Happy Seat To Cattle Point

Last Saturday (February 21st) Robyn and I went for an early spring paddle from Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay to Cattle Point. Nothing but sunshine and 13C temperatures to greet us as we explored the coastline while Robyn worked on some of her maneuvering skills.

Robyn and I paddling through the Royal Victoria Yacht Club marina. Photo by Gary Jacek

The Happy Seat fitted into the cockpit of my P&H Delphin

For me it was an opportunity to try a Jackson Kayak's Happy Seat that I installed in my cockpit earlier in the day. Recently I have been having some hip and knee issues while paddling my P&H Delphin on long flat water paddles and I saw this device in kayak at our local club (South Island Sea Kayaking Association) meeting last month. Since then I have been improvising by using my blow up paddle float partially inflated under my thighs to allow me to relax my legs a bit. It made a huge difference in the pool and on our last paddle over to Discovery Island, so I decided to get the real thing.

The Jackson Kayak website describes this device best. The Happy Seat is an inflatable bladder that goes under your legs just in front of your existing seat. It has two purposes. 1. It gives you more control in the boat. 2. It makes your legs more comfortable, taking some of the pressure off of your knees, hips, and butt. The Happy Seat comes with a cord to attach the front of it to your floor support, and the back end attaches by Velcro straps around your seat.  You should make sure it doesn't impede exit from your boat in case of emergency.

GoPro adhesive mount works great to tie down the Happy Seat

Installation was quick and easy and since I don't have a front tie down post like a whitewater boat might have I just used a spare GoPro adhesive mount that I stuck to the floor of my cockpit. Once on the water I inflated the bladder with the nice long air line and made sure that I could exit the kayak very easily. One of the features that I love about the Happy Seat is that when you drop one knee the air transfers from one bladder side to the other allowing the lower knee to be removed from under the cockpit thigh braces.





As we paddled towards Cattle Point I spotted someone in a sheltered cove taking pictures of what I thought was wildlife but soon figured out that it was our paddling friend Gary Jacek. Gary was out on a bike ride and he managed to spot us from Beach Drive as we paddled through the Royal Victoria Yacht Club just after leaving the beach.

Gary spotted me coming through the islets just as I spotted him taking pictures of us.

We landed our kayaks in the little cove to talk with Gary for a while and Robyn noticed on her GPS that there was a Geocache very close by. So off she went to make the find before we continued on our way. That's a pretty good selfie of Robyn with our kayaks, Gary and myself in the background. :-)

It's not often that we get photos of both of us together. Thanks Gary!

While the rest of Canada is frozen in winter at this time of year we sure have it tough on the west coast. They say that April showers bring May flowers but for us it's more like January's showers (no snow) bring February's flowers. Yes.... spring has arrived in Victoria!

Oak Bay and Willows Beach (right) in the sunshine

2015 Paddle # 8 - Caddy to Cattle Point

Distance: 3.96 nm (7.33 km)

YTD: 54.33 nm (‪91.34 km)

Discovery Geocaching

What did we do on Valentine's Day? We went Geocaching by kayak over to Discovery Island to look for a new cache and to place our (RVTraveller's) latest cache. It was also a good opportunity to do some cache maintenance as well while we were there.

Robyn paddling through the passage between the Chatham's and Discovery Island.

It was an awesome day to head across Baynes Channel and paddle through the Chatham Islands on our way to the BC Parks Marine Provincial Park at Rudlin Bay on Discovery Island. Slightly overcast skies with no wind and a slack tide on the way over made it a nice lazy paddle as we kept our eyes open for the lone wolf that has taken up residence on Discovery. Ready with my GoPro Hero 2, I started to video as we passed the lighthouse in hopes that we would catch a glimpse of her.

The lighthouse on Pandora Hill at Discovery Island.  In 1996 the
lighthouse was automated after having been manned for 110 years

We made a quick stop before reaching Rudlin Bay to locate a geocache that was placed only a few weeks ago. Lots of places where the cache could be hidden but with the GPS we found it fairly easily.

Robyn has the Geocache coordinates for GC5KXCA Paradise View on her Garmin Oregon 550.

A selfie of us taking our selfie because ......

Yes we found Paradise View cache!

We forgot to bring a pen or pencil with us to log the cache and the cache container didn't have one in it so we decided to simply take our selfie and use the picture as evidence that we found the cache.

And then it was time to get down to business to find a location to hide our geocache called Plaque Discovery (GC5MTAA). Although not really difficult, the cache takes you to a couple of plaques dedicated in memory of Captain E.G. Beaumont who donated this beautiful property to the Province of BC.

Now where shall we place Plaques Discovery? Will you find it one day?? 

After finding a nice hidey hole for Plaques Discovery we headed off to find a cache that Robyn adopted a few months back and do a little cache maintenance. I still had my GoPro running in case we came across the wolf but today we didn't get to see her. We did however find lots of evidence of her on the trail out to Commodore Point in the form of scat and where she recently clawed away the moss on the trail.

No camping here, no fires here, no wolf here too! Maybe on our next visit.

Someone is watching us.

Can you see it? We came across this Bushnell HD Trail Cam that has obviously been set up to capture images of the wolf when she passes by it. We got a little closer in hopes that our selfie would be seen by whoever owns the camera. :-)

 We located GCW31H Discover Discovery Island just where we thought it was and it was in great shape. Nice and dry too!

Originally placed in 2006 by another Geocacher, Robyn adopted the cache when the owner was no longer able to take care of it. We are so glad that we could help keep this cache active after 9 years since it was hidden on the island.

So close to home and yet when you come here it seems so far away.

The wolf was here. Fresh paw scrapes showing the claw marks in the moss on the trail

After a quick bite to eat we started to head back towards Cadboro Bay but we came across something on the beach staring at us. Was it the wolf? No it was a totem pole!

Hello?

I wonder what the totem is depicting? 

I'm not sure if this is a First Nations carving but it might be since it is on the north side of Discovery Island which is part of Discovery Island Indian Reserve 3, under the control of the Songhees First Nation. In any case we respected First Nation's law that prohibits landing on the beach. From our vantage point in our kayaks we were able to get close enough to get a good view of the totem.

Robyn practicing in the current in an area which we have nicknamed "Yves' Slough"

We headed back through the "slough" where the ebb current was flowing. It was a chance for Robyn to work on her ferrying skills. This is the place that Robyn and I first took a currents course with Yves of Go Kayak 3 years ago and we now call it Yves' Slough whenever we come through here.

The paddle back across Baynes Channel was just a little bit of a workout in the ebb to finish off another wonderful visit to Discovery Island.

2015 Paddle # 7 - Discovery Island

Distance: 9.50 nm ( 17.59 km)

YTD: 50.37 nm (‪84.01 km)

Getting Back At It!

Belated Merry Christmas! Where did December go? The last thing we sort of remember it was the middle of November and we were just starting to ramp up things while volunteering with CFAX Santa's Anonymous. Although we didn't find the time to get on the water outdoors we did manage to cram in a few evening pool sessions to work on rescue skills. But it's not the same as being at sea :-)

After the Christmas celebrations were over we headed up to Living Forest R.V. Park in Nanaimo where we are spending the rest of 2014 in the comforts of our trailer. We have a couple of paddles planned while we are here so we thought that we should spend some time on the water today to limber up the dormant muscles.

In all the times we have paddled here we have never been able to complete the loop of the Nanaimo River estuary either because the tides weren't right or the there hasn't been enough water in the river. Today was perfect with a high tide and plenty of water flowing down the river. Just to make sure, we headed up the river and made our way into the smaller channel that runs through the middle of the estuary and simply let the flow carry us out towards open water.

Paddling out of the Nanaimo River with freighters out in the distance off Nanaimo

Sandstone petroglyph at the waterline 

Leaving the river we made our way over to Jack Point to take a look at the modern petroglyphs carved in the sandstone that can be seen from the water. You can actually see the effects of erosion from the sea water on one of them at high tide.

Nanaimo in the background as Robyn  paddles along Jack Point

Happy to be back on the water again ... Ya!!!

Crossing back over towards the campground we made our way through the log booms and into the Chase River Estuary. We have never been able to paddle into the Chase River system before due to low water levels but this time we managed to paddle right up to the pump house. (Note: a few hours after we go back to our campsite, low tide revealed nothing but mud from the log booms all the way to the put-in except for a narrow river leading the way out to the open sea. Our track photo below shows the mud plain that is visible at low tide)

Hummm .... it needs a bit of work but I think we'll pass on this one.

Entering the Chase River there was a bit of a current flowing under the train trestle that we had to paddle through but that would just make the return trip fun :-). Entering the estuary we found a number of vehicle relics that had been dumped here many decades ago. Robyn also commented that there was a Geocache nearby and sure enough when we got back to camp we found out that it was an Earthcache. Now all we had to do was answer the questions and submit a photo of ourselves .... which another geocacher managed to capture for us in her photo. Now that's a photobomb!

A unknowing Geocacher caught us in her picture while at the Earthcache. Nice!

The year isn't over for us in terms of paddling. We are hooking up with some of the Nanaimo Paddlers on Dec, 30th and Jan. 1st. It sure feels great to be back on the water!

2014 Paddle # 54 - Living Forest - Nanaimo River Estuary

Distance: 4.43 nm (8.20 km)

YTD: 288.39 nm (‪534.09 km)