Avondale, Sept 19, 2010

Where: Avondale, Middle Arm and Conception Harbour

Who: Dennis, Tony, Eugene, Hazen, Gary, Neville, Dean and your's truly.

Under the bridge in Avondale.

Getting the cameras ready

Watching the surf on the beach - from a safe distance.

Watching the swells off Salmon Cove Point #1

Watching the swells off Salmon Cove Point #2

Lunch #1

Lunch #2

Tony paddling into Middle Arm

Dennis and Hazen paddling into Middle Arm

Neville, Dean and Gary paddling into Middle Arm

Wreck of a whale catcher in Conception Harbour #1

Wreck of a whale catcher in Conception Harbour #2

Pushing the (my) Envelope

Last Sunday (Sept 12, 2010) four of us decided to head down to St. Philip's to ride the waves. My house overlooks Conception Bay so I had a pretty good idea of what we were going to be up against. I don't have the exact weather details right now but the winds were pretty stiff from the North/North East and they had the swells and waves whipped up on the bay. When we arrived the waves were breaking over the jetty at certain intervals and there was always a good surge in the channel. Tony and Clyde are much more experienced paddlers than myself and Dennis so they surveyed the conditions and decided to go for it. Dennis and I opted to watch and see how the boys made out. They suited up and headed out without incident. Dennis and I watched the channel for another 10 minutes or so and decided that the swells seemed to have dropped a bit with the tide. We suited up and headed out.

I had my camera mounted on my deck for taking videos. I did not try to handhold the camera while on the water. Below are some stills from the videos as well as links to the videos, themselves.

Leaving the Gut

See the video here!

Walls of Water

See the video here!

The winds, waves and swell made for an interesting ride. I certainly would not have had to make a lot of headway into the wind and waves. It was a good slog to keep up speed and as soon as you stopped paddling, you stopped moving.

In the next video, I decided to come up behind Dennis and Clyde to try to give some kind of perspective to the conditions. Unfortunately, the camera does not do the water justice.

Up, up and away!!

See the video here!

I decided to try the zoom on the camera to see if it affected the video capture of the wave and boat action. It made a big difference. It gave a lot more motion to the video. Here's Tony making headway!!

Into the breach!

See the video here!

After about an hour of bouncing about, I decided I had enough!! I was still feeling the effects of too much beer and wine from the night before and the incessant bouncing and pounding was not doing me any good!! PLUS it seemed like the swells were increasing in size. Dennis and I headed over to the channel to scope it out. Tony came along shortly. Clyde, in the meantime, got caught playing a little too close to the beach and ended up on it - thankfully his paddling skills kept him safe and he left the water by that route!!

Tony took the lead on re-entering the channel. Just as he entered a brace of large swells filled in behind him. If you look closely at the picture below (halfway between my bow and the person in yellow on the jetty) you will see Tony and his boat about jetty-level!! Crazy!!

Tony, are you in there?

Dennis and I sat out for a few more rounds of swells. We were waiting for the lull so that we could make a dart for it. While we were waiting I poked my nose into the mouth of the channel a few times only to pull back quickly as the swells increased. The image below (found at 1:20 of the following video) shows a massive swell that came up behind me. I was back paddling out of the channel at this point. My bow is pointing skyward at this point!

Submarine about to surface!

See the video here!

(**My apologies for the expletives in this video - I don't know how to edit them out!**)

After this last big swell, things dropped considerably and Dennis and I had a smooth passage on through the channel. Inside we regrouped with Clyde and Tony. There was some discussion about going back out, but my guts and head were gone. Damn you beer and wine!! Perhaps that was just my body's way of making sure I didn't go back out. It was good time on the water!!

Holy Crap!!! - A Cautionary Tale of Whales

With such a short, yet powerful title, I am sure that you wondering what the heck this entry must be about!!

In a nutshell, it involves three whales and three kayaks. But there is much more to be said . . .

On Aug 8, 2010 five paddlers left Torbay with the plan to paddle to Flatrock (return) with the hopes of seeing some whales. Just as we left Torbay we saw the distinctive sprays. We managed to catch some good views of humpbacks but nothing truly spectacular. We then proceeded onto Flatrock for lunch. Upon returning back to Torbay we saw that the whales were still in the bay. Like the hunters of olde, we quickened the pace and headed towards them.

Clyde went further out into the bay. Tony stayed behind a little while Dean, Gary and myself headed towards this one whale who appeared to be stationary in the water. It was blowing pretty regularly but was not moving from the spot.




The three of us approached but not with the intent of getting too close. I'd guess we were within 50 feet when things took a strange and startling turn.

As if out of nowhere two massive humpbacks appeared. They came up behind us. In this image there are actually two whales coming up right behind Gary. Gary is obviously surprised as they basically came out of nowhere. The image is deceiving as the whales came much closer to Gary and they were BIG - both these points are missed in this image.



For the most part they swam very close to one another - often side by side. They appeared to be circling us. I had my camera out but will have to admit it's very hard to take pictures while trying to paddle!!!

The image below was taken as the whale came right for me. It dove under my boat while no more than 30 feet away. Now that was scary!! My first reaction was to try back paddling to get away but not that this would help as these creatures move a lot faster than I can paddle!! I watched the distinctive white of the whale in water under my boat!!



After the whale went under me, I managed to get my camera out again and swivel around in my cockpit to catch the image below. Here we see the two whales close together. You can tell by the reaction of Dean and Gary that they are surprised to see these two massive beasts come up behind them!!




Once we moved further away from the motionless whale, the other two, for some reason moved out of the area as well. It was a general consensus among the three of us that, indeed, these two whales were circling us. It appears to connected to our proximity to the third whale. Not being marine biologists, we guessed that the third was injured or incapacitated and that the other two were protecting it! It was not a small whale so I don't thing it was the case of parents protecting their young.

All in all it was a exciting, yet very intimidating experience. I sometimes think that we may be lulled into a false sense of security when paddling near these massive WILD creatures yet they are not tame and must be treated accordingly. While it will not stop me from paddling near whales, I now have a greater respect of them, of their size and their apparent disposition to protect themselves and others.

Two Steps Forward . . .

With the addition of the latex collar to Cheryl's now-drysuit, she decided that she wanted to try a wet exit. On Wednesday night she was ready to give it a whir so we headed off the pond. As I stood next to her. she did her first exit sans spray skirt. She was over and out in a matter of seconds with no trauma, no fear. I was happy because the Seayak has quite a small keyhole cockpit that I found a little troublesome to exit. We did a couple more without the skirt then moved onto ones with the skirt. Again, no problems!! I told her to try and hold herself in the upside position for a few seconds - which she did, but as we all know, the actual time underwater is nowhere near as long as we think it is!! I told her to stay under for 5 seconds. She went over and BAMM she was up again asking "That was 5 seconds, wasn't it???"

On the final exit, I was in my boat and she successfully clambered up between our boats and back into the cockpit. All with no major incident!!

Fast forward to tonight (Thursday)

Tonight we went to our regular Thursday night practice in St. Philips. Most were engaging in rescues and in-water activities while Cheryl seemed content to stay in her boat. She expressed a bit of shyness about getting out the boat and not being able to get back in. I did not push her. At the end of the night, she said that she wanted to do a wet exit - but closer to shore, Dean and I accompanied her. Like a real trooper Cheryl donned a balaclava and nose plug and just capsized. She exited with no issues - again, no fear, no trauma, no gasping. Actually she was smiling!! She and I then proceeded to do a standard rescue. She hung off my bow while I emptied her boat. Then she did a very clean re-entry. Very impressive for only her second attempt at such a rescue!!

Some people may ask why I'm making such a big deal of all this. Well, Cheryl was diagnosed with MS back in 1995 and has been on a daily self-injection of drugs for close to 10 years now. Since her diagnosis, Cheryl has been afraid to "push" herself or was unwilling to try things that she thought she would not be physically able to do. Kayaking was one of those things she thought she could not/would not be able to do. The fact that she's managed to paddle for hours on end (11 kms being the most yet) and has been able to wet exit AND complete a successful re-entry even while being tired, speaks volumes about what she really can do - especially if she enjoys it, if she really wants to do it and if she gets the proper support!!

I, for one, am behind her all the way!!



OVER!!!



AND UP!!!

The Next Generation . . .

Today, I offered to go with my sister and her teenage daughter as they tried out their new boats on Healey's Pond. My 10 year old daughter, Bridget, who's had an "on again, off again" interest with kayaks was adamant about taking her Mom's boat for a spin. The wind was a bit high but I gave in - knowing that I'd be right along side her and that she is a bit of a "water dog" so she's not afraid of the water. She took my wife's Prijon Seayak out first. The Seayak does not have the lowest of profiles anyway and due to my daughter's sub 100 pounds, it rode high in the water. She handled the boat quite well given the gusty winds but she was having real trouble with the cross wind and with keeping the boat straight into the wind. You have to know Bridget to realize that she was not going to give up!! She can also over-react and I was finding that she was starting to get scared yet not willing to admit it. Erring on the side of caution, I basically forced her back to shore. She was not happy. I told her to take a little break and calm down.


Bridget in the Seayak


Later I dropped my Baffin off at shore and took the Seayak out for a spin. When I did that Bridget jumped in my boat and came back on the pond. The Baffin has a much lower profile and takes the winds a little easier. Anyway, here she was in my boat and using a Greenland paddle. She pointed that boat into the wind and put the "pedal to metal" and just took off. No joke but I had to work hard to catch her and she just kept going. I was truly working to keep up with her. Later she was turning the boat no problem - and it's a skeg boat so she had no use of the rudder. I explained to her about using the stern rudder and she was paying attention and actually using the strokes. She was really moving this boat quite well and fast, too. Then she wanted to do a wet exit but I told her the water was too cold.

Now, she wants to "go to the pond a few more times before she goes on the ocean" She normally has a fear of water when she can't see the bottom but today she was in the middle of the pond with no such fear. A corner turned, perhaps? We'll see. She wants me to take her back to the pond tomorrow after school. I think that if the winds are down, she will have a much more enjoyable time and learn some basics and then? - who knows, she may just want to keep coming back!!!

PVC goes Big Time . . .

Now that Cheryl is paddling with me and using a Greenland paddle to boot, we now find ourselves travelling with two paddles in the car. With only one person in the car, I slide the paddles in over the passenger seat. With someone in that seat, however, the paddles end up being put up between the seats. This would be fine if we did not have a standard. The paddles always manage to find a way to jam up behind the stick OR slip down onto the floor behind the gas pedal. Either way, that's not good. Also, I've been putting wet paddles in over the seats and that can't be good either!!

Soooo - I decided to make top mounted paddle carrier made out of - you guessed it - PVC pipe. I bought a 12' piece of 4" white sewer pipe, two end caps and a can of black spray paint.

I cut the pipe about 2" longer than my current paddles - just in case I decide to go a little longer in the future. I sanded the lettering off the pipe and gave it a coat of black satin paint. I drilled a hole in one end cap to relieve pressure when putting the cap on. The carrier will be held in place by straps.


In the rough!!


Painted and laid on the car for a dry fit!!




Stick on foam to stop any forward/backward movement when strapped on!!




So how many standard Greenland paddles can you fit into a 4" tube . . .?

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Let's see you do that with three Euro shovels!

We're gonna need a bigger boat - Part II

Just two days after thinking that Cheryl needs a bigger boat, we now have a bigger boat!!! As luck would have it a notice came up on the local clubs newsgroup that someone was selling a 16' Prijon Seayak. The ad stated that it was in excellent condition and I knew, via an inside source, that indeed it was in perfect shape. I did a little checking on this model and found it to be a well-known design with attributes that we needed. I contacted the seller and asked if we could take it a for a paddle on Saturday afternoon. The seller was an older lady - in her late 60's or more - who bought the boat with great intentions but decided that she'd rather be gardening. With nothing more than leaving my name and number, I drove away with a pretty much brand new boat on my roof.

We took the boat to St. Philips and put in a 9km paddle to Portugal Cove and back. Here's a few shots:






We now need to get the boat fitted to Cheryl. One nice thing about this model is that there is lots of room for personal adjustments. We did not do a good job for the inaugural paddle but we'll straighten that out soon enough. I'm pretty sure that she'll get this setup just right and then begin to enjoy the feeling of a proper boat that is properly fitted!!

Here's a few side by sides with my Baffin: