Why British Boats Are Built The Way They Are

This is the stern section of a Valley Boat built in England. The owner was playing in Deception Pass (between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands Washington State) on the flood when he got caught in a whirlpool, went inverted and snagged the stern in a crevice in a rock wall.

The stress on the boat caused what witness described as an explosion. One witness said he looked up at the bridge thinking there had been a car accident.

Once ashore the stern was taped up and the boat was paddled the next day in Deception Pass. Within hours word of the accident had reached East Sound on Orcas Island and paddlers started making their way down to Deception Pass to see what was up.

Today the boat has been repaired and is ready for another full on adventure.

Rum Island and Witty's Lagoon

Ah the joys of have three days off. Perfect for two paddles with a day of rest in between. Sunday Aug 5th I hooked up with my old friend Bill and along with a group of Victoria paddlers struck out from Sidney BC to Rum Island percjed on the edge of the USA. We made our way through the Little Group Dock and the north side of Forest where big money from Montana via NYC has made some very dramatic changes to the islands shoreline. We slipped into the take out spit the connects Gooch Island to Rum about 90 minutes out from Sidney. Just off shore was a fine long low off shore yacht. Easy on the eyes while the mind fills with dreams of sailing off to circumnavigate the Pacific.

Rum was very dry and it looks like there has been lots of wind damage inside the wooden heart of the island. It was nice to see Parks Canada has built some nice tent platforms. I might return with a screw driver and add some tie down points so people will be able to secure their tents when it gets really windy.

Lunch was a two hour siesta. In which we regaled ourselves with various accounts of our prowess. Whenever one gets drawn into one of these sessions it's important to never go first. I did listen with a peaked interest to Rossco's tale of never leading another "club" paddle as the skill level of the local club members was greatly lacking when the wind came up. Been there done that. It's the age old conflict between being a social club and a centre for developing kayak skills. I'm glad not to be a part of that scene.

Two days later I made a trip from Albert Head to Whitty's Lagoon with Michael Jackson. We should have done a sea pup count. The cute little guys where everywhere and often very courious. As much as we could we attempted not to disturb them but often they'll come to check us out while we simply sat still in our boats. One little guy slightly bigger then my paddle blade kept swimming back and forth under my kayak. I was content to sit and stare back. I reason any moverment to pull out the camera would spook him so I simply watched until some other aquatic diversion drew his attention away and he was off.

Just tot he north side of Albert Head the kelp has come under some very serious attack. The leaves are either completely eaten away or in the process of being consumed by what appears to be donut like egg casings. These casings have also fixed themselves to the stocks and floats. The kelp floats are bleached out in colour and some appear to have been sliced along the horizontal axis. Very strange. We both snapped some pictures and Mike promised to send them off to a marine biologist he knew at the Bamfield research centre.

Cape Flattery July 21, 2007

I made a one day trip to Cape Flattery on Saturday. Up early to catch the 6 AM Coho to Port Angles, bought a book at the bookshop anticipating the heavy rains, stopped for breakfast at Clallam Bay and made it to the Hobbart Camp ground on Makah Bay just after noon. Paid my $15 bucks to camp. It's possibly worth it as they have a brand new shower, bathroom facility. I fitted my pitiful stern wheels to the boat and dragged it through the sinking sand about a 1/4 mile to the beach. Punched out through some small breakers and turned right into heavy rain. Paddled around to Neah Bay pulled the wheels out and started the 10 k hike back to Hobbart. After three kilometers and the almost total collapse of the wheels I chucked the boat into the ditch and accepted a ride from a commercial fisherman back to the camp ground. I raced back to the kayak, threw it on the roof, struggled out of the Goretex dry suit which was almost completely soaked with sweat and rain. Back at the camp the ground was completely soaked. I passed on stringing the Hammock between the one miserable tree and the car and decided to head home. I made the last ferry with 10 minutes to spare.

Discovery Island

Thursday afternoon saw me out on the water from Cattle Point heading for Discovery Island to shoot some photos of the light house. I struck out for the southwest corner of the island. The plan was to let the flood tide and SW winds push me along. I crossed north of Tod Rock, passed Fiddle and Carolina Reef and across Plumper Passage. Just south of Commodore Point there was a nice one foot rip about two meters off shore. After playing in the rip I turned back for the south shore of Discovery and found a nice quiet inlet to switch my paddles. I put the carbon fibre blade away and pulled out the equally nice but more durable fibreglass. For the next part of the trip it would be me, the waves, and the barnacles as I cruised through the rock gardens. This is a challenging place to play in the rocks. I think it's best half way between the high tide and low tide marks. If it's too high, it's too easy, too low and it's impossible. Wind and swell add to the degree of difficulty. If you're afraid of scratching your boat stay away. For some reason the barnacles here seem bigger, more jagged and sharper then anywhere else in the area. This is not the place to make mistakes. Such as the two I made. Picture to the right is a beautiful cowboy camping spot. It's outside of the Provincial Camp ground on the Indian Reserve. Camping here is illegal unless you have permission of the local band. The legal camp ground faces south and has a commanding view of Juan de Fuca Strait and the Olympic peninsula. The Lighthouse has been automated. This would be a great site for a kayaking school. Throughout the summer it beginners could be taught the fundamentals . In the winter the school could focus on advanced skills as students learned to grapple with the seasonal storms.

Poppy quarter led to spy coin warnings

Last Updated: Monday, May 7, 2007 | 7:37 PM ET

The Associated Press

The surprise explanation behind the U.S. government's sensational but false warnings about mysterious Canadian spy coins is the harmless poppy quarter, the world's first colourized coin.

The odd-looking coins were so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. army contractors travelling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them.

The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something manmade that looked like nanotechnology," said once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails.

The 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy inlaid over a maple leaf. The quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors' accounts.

The supposed nanotechnology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red colour from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.

"It did not appear to be electronic [analog] in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car.

Poppy Coin Part of Massive Destabilization Plot

The UnAsssoaited Press

Washington DC According to an internal whistle blower calling herself William (Billie) Casey, an unnamed Intelligence Agency working with a second unnamed internal USA agency, in an attempt to destabilise the drug cartel econonmy in Asia had these conterfit coins produced. The two agencies contracted the Canadian mint to produce this drug money. William Casey, not her real name says, the theory was simple. The counterfit coins would be slipped into the local drug economies in massive quantities. Once in wide circulation it would be "leaked" that the coins where counterfit. The local economies would collapse and wipe out millions of dollars of ill gotten drug gains.

Unfortuantely the US dollar undermined by the current massive war efforts fell so far in value that the counterfit poppy coins started to increase in value, said Ms. Casey, not her real sex.

The two unnamed agencies moved quickly and bought up all the remaining counterfit coins. However with no place to store the coins they came to an agreement with the Canadian Mint. The Mint had been paid $10 million dollars to produce the coins. Circulation figures are still classified, but all the remaining uncirculated coins were discounted to the two agencies for half price, said Mr. Casey, who is still confused by sex.

The Canadian mint which was just about to ship the coins to the agencies head offices , 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857, stepped in and for one third of the original contracted price agreed not to ship the coins and dispose of them.

Mr. Casey would not put a dollar figure on the covert opperation but when pressed he repeatly winked his right eye each time a dollar figure was announced. At 10:15 PM his winking was interrupted by a telephone call, a number of clicks and whirls such as a camera makes when film is being advanced. The last number Mr. Casey winked over was $100 million US. At this time two Russians broke through the door shouting the vodka was spiked with Plutonium.

The Canadian Mint quietly slipped the coins into circulation in Canada where no one noticed them until US defence constractors inadvertently drew attention to them.

Previously the Canadian mint had experimented with adding mood stones to the centre of the Canadian coin affectionately called the "Loonie." The intent was to attempt to gage what sort of mood or what Canadian consumers had on their minds. Turns out Canadians have only one thing on their minds - hockey and are always in the mood for more.

Kayaker's Rescued off of Victoria

It was quite the windy day here in Victoria yesterday. Three gentlemen had to be pulled from the ocean by the local police rescue team. Here's the link. Apparently they were paddling a single and a double.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=7624d029-4298-481f-93e0-c30279002aec&k=72445

When the wind knocks out the radio broadcasts I just look at my back deck. If the Barbie, deck chairs and cushion box are all at one end I know it's a windy day. The BBQ weighs about 80 pounds.

Gale Warnings

Forecast:
Gale warnings continued.
Winds westerly 30 to gales 40 knots with the highest winds near The east entrance. Another blustery day on Juan de Fuca Strait. So I threw the gear into the boot and headed for Esquimalt Lagoon. When I arrived the winds were blowing out of the west and stacking up the ebb from the lagoon in a neat series of standing waves. I launched in the lagoon and quickly rode the ebb out through the inlet channel. Passed a rather tough looking five year old who was about to sink me with a rock until his Mom intervened. Out in the bay in front of Royal Roads the wind was not yet blowing unreasonably hard. I surfed back into the outlet channel two or three times then headed over to Fisgard Lighthouse to snap some photos.

I slipped in close and rounded the lighthouse cutting inside of the boomer rock just off shore. I expected to be intercepted by the Navy from Esquimalt but no one showed up. Either it was too rough for the RHI or lunch. I surfed into a small bay for a photo op.
Things where going fine here in the lee of the island but as soon as I pushed my bow out into the wind, she wanted to weather cock. I was having none of that so I slipped back into the lee then choose a better angle and as I slipped past the last rock dug deep and paddled hard to come around to the landward side of the lighthouse. Reversing course I surfed back out through the rocks and into the entrance to the naval base. Still no navy chaps. Retracing my path as soon as I reached the open water the wind took me. Try as I might I couldn't bring the bow into the wind and make any discernible head way. So I retreated to the landward side of the lighthouse to consider my options. I pulled the boat out, fetched the tea and the VHF to check the weather. Amazingly the wind decided to launch my kayak. This is no carbon fibre light weight but a proper British NDK Explorer. Watching it spin around on the sand was quite unnerving. I dragged the misbehaving beast up into the logs and tucked it in next to a nice old cedar. Up on the beach I sat down on Mr. and Mrs. Somethingorother. The loving couple, departed, have been memorialised by having their names engraved on a park bench. I feel awful having spent that time with them only to forget their names. I'll have to go back and make amends. While I was sharing my tea, the cup blew over, the VHF was squawking some dire news. Winds at Esquimalt were blowing 36 gusting to 43, similar winds were being recorded at Gonzales and Trail Island. Race Rocks was gusting to 38. All from the west and right into my face.

Time to explore the Lighthouse. Luckily it was open. Inside it's a typical Parks Canada installation. Lots of pictures of sinking ships, winds whipping the shore with monster waves, the usual stuff. The old building was creaking and moaning in the wind like the last survivor at the old folks lodge, "I'm still here!"

Back out side I took a walk out to the outside edge of the rocks. I was careful not to leap from one out crop to the next fearing the wind might just like to play a little game and propel me a little further then I would want to go. Looking down I saw a way to escape. If I manoeuvred through the rock garden on the east side I'd come to a channel that cut off the actual head land where the wind was the highest. I could then cut hard to the west and surf back down a channel on the west side and into the relative shelter of the adjoining bay. It was worth a shot.
That's the passage out on the left. Back at the beach the wind had again tried to launch my kayak. Even though tucked in next to a log the wind had spun the boat 80 degrees and blew it the length of my tether rope toward the water. I took it as a sign that it was time to leave. Back in the kayak, I worked my way through the rock garden and out into the exposed coast but with real bad timing. High winds and waves drove me east and not west. I looped back around, worked back through the rocks and into the channel this time I waited until I saw a pattern. I let the larger waves go past and punched out through some smaller ones. Made a hard bow rudder turn to starboard and slipped into the adjoining channel. From here it was a short 400 metres back to the launch site. Into the wind it took the better part of an hour to get the kayak back. Loading up I almost lost it doing the Klingon Jerk lift. One hand on the leading edge of the cockpit, one on the back, lift with the knees, explode upwards with your arms, and step forward and lower onto the roof rack, except when I stepped forward nothing happened. The wind pushed me back. Quickly I lowed the kayak and suggested to the nice lady taking pictures that she might want to move her car as my kayak was attempting to turn into an airplane and fly off.