July 8, 2017
This past Saturday night Robyn and I lead a paddle for the South Island Sea Kayaking Association and took 11 other paddlers on an evening tour to watch the Butchart Gardens fireworks from the water in Todd Inlet. It was a perfect evening for a night paddle with just a few clouds and a hint of a breeze.
Launching at 8:00pm near the Brentwood Bay ferry terminal we made our way through the moored boats led by the pace paddler Gary Jacek around the marinas into Todd Inlet and checked out the new beach that is part of the CRD restoration project for the inlet. Arriving at our small viewing beach Robyn passed around a big box of two bite brownies as we waited for the show to begin.
Right on time at 10:00pm we could hear the background music in the gardens followed by the customary glow of the low level pyrotechnics. We have watched the fireworks from this vantage point before and it never disappoints. The thunderous booms of the aerial rockets overhead could be felt in our bodies and echoed through the inlet.
Once the show ended we turned on our headlamps and Gary led us back out of the inlet towards the put in location next to the ferry dock. We did manage to catch a glimpse of the full moon and I heard a number of our paddlers ahead of me howling (at the moon) as we paddled :-). Robyn and I assisted the group packing up and we were on our way back home by 11:30pm.
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| A group shot at the end of the inlet. |
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| Beverely and her sidekick "Bella" came along for the show too! |
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| A quick stop at the new CRD beach. Pretty nice place for kayaks to land. |
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| And ... one big rubber duck was also in the inlet. LOL |
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| Getting ready for the fireworks at our little beach. |
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| A pretty good show from our vantage point. |
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| The low level part of the show looked like a forest fire but of course it wasn't. An interesting note is that when the show begins a very sophisticated sprinkler system waters down the trees to prevent any fires. |
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| Lots of very high rockets exploding over our heads followed by loud booms that we felt too! |
Distance: 3.53 nm (6.53 km)
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