 W. Look it up on a globe and you'll see how one could strike out sailing east from South Georgia and your first land fall would be the west shore of the island you left from. There would be nothing but wind waves and the odd iceberg on your journey. There is an old mariners saying "in the forties there is no law - in the fifties there is no god"

The follow link takes you to a 2009 Christmas Day photo of a sheltered port on the east shore. Nothing landed on Christmas Day.

http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/Image:13dec09.jpg

The island has twice been circumnavigated by kayakers. Once by British paddlers Nigel Denis, Jeff Allen, Peter Bray and Israeli Hadas Feldman. Just prior to their trip the circumnavigation was completed by Kiwi's Graham Charles, Marcus Waters and Mark Jones.

Jeff Allen wrote: "Fur seals are very aggressive, as is the weather, very unpredictable, went from a force 4 to a force 8 in seconds today, took Pete by surprise and capsized him, water is freezing, after ten minutes hands and feet are freezing. Feet especially lost all feeling, my cockpit leaks and I am sat in 2" of freezing water most of the time.

He concluded that blog entry with a clear sign that he was becoming delusional. "All is well, spirits high, best wishes to everyone following the team."

Nigel Dennis speaking about the trip said, two would beat back the Fur Seals and Sea Lions with paddles while the others pitched tents or ate.

You can follow Hayley's trip at

http://hayleyshephard.blogspot.com/

Dennis, Allen and Bray are giants in the kayaking community. I know little about the Kiwi's. Hayley Shephard is a diminutive Kiwi ex pat living in Alert Bay BC who guides in Churchil Bay in the summer and sometimes works as a school teacher. Oh, and she's one very brave woman.

Force 10 from Victoria?

Click on the headline for a view of Haro Strait during the calm before the storm.


After a weak of laying about dealing with pig flue I had to get out. So I grabbed my binoculars and camera and headed out to do a little storm watching. Locked inside my car who could I inflict with H1N1 except the occasional car jacker.

Down along the shore front I found a Gale blowing. With nothing else to do I followed the shore up past Willows Beach, around to Cattle Point with a quick stop at Cadboro Bay.



My real destination was 10 Mile Point, Cadboro Point and of course Baynes Channel. Along the short drive I worked up mind exercises figuring out how and where to launch, what heading to paddle, how the southeaster would surf the boat and where to pull out.



I have a close friend who once while standing on a beach looking out at a much smaller sea turned to me and said, "I have to get out and practice in that stuff more." I replied. You don't have to get out and do anything. If you were standing here alone would you launch? "No, I wouldn't," he replied. Well if I came along and asked you to launch would you? "No properly not."

There, you see that's good judgement and that's all you ever need to practice. Lets go for coffee.

Alas I was too afraid to walk into a coffee house coughing and sneezing pig virus so instead I slipped into Cadboro Bay and jogged over to see if any yachts had slipped there anchors and blown ashore. One came ashore last week and the thieving wreckers had pulled all the electronics out of it before the owner could secure it.

Sadly there is an small ugly undercurrent to gentile Victoria, composed of people with no morals and clearly no respect for the law. Luckily, at least when I stopped by no boats where on the beach.

Back in the car I made a quick trip to the view point on Prevost Hill and snapped a quick shot of 10 Mile Point 200 metres below.
I was estimating the wind was blowing a steady 40 knots and the sea on the Beaufort scale to be Force 7. But it's hard to estimate such things from the pan of a kayak let alone the seat of a car.

After a brief stop at Cadboro Point and 10 Mile Point headland where I shot the video I headed home. I put some soup on and as I was uploading the photos I noticed the trees were really whipping around. the wind was picking up At 7:30 PM I checked the ocean buoy reports: Kelp Reef in Haro Strait SSE 48-63 knots, Discovery Island SSE 45 gusts 56 Weather forecast Storm Warning Winds SE 48-63. That's Force 10. I made coffee.

BUSTED!

It has been fine fall kayaking here in the Victoria area. Last Wednesday we managed to find standing waves in Baynes Channel right off the reef at the end of 10 Mile Point.


With a fast ebb coming around the head land slamming into a steady 10 knot wind the waves were stacking up into three footers. As usual most of the waves failed to line out which made surfing difficult. Nevertheless Denis, Mike and I managed to get in some good rides.

My advice to anyone entering this tidal race is to do so from the top of the race and slide into the leading wave backward. On this day we slipped by the reef buoy and attempted to enter from the bottom side.

We'd paddled out from Cadboro Bay and as we approached I stopped to switch my ball cap for a neoprene cap. You know the type that holds the cold water close to your head ensuring the freezing water gets deep into your ear canals. Who thinks these things up?

As we approached I thought to call out to my companions to slip through the inshore channel in front of the Williams/Green's house (it's made of glass and brass). Once through the channel we could stay inshore then swing out to drop into the race. For some odd reason I didn't, I guess I secretly wanted to see what would happen.

I was first to enter and the fast ebb quickly sent me too low and past the first wave line. I was in the chaos where surfing becomes secondary to just staying up right. I fought my way out with a major forward stroke effort that foreshadowed the next 20 minutes.

Crawling ever so slowly out against the ebb we finally reached the point were we could surf. Unfortunately I found us a little to close together for comfort and let some good waves go by to avoid potentially coming together. But everyone got in some great rides. I had my bow toggle drumming a tattoo, while Mike and Denis both buried their foredecks.

Eventually we agreed to paddle straight though the race to come out the other side. I took off for one more surf ride with the intent of paddling up above the race to get the maximum ride. This proved impossible as I couldn't make any headway. In fact all I was doing was maintaining position.

When ever I stopped paddling to look around for my companions I would lose any forward headway I had managed to eke out.

The last look about turned up one paddler short. Quickly I scanned 360 but could still see only one other kayaker. I called out where's Mike and set up a ferry glide angle to take me over to the reef to calm waters to have a better look. denis joined me and we soon spotted Mike flying through the race. For moments three quarters of his boat would be out of the water as he exploded through a stack. The black Tahe Greenlander looked beautiful in full flight.

From south of the race we set up a ferry glide over to Strong Tide Islet then clawed our way through the north cut into the lagoon and slipped down to the sluice were we played breaking in and out of the current rip.

At days end I did a quick roll, dragged the boat up reloaded my kit and came home to begin a week long battle against what appears to be the N1H1 virus. So much fun followed by so much misery. The photo is a snap of Hans Heupink's Anas Acuta after a hard surfing day in Holland.

Shephard and the Albatross

The following was written back in July. I've been reluctant to publish it because I consider the trip that is being planned to be extremely dangerous. Is it wise? I do not know, but it'll take guts, knowledge and perhaps good fortune to complete. It scares me just thinking about it.

Hayley Shephard is trying to raise awareness of the plight of the Albatross by solo paddling around South Georgia this coming February. She's an experienced kayak guide who works in the Arctic and on South Georgia Island.

This has never been done before indeed the island has been circumnavigated by kayaks only twice; both of those expeditions consisted of three kayakers. To date Hayley has lined up a publisher for a book, a film editor for a documentary and three magazines to publish accounts her her efforts.

Hayley is raising funds that will go to the Save the Albatross Campaign. "www.savethealbatross.net"

However Hayley is in desperate need of sponsorship funds. The British Government which governs South Georgia has very strict regulations regarding access to the area. Hayley has been in contact with the Royal Geographic Society and has made an application for support.

If you want to help here's the link to her project site. "www.kayakingtosavealbatross.com"

In this day an age many strike out on adventures, that seem only to full fill the persons need for self aggrandizement, it is especially gratifying to see that there are those who will undertake such adventures not solely for there own self fulfillment but for the advancement of important causes.

Nigel Denis is one of three British paddlers to circumnavigate South Georgia. Recently I asked him what's the most critical aspects of a solo paddle around the island.

His response, "develop lots of strength," surprised me but when he explained I understood. He said strength is needed to cope with the high winds. Nigel estimated they paddled in winds between 25 and 45 knots 40% of the time.

Technical skills are secondary to brute strength. I was somewhat surprised to hear that. Nigel also warned about fur seals which like to attack kayaks. When Nigel's team landed they used their paddles to fend off the seals. Do not confuse fur seals with the relatively harmless harbour seal. Fur seals are aggressive.

But most importantly he says taking the time to wait out the weather is key. Freezing cold, high winds, no reasonable back up. Hayley's support vessel well seldom be close enough to provide emergency support.

The following is a quote from Jeff Allen's blog account of the 2005 trip around.

“Fur seals are very aggressive, as is the weather, very unpredictable, went from a force 4 to a force 8 in seconds today, took Pete by surprise and capsized him, water is freezing, after ten minutes hands and feet are freezing.

“The challenge to paddle around South Georgia has been considered by many to be the ultimate challenge to any sea kayaker, comparisons between it and K2 to the climbing world have been bandied about, but South Georgia is truly unique and stands alone in the challenges that it does present, it certainly didn’t disappoint us.

We had the best and the worst that mother nature had to offer, when the going was good we made as much progress as we could, forcing ourselves to extend the limits at times to which you would not normally consider reasonable, over and above the norm.

When the weather was really bad we had no option, paddling wasn’t possible. The hardest thing to judge were those gaps in-between, seeing a weather system form overhead and wind increase from a force 2/3 to a full force 9 in the space of minutes was at times very frightening, especially when you were half way across a five mile open crossing.

All of the usual safety nets kayakers back home take for granted, VHF, Coastguard, RNLI even mobile phones were none existent and we knew that down here we were on our own, a self contained unit having to work as a team and being able to trust collectively in the decision making process meant so much more when making daily goals.

Although we had to have a support vessel to satisfy the license, the only time we saw it was when the weather was sound, if things turned foul they needed to head for cover as much as we did, what a seventy foot yacht considers appropriate shelter is well removed from what a kayaker would consider to be appropriate.”

A yacht such as Pelagic Australis can always head for open water, for us we had to take exceptional care when undertaking crossings, always looking for changes in the clouds, looking at the surface of the sea and reading the flow of water becomes second nature, if it hadn’t we may well have suffered for the mistake and this could have been a different update today.”

Prior to speaking with Nigel I talked with Dr. Fred Roots, a Royal Geographic Society member and gold medalist and an a renowned Antarctic and Arctic Scientist.

He was very cautious which is not surprising. One does not get to be an old Antarctic hand without paying close attention to due diligence. His first concern was with rescue.

In the past when Antarctic adventurers have messed up or been overwhelmed by the environment the only possible response to the Mayday would come from a scientific research project that might have taken years to put together. With limited resources the scientist would be expected to respond. This could mean the end of the research project. Years of work ruined by some adventurer.

Bitterness or resentment in the scientific community is understandable. By and large these pioneering scientist are hard men and women. Their projects in the 1950's and 60's where entirely self reliant. There was no safety net. When Dr. Roots geological partner had to have an eye removed after a shard of rock pieced it, the surgical tools where fashioned from a dinner knife and fork. The operation was done without either a loco or general antithesis.

The instruction were provided via Morse code from a surgeon in London. Think about it. Instructions for eye surgery locked in a series of dots and dashes.

While doing his geological survey Dr. Roots traveled solo via dog sled across the frozen ice , going unsupported from food cache to food cache for over 200 days. He had a compass.

Today The Royal Geographical Society will not allow people to undertake such adventures without means of rescue. She's had to charter a boat. But even that may not be sufficient.

There will be places on the west coast where the boat will not be any closer then three days travel. If disaster befalls her the reality is the rescue may in fact be a recovery.

Regarding the plight of the Albatross Dr. Roots pointed out that while it's an honorable endeavour that Hayley is undertaking. It may be fruitless. He explained that long line fishing practices around South Georgia have already been modified in attempts to ensure Albatrosses are not caught.

Long line fishermen, around South Georgia, to avoid catching these magnificent birds are now setting their lines at night or inboard so that the bait sinks before the Albatross can drop down and take the baited hooks. The save the Albatross project is trying to get all the worlds long line fishermen to do the same.

How easy is it going to be to get a long line fisherman from Port Hardy to voluntarily change the way they fish? Fishermen cannot even agree on a plan to save the salmon fishery.

But as Dr. Roots explains even if the entire world's long line fishing industry adopts these practices the Albatross will likely disappear. Victimized by humans rapacious harvesting of the sea. They'll starve to death. The future seems bleak for the Albatross.

All these factors add up to perhaps one of the most dangerous expeditions to date. Anyway you look at this it cannot be sugar coated. The endeavour is frightening and the goal maybe fruitless, but I hope she's successful.