Early Morning in Baynes

Brrrrrrrrr! The east wind was blowing cold mountain air straight off the Cascades. Launching from Smuuglers Cove or Maynard Bay means you don't get a warm up in before you're right in the midst of the tide race.

Today Dan and I got down to the beach at 08:30 and were on the water just before 09:00 We moved faster then usual just to stay warm. As it was I quickly lost dexterity in my hands as I tried to tighten my hood and had to have Dan help out. Pogies saved my hands.

Out on the water I estimated the east wind was blowing between 20 and 25 knots. The current was ebbing at 4 knots. At the far side of the channel a fishing boat must of been practising rough water piloting as it kept pulling up through the race then would back down into it again. Much the same way as we normally do.

Today there were some very large standing waves just off the Cadboro Point light. We opted to surf the waves a little further to the north-east. Wish I'd had the Romany Surf as the HV Explorer cannot match the shorter boat in the surf zone. Dan got in some good rides but we were both cold and gave up on the surfing and opted to swing down below the light.

South of the light we were surprised to see the standing waves were only two or three sets deep. It may have been because the water was so low, or because the wind was primarily out of the east and not the normal southeaster.

From there we ferried over to the islands and climbed up through the diminishing ebb in the Sluice. By the time we poked out above Strongtide Island the current was dropping fast. Luckily for us the wind was holding and we quickly ferry glided back across to the light and into the cove. Dan finished with some rolls while I wimped out, my hood wasn't tight, and only did some braces. Man I was cold.

We had the boats back on the cars and were off. I even managed to make it to work on time. Total distance 3.46 Nm. Ma speed 6.4 knots. Moving time 1 hr 26 min. Moving avg 2.4knots. Over all average 2.3 knots.

ARRRRGH!

I'd like to kill the person who invented GPS. A compass I can understand but apparently GPS is beyond me. First up on a "simple Etrex Legend Hcx", there are six buttons each of which is capable of 4,222 different operations. Yea like I'm going to remember all this crap. Here's a tip if a company uses more then 10 letters from the alphabet to name the product - it's a safe bet you don't want it.

MEN buy C A R S and T R U C K S. They don't buy, "Nissan 4Runners 4X4 V6 BS Extend Cab Hybrids XLC,TDI,SLR,SOBS. Those things are bought by focus group weenies.

So far I've saved possibly four different tracks from four different kayak trips I have recently made with this GPS. Or maybe not. Two of these I have successfully loaded onto Google Earth and published here. I think the other two have been up loaded to Google Mars. Being a potentially dry planet I'm rather proud of that achievement.

I have also down loaded two GPS mapping programs. One has a 13 page Tutorial written in an Ozie Greek dialect that is only spoken on Ratatunka. The others junk.

Don't be mistaken I'm not giving up on this.

Tomorrow morning after the sun has come up I'm climbing over the back fence and retrieving the GPS from my neighbours back yard. I'll strap it to the deck of the kayak, drive down to the ocean, go for a paddle, come home and attempt to upload some info and just like that my heart rate will go up and my blood pressure will peak.

But that's all good because I got the damn GPS to help be get my heart rate and exercise quotient up. Look at that speed 4.2 knots lets go for 4.3 So it's all good. Sort of. Oh by the way I paddled 9.78 nautical miles in 2hrs and 52 minutes, with a max speed of 5.5 Kts, an average speed of 3.4 kt and although it was a calm day with little current managed to gain 56 metres in elevation which is apparently how high my house is above sea level.

Back to Baynes Channel

Sunday I met up with Mike, Dan, Paulo, George and a new friend Gerhardt. We paddled out to Baynes Channel and then over to Discovery Island. On the way we came across a wonderful site. Two kayakers basking in the excitement of a great morning paddle.

When we arrived at Cadboro Point Yves and Patty where on the shore. Yves was jumping up and down like a little boy shouting in his French Canadian accent, "you should have seen it, the waves where huge". He and Patty had arrived and launched from the adjacent Smugglers Cove at 8:30. They got into the tide race at it's peak. If you ever meet Yves his enthusiasm and charm will win you over in a flash and you'll have made another friend.

It didn't take long for the old hands at Baynes tide race to get excited and soon Yves, Patty and all but, Mike and Gerhardt were back into the race to surf the waning waves. Gerhardt was trying out one of Mike's skin on frames so kept everything cautious as he sorted out the handling.

It was great fun to see all the kayaks out in the race. Wish more locals would push their skills and test themselves out here even if it does mean it'll get crowded. Eventually I came back in and hooked up the camera to take some shots. I missed most of the best of the action but click on the headline to view the entire photo set. I set the camera to take 160 pictures, one every 10 seconds.

East Sooke Park From Becher Bay

Last Tuesday found Dan, Heike, and myself surfing our way out to Juan De Fuca Strait, down along the East Sooke Park shoreline to the old Trap Shack. What a glorious day. We launched from the First Nations Marina and had a favouring wind and ebb to carry us out. Once passed Beechy Head the shoreline is truly amazing. On Tuesday we had just the right amount of swells to ensure we could have a lot of fun without a lot of worry or tension. Make no mistakes out here as there's only two possible pull outs between Becher Bay and Sooke Basin.

Click on the head line to see the entire photo file or click here.

Haro Strait Weather Reporting Buoy

Haro Strait
Warnings

Current Conditions * Past 24 Hour Conditions * Regional Summary

The data for the page you have requested is not available. Please return to your previous selection or to the Marine Weather homepage.

Well thanks a lot Coast Guard Canada. This important ""automated" weather reporting buoy has been off line since the November snow storm that hit Victoria BC more then six weeks ago.

This is not a remote buoy. It sits on a reef in the middle of Haro Strait; part of the main shipping channel that links the port of Vancouver with the Pacific Ocean. It lies less then 15 nautical miles from the main CG base in Victoria and about equal distance to the CG station in Pat Bay. 


The Kelp Reef buoy is in an exposed group of rocks south-east of Darcy Island. When it's working (it frequently fails in winter gales and storms) it provides real time wind speed data which is vitally important to recreational kayakers who might be venturing out to the Discovery Island group just off Oak Bay.

Kelp Reef is totally exposed to both north winds and more importantly the south east winds that almost always accompany our worst storms. The north wind brings cold and snow but the more frequent SE storms usually cause more damage. During these storms SE winds will build large ocean swells and drive them across the east entrance of Juan de Fuca Strait into Haro Strait.

The swell and wind warps around the top end of Chatham Island races across the narrow gap and to slam into the end of 10 Mile Point. This gap is Baynes Channel the narrowest crossing to Chatham and Discovery Island. When the SE winds and swell piles up against an ebb flowing out of Haro Strait this is a potential grave yard for any inexperienced or ill informed boater.

I once witnessed a NewWest tug, pulling a barge, narrowly miss being capsized in such conditions as it struggled to get through the gap. At the other end of Haro Straight myself and a group of kayakers,, lunching on Rum Island, stood transfixed as an oil tanker misjudged the current and winds lost control and did a complete 360 before resuming its way down Haro Strait.

CG Canada is proposing that the last manned light house stations on the coast be shut down and replaced by automated units that would be maintained via helicopter and other CG vessels.

Sorry but that's a bad idea.http://picasaweb.google.com/gordin.warner/NovemberStormInHaroStrait#5550751259977832338 This is a link to a short clip of a November Gale in Haro Strait. The view is north toward Haro, Dacy Island and Cordova Bay.

NEW TULIK

I recently had a custom tulik made for me and after a month of wearing it paddling around Victoria I'm glad to say I am more then happy with it.

It was made by Paulo Ouellet who is starting a small company www.comfortpaddling.net

Paulo came by and after measuring me up, showed me some Goretex cloth samples and within a week had the tulik ready. It's both breathable and water proof, all the stitches are seam taped and the wrist gaskets are super heavy duty. I suspect they'll be far more robust then those found on typical dry suits.

Best of all is the seal around your face. Cinch it down adjust the Velcro on the sides of the hood and you have a water proof seal that does not feel like your face has been shoved through a rubber hose.

I've been wearing the tulik over my dry suit. If I didn't go swimming as much as I do I'd just wear it over a wet suit or a pair of dry pants and a sweater that Paulo also made for me. Paulo wears his over the fleece sweater and dry pants. Of course he doesn't go in the water as much as I do. The sweaters have removable hoods designed to be worn under the tulik hood. They're perfect for these cold winter days.

Here's a brief video of the tulik in action.

Big Seas!

Tuesday I was tested. In the middle of it I thought of crying out for Mummy. Glad you were not there to see it.

My good friends Paulo and Dan joined me for a circumnavigation of Discovery ahead of what was suppose to be some nasty weather but straight into the remains of Monday night's Gale. It was about 10:30 when we pushed out into the swells that were warping around Chatham Island and sweeping across the north end of Baynes Channel. The swells were only occasionally breaking but frequently exceeded two metres by a good bit.

I was feeling a little concerned about crossing Baynes. I was afraid we might get over and not be able to get back should the forecasted winds arrive early. Consequently I packed a stove, pot, water, tea, and an enlarged emergency kit etc.

The real kayaking test was off of Sea Bird reef at the south east corner of Discovery Island. We'd made our way down the west side of the island archipelago, riding the turning tide, and playing in rock gardens that were more normally dry.


At the south end of Plumber Channel we came together to make our second call of the day. We quickly decided to push on and reassess when we reached the east end of Discovery. When we got to Sea bird Reef swells having march across the entire width of Juan de Fuca Strait were steepening up into the oncoming tidal current and the shelving bottom.

Dan and Paulo stopped and expressed some concern and amazement at the size of the swell. I kept looking across the Strait at the clouds and smoke from the stacks on the American side of Juan de Fuca. Clearly the wind was picking up over in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains. Back over my shoulder along the ridge of the Sooke Hills beyond Victoria the skies were darking with the next rain front. It seemed to me it would be easier and faster to continue on around. Wrong!

Collectively we decided to push on but to swing wide around the reef. No sooner had we committed when one, two, three; endless lines of these monster swells rolled in. There was no margin for error. A mistake would have been catastrophic. It took us at least a half an hour to cover the distance from the Light House to the corner of the boat house bay - maybe half a nautical mile.

At one point we'd look over at the utility shack and we simply did not move forward. Hardest day I had paddled in a long long time; maybe ever. Dan who is very conservative about these sort of things estimated the waves to be 20 feet. I won't dispute that.

I had worked out a pattern of paddling hard up each wave face. At the top I would pause let the crest fall way then make a controlled surf down into the trough. This worked fine and I only buried the bow once right up to my chest. Once I missed a brace and thought I might loose it, but somehow instinctively recovered. I think that's when I wanted to go home to Mum.

When I could I finally took a good look back but I could see neither Dan or Paulo. First I looked over my left shoulder then my right. I was working through the rescue scenario and had decided the first step would be to call in a May Day, give our position to Victoria Rescue and head back. Just then I rode up a crest as they both reached the peak of another monster about 200 metres and two or three sets away. Nice to see them again. I was surprised to learn I had pulled so far ahead.

Paulo later suggested I either had the fear of god in me or had to take a leak. Right on both counts.

After a short beak we headed back against the building ebb through the islands and back across Baynes. Paulo and Dan choose to paddle out and drift back above the tide race that was forming in Baynes Channel. I followed until I estimated that I could slide in behind the wave train and come ashore by the Cadboro Point light. Tired but very glad to get back.